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1) The National Education Association
and State Affiliates: A $1.5 Billion Annual Enterprise.
An Education Intelligence Agency analysis of Internal Revenue Service
filings by the National Education Association and its state affiliates
reveal the union amassed more than $1.5 billion in revenue in 2008-09, more
than 90 percent of it in the form of dues from public education employees.
EIA created a table,
now posted on its web site, that lists the financial figures for NEA and
each of its 53 "state" affiliates (50 states plus the directly affiliated
Federal Education Association, which represents NEA teachers overseas and on
military bases, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, and the Utah
School Employees Association). The numbers include each union's total
revenues, dues income and the amount devoted to employee compensation.
The statistics do not include the income
of any of the union's 14,000 locals, whose totals would range from the
significant (for example, the $3 million annual revenue of the San Diego
Education Association) to the nonexistent, in the case of small affiliates
that collect no local dues.
NEA and its affiliates are all
tax-exempt organizations. If they were defined as a charity, they would rank
no worse than
13th in the nation - well ahead of the American Cancer Society, Habitat
for Humanity, and the Nature Conservancy. Their one-year income exceeds the
entire endowments of
all but 43 charitable grant-making foundations, including the Broad
Foundation and the Heinz Endowments (and close to the Annenberg Foundation).
The figures show that only a handful of
affiliates felt the early effects of the recession. NEA national saw a 2.7
percent increase from the previous year, and some affiliates had
double-digit increases in revenue. However, there were signs of financial
troubles ahead.
The California Teachers Association and
others saw significant declines in revenue, almost entirely due to poor
investment returns. In the case of CTA, dues income actually exceeded
"total" revenue because of investment losses.
Increased liabilities for employee
compensation caused additional worries. The numbers in the table include not
only salaries and benefits for current teacher union staff, but set-asides
for their pensions and post-retirement health care. In most cases, the
growth in the amount devoted to these purposes greatly exceeded the
increases in income.
It would be ironic if the union's own
labor costs forced it to make dramatic budget reductions or dues hikes. NEA
and its state affiliates combined currently spend more than $820 million on
some 7,000 employees (the number of retirees is unknown). In five states
(Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Oregon and Washington) dues income failed
to cover the costs of employee compensation.
2) Last Week's Intercepts.
EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from April 19-25:
*
Mumia Holds No Appeal to Weingarten or Cops. AFT president tells police
union chief Mumia resolution will be "soundly rejected."
* California
Federation of Teachers Refuses to Quit While It's Behind. While the
union continues to mislead members about it.
*
The Pink Slip Two-Step. Wasting the time of Bolsheviks and everyone
else.
*
Finding Out About Fired Teachers Almost as Hard as Firing Them. Hawaii
solution to budget cuts: Charge $170 for a two-page spreadsheet.
*
CORE Knowledge. It's a short trip from outsider to insider.
3) Quote of the Week.
"The 30-second ad is airing in all major California media markets and
includes the CTA State of Emergency campaign website (www.castateofemergency.com),
where the CTA message is clear: Lawmakers need to solve the budget crisis by
extending temporary taxes legislatively to avoid more dire cuts to
classrooms, public safety, health and other vital services." - from an April
19
California Teachers Association press release.
The CTA
message is clear if you read the press release. If you just watch the TV ad,
you won't hear a single word about taxes. |
