Van Roekel is President of What?
Today’s Arizona Republic has a profile of new NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. This is only natural, since Van Roekel was once president of the Arizona Education Association. The story, however, is missing a fundamental bit of information. What kind of group is the National Education Association?
The story describes NEA as a “nonprofit.” OK.
The “organization has members in every state in the country and at American schools on military bases overseas.” Uh-huh.
And “Van Roekel along with the 3.2 million NEA members are working to help other young people live their dream.” Oh boy… but all right, it’s a profile, not an investigative report.
That’s it. So, to aid the Arizona Republic and its readers, here is a short explanation of exactly what kind of “nonprofit” NEA is, from the relevant Internal Revenue Service publication:
“IRC [Internal Revenue Code] 501(c)(5) provides for the exemption from federal income tax of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations….”
I’m pretty sure NEA isn’t an agricultural or horticultural organization, although I do recall Reg Weaver waxing rhapsodic about agricultural extension services last year. So it must be a labor organization, which the IRS describes as:
- An association of workers
- Who have combined to protect or promote the interests of the members
- By bargaining collectively with their employers
- To secure better working conditions, wages, and similar benefits.
It isn’t often you can go to the IRS for terseness and clarity, but hurrah for small miracles.
