“The Colorado Education Association advocates for the interests of education employees and promotes quality public education.”
That’s the official mission statement of the CEA, more accurately known as “the teachers union.” (The American Federation of Teachers-Colorado is the other, smaller teachers union in our state.)
Revealingly, “the interests of education employees” is placed before “quality public education.” The interests of students, parents and taxpayers are conspicuously absent. How could it be otherwise? The CEA is a labor union. As the late Albert Shanker, longtime head of the American Federation of Teachers, frankly and succinctly put it, “I’ll start representing kids when kids start paying union dues.”
I don’t doubt that most public school teachers, as individuals, are concerned about the welfare of their students. I’m talking about the behavior, institutional priorities and politics of the CEA as a union!
The CEA’s political arm is “The Colorado Fund for Children & Public Education.” (Since this is an overtly political venture, “children” are now conveniently included in the title. After all, when you need more money from the public, it’s always “for the kids.”) The CEA uses this fund to support or promote ballot issues that benefit the union; to pass bonds and mill levies that benefit the union; and to finance the political campaigns of candidates for school boards, the legislature and statewide offices who will benefit the union. This money overwhelmingly goes to Democrats (and the odd Republican) who will benefit the union.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that the CEA’s daddy, the National Education Association, was the No. 1 political spender in the last election cycle, pumping out $56.3 million in contributions, $12 million more than the next biggest spender.
In the October-November issue of the CEA Journal, the union’s official publication for the rank and file, the cover story heralds the launching of its “Honor 23: Put Kids First Campaign.” (There they go exploiting the kids again.) “Honor 23” is the grossly irresponsible, inflexible fiscal time bomb crafted by the teachers unions and narrowly passed by misguided voters as an amendment to the Colorado Constitution in November 2000. This put K-12 spending on automatic pilot regardless of the state’s economic condition or looming budget deficits. As a consequence, in lean years, every other “discretionary” area of state spending from highways to health care to higher education has been arbitrarily squeezed to divert scarce funds to K-12 education.
Given the state’s budget crisis, with hundreds of millions in deficits, the legislature has been forced to consider withholding some of the increase in K-12 funding. The Honor 23 campaign is the union’s lobbying counterattack. If they lose in the legislature, they’ve threatened to take to take it to the courts. (Keep in mind that 85 percent of a typical school district’s operating budget goes for payroll costs, including salary and benefits for union members. Maybe it isn’t all about the kids.)
Contrary to the union’s claim, there’s no definitive connection between more taxpayer money and better educational results. From 1965 to 2003, the U.S. Department of Education reports that per pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, tripled. If anything, school quality has declined.
The governor and the legislature are in a bind. K-12 spending in the 2008-09 school year was $3.2 billion. That was 41 percent of the state’s total general fund allocations, dwarfing all other spending areas. The weak economy has produced a critical shortfall in tax revenues. In essence, we’re broke. A sizable increase in taxes during a serious recession like this simply isn’t an option. There’s no reasonable alternative to tightening the K-12 belt. If there’s any question of the legality of that under Amendment 23, this would be an opportune time for the voters to repeal that mistake.
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
