ONE UNION'S WAR AGAINST CHOICE
At present, the NEA's power is at an all time high with 2.1 million members (the largest union in the country) and an annual budget of $165 million. It donated $3.5 million to promote Clinton for president. In return, Clinton promised them if he became president, they'd be his partners: "I won't forget who brought me to the White House." This is one instance in which Clinton has actually kept his word. Whereas as governor of Arkansas, Clinton supported parental choice, competency testing for teachers, and had even once written a flowery letter to Milwaukee choice advocate Polly Williams calling her a "visionary" for her efforts to provide vouchers to inner city children, once he became a presidential candidate he attacked vouchers as a "fad" which would take "precious resources" from public schools. After the NEA helped elect Clinton president (one of every eight delegates to the Democrat National convention was an NEA member), Clinton returned the favor, according to Newsweek magazine, by inviting NEA members to every single state dinner given by the White House this year.IN CALIFORNIA, the NEA's daughter union, the CTA is well equipped to influence the vote in that it can turn out workers on short notice in every part of the state. "Their day ends at 3 p.m.," says Myron Lieberman. "They have summers off. The union representatives can work full time during the campaign." They can man phone banks, walk precincts, or host news conferences. In low turnout school board races the fact that CTA members often vote in a bloc means they can defeat anyone who votes against their interests. After LAUSD School Board member Alan Gershman opposed certain UTLA demands in the 1989 strike in which the UTLA won a three-year, 24 percent salary increase, the UTLA helped raise a quarter of a million dollars to capture his $24,000 per year part-time school board seat.
Three years later, with the school district in deep financial trouble (largely as a result of the 24 percent raise won by the teachers three years before), the UTLA forced the resignation of LAUSD School Superintendent Bill Anton when he asked the union to take a 12 percent pay cut in order to balance the budget without further cuts in field trips, textbooks, and maintenance.
If you oppose their agenda, Glendale Assemblyman Pat Nolan recently told the California Journal, they have a tremendous amount of money "to pour into your district and tell the voters that you hate children."
In the first quarter of 1993, the CTA spent $2,125,472 on lobbying –more than four times the amount spent by its closest competitor, the California Medical Association. "The CTA likes to argue it's not buying votes, it's buying access," says Sacramento consultant John Nelson. "If that is the case, the CTA has bought itself a gold-plated revolving door of access.
