Congress and the Obama administration have lobbied nonstop for increases in education spending since they came into office, and this $10 billion bailout is their latest attempt. Yet the tiny $13 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is successfully providing vouchers to low-income children in the nation’s capital, is being phased out.

Anyone who doubts the power of organized labor in education should just follow the money trail.  READ MORE...

############## stop the out of control spending - MORE LIKE UNION PAY-OFFS ######################### 

############################## FUTURE GENERATIONS DON'T EVEN HAVE A SAY IN THE DEBT THEY WILL INCUR  ###############################

Today, employees in 28 states can lose their jobs if they refuse to join a union or pay union dues. In most states, teachers unions can use their members’ dues to contribute to campaigns and other political causes. In all but five states, even though members elect their union representatives, “union leaders appear to pursue an agenda disconnected from the concerns of their members.”

An NEA member survey found that 50 percent of dues-paying members identified themselves as being more conservative than liberal, but 91 percent of the NEA’s campaign and political contributions went to Democrats or left-leaning causes. The two major teachers unions make 95 percent of their political contributions to Democrats.

Teachers unions also dominate election spending. According to the Federal Election Commission, as of July 2010, unions had contributed $9.7 million of the $24.7 million in campaign spending, representing 39 percent of total expenditures. By contrast, corporations had spent just $3.4 million.

With a budget of more than $355 million, the NEA spends more on campaign contributions than ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the AFL-CIO combined. During the 2007–2008 election cycle, the NEA and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spent more than $71 million on campaigns for issues and candidates, spending more than $100 per teacher in five states.In addition to the millions in campaign contributions, the NEA provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in member dues to left-leaning groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Service Employees International Union, and Health Care for America Now. The AFT funds groups that include the Rainbow PUSH coalition and ACORN.  READ MORE...