News Story

The Left’s Piggy Bank?

New report shows the National Education Association to be a cash cow for many liberal causes

The National Education Association put the word out recently that it has many politically conservative members. According to a 2005-06 National Education Association survey, 45 percent of teachers under 30 classified themselves as conservative and 63 percent of teachers age 40 to 49 classified themselves as conservative.

Yet those conservative teachers may not know where the NEA is spending its money. The Education Intelligence Agency recently revealed that the NEA has spent more than $13 million on advocacy groups, many with decidedly non-conservative inclinations.

The NEA gave $85,000 to Democracy Alliance, $100,000 to Media Matters, $10,000 to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and $5,000 to the Center for Independent Media.

The Center for Independent Media is now known as the American Independent, and is the mother organization of several liberal news organizations, including the Michigan Messenger. In 2009, Metro Times, a Detroit-area alternative newspaper, recognized the Michigan Messenger  as Michigan’s “Best Left-Leaning Web-only News Site.”

Democracy Alliance is funded by many well-known politically liberal donors, including George Soros, and has funded organizations such as ACORN and Air America Radio.

Media Matters for America is an organization dedicated to “correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S.”

“To me, the story is not so much that most of these organizations lean to the left. It's that the NEA is a funding source for so much of the progressive movement,” said Mike Antonucci, director of the Education Intelligence Agency. “It's not just an education issue.”

Antonucci report about the NEA’s donations to these groups is here.

NEA Spokeswoman Laila Hirschfeld didn’t return an e-mail seeking a comment for this article.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Weekly Roundup - Jan. 22

Lansing State Journal - Public employee wages are increasingly under the microscope.

Daily Press & Argus - Some a looking to end the forced childcare unionization.

Reuters - The public strongly apposes raising the current debt ceiling limit.

The Blaze - Michael Moore says people own guns because they're afraid of those of a differen race.

New York Times - State budget gaps have forced a bi-partisan mindset.

President Barack Obama - We need a new regulatory system.

American for Tax Reform - A comprehensive list of tax hikes in ObamaCare.

 

Quote of the Week

"In the late 1950s China decided to overtake the U.K. in steel production. Some 40 million Chinese were killed in pursuit of an idiotic goal irrelevant to China's eventual development.

"Now the Chinese are placing big bets on wind farms and solar panels. Go to it, fellas! If they think the future is what a certain New York Times columnist says it is, the rest of us can rest easy"

- Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.