The Wrong Kind

Education Minnesota, the state teachers’ union, is the largest campaign donor in the state.  They give almost exclusively to Democrats, and have reportedly given twice the amount of the largest Republican donor in recent years.

So far in 2014, their political action committee has spent $2.5 million on the state election, according to records on file at the Campaign Finance Board.  Their spending was made possible, in part, by their borrowing $785,000 $885,000 from a local bank.  And the election year is not over yet.

For comparison, Education Minnesota spent less than $2 million in 2012, and borrowed only $500,000.  In 2010, the group spent $2.2 million and borrowed $576,000.

It’s clear that in 2014, the union is going “all in” as never before to preserve the Democrats’ monopoly on power in St. Paul.

Speaking of monopolies, public school teachers in Minnesota must pay dues to the local union, regardless of whether they agree with the union’s politics.

The union’s bosses are highly compensated for their work.  According to the most recent Federal tax return filed by Education Minnesota (a tax-exempt charity), the union has at least a dozen employees making more than $100,000 per year.  All 12 make more than Minnesota’s governor.  Five make more than $200,000 per year.

Education Minnesota stands on the throat of the state’s politics.  So you would think this charity could afford to be a little more charitable to members of their own profession.  Think again.

The Network sent me this item:  a letter to the editor of the Albert Lea Tribune.  The letter is signed by Al Helgerson, president of the Albert Lea Education Association, the local teachers’ union.  The letter opens as follows,

I have been asked by many why we, the Albert Lea Education Association, did not support state Rep. Shannon Savick’s opponent, Peggy Bennett, who is an educator herself.  I reply that there are many reasons. Just being a teacher doesn’t automatically mean your politics will support public education.

It’s a remarkable admission.  The Republican challenger for the area’s state house seat, Peggy Bennett, has spent 33 years as an elementary school teacher and won the 2011 Albert Lea-area Teacher of the Year award.  The incumbent, Democrat Shannon Savick, is a retired businesswoman.

Checking Education Minnesota’s website, we find that the union has indeed endorsed Democrat Shannon Savick.  There are 134 state house seats up for election this year.  Adding in an additional 13 offices, statewide, the union has an opportunity to endorse in 147 races in 2014.

In those 147 races, the union endorsed a total of four Republicans, less than 3 percent of the total.  So the union could certainly take a flyer on the Teacher of the Year, without compromising their commitment to the Democrat cause.

Or, if not, there are any number of innocuous phrases the union could have used to explain away their non-teacher endorsement.  The union could have pointed to a specific vote taken by Rep. Savick, a desire to honor past endorsements, or claimed that “it was a close call” and faintly praised the Republican candidate.

Instead, Mr. Helgerson doubled down with a bizarre guilt by disassociation argument against the Teacher of the Year,

We also see that Shannon’s opponents are supporting Jeff Johnson over Mark Dayton, the same Jeff Johnson who has publicly and proudly announced at a Tea Party gathering that if he wins, he will “Go all Scott Walker” on Minnesota, which includes limiting collective bargaining, shutting down unions and shifting money away from our public schools.

Forget, for a moment, that Republican Jeff Johnson has said nothing of the sort.  (Indeed, teachers unions still exist in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin.)  Helgerson is suggesting that it won’t support a local teacher because unnamed others support a candidate for a different office.  Weird.

It keeps getting better.  Helgerson writes,

To set the record straight, I have never said anything negative about Peggy.  I have never said she is negative to public education.

Whew!  (Not sure about the grammar there, though.)  He continues,

What I have said is if the Republican Party takes the house we have seen in the past that they attack public education.  They refuse to fund it properly, and they even make cuts.  They push for vouchers, stall payments, try to remove seniority and continually have us (public educators) on the defense.  This is a sustained fact.

A sustained fact.  Again, ignoring that there have never been “cuts” to public education, what Mr. Helgerson is saying is that he will not support any teacher who runs under the Republican banner.

I think that the teachers union has made a strategic blunder.  Much of what happens at the state capitol is non-partisan.  Lobbyists are usually careful to cultivate significant support in both parties, so that their agenda can move along, unopposed, regardless of which party happens to hold power that year.

In agriculture, energy, and transportation—just to name three industries—their annual wish list of legislation usually sails through with little controversy.

But in education, the teachers union has decided to fight a pitched battle against the Republican Party.  The union has allowed ideology to trump pure business interests and will only succeed in creating the very thing they say they fear.