The biggest problem with the California Teachers Association is that they attempt to use our children in an attempt to blackmail us into paying for their liberal causes. If you happen to lean left, this may be OK with you, but I think it is fairly obvious that their political agenda is much more important to them than are teachers or students.
The CTA support of propositions 30 and 32 illustrate this pretty effectively.
Proposition 30 is a tax increase for high income earners, but also a sales tax increase (supposedly temporary, but I’ve never seen one that is). The CTA is telling us that there will be mid year cuts to education if this is not passed. The truth is that there may be. I didn’t say the blackmail was a bluff. However, the wording of the proposition does not guarantee the funds raised go to education. They go to the general fund, which means it can be spent any way the legislature chooses. The legislature has mismanaged our money so badly, I just don’t see any reason to give them any more. Not only that, increasing sales tax always leads to less buying power and lower consumer confidence. Raising taxes has never had the effect of improving the economy.
The CTA opposes proposition 38 because it does not have the automatic guarantee that mid year cuts will be avoided, but, in fact, the current budget was not approved based on the passage of proposition 30, so it’s failure shouldn’t affect the current budget… I point again to the blackmail.
Proposition 32 limits the ability of unions to take workers’ money and use it for political contributions. Again, if you lean left, you probably don’t mind how the CTA spends the money they collect from teachers to support liberal candidates and causes, so, like the CTA, you might want to vote this down. The argument of unions is that wealthy individuals and corporations can make large contributions, but this takes away the political voice of the unions.
Here is the key difference… wealthy individuals and corporations are spending individuals’ money to support causes and candidates they believe in. Unions, on the other hand, take workers’ money and spend it how the unions want to, regardless of what the workers themselves may want to support. More conservative teachers, for example (I know we are rare, but we do exist), have our dues taken from us to support liberal politicians and legislation aimed at increased government, taxes, and social programs. Not to mention the CTA’s role in taking away parental rights for parents of students in public schools. We are told we can “opt out” of the political contribution part of our dues, but it never ceases to amaze me that when they calculate the part of our dues used for “contract negotiation” it always comes out that the political part is a very small slice – of course, those who get the money are the ones who get to determine this, hmmm. They also make certain that those who “opt out” are not protected if there is any legal action against them.
Truth be told, the propositions determine who gets your money and what they can do with it. I suggest you read them and decide for yourself. I’m voting “NO” on 30 and 38 and “YES” on 32. I’ll decide where my money goes, not the CTA.
When a Pro Prop 32 phone bank called me last week, I told them that my husband’s union was completely incompetant and did not represent him in the last negotiation. I told him that I resented the union taking our money out of his paycheck and would be voting “Yes” on Prop 32. The caller’s response was, “Would you prefer incompetant representation or no representation?” Hello???!! Admitting their incompentance just makes me more certain that I should keep our money in our control!