California Teachers Association pulling a Gloria Allred on Education Funding

California Teachers Association pulling  a Gloria Allred on Education

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – The California Teachers (CTA) Union is pulling a Gloria Allred – a scare tactic claming that Meg Whitman is not good for California – let’s be clear.  Whitman is what California needs, but certainly not good for the CTA.  Just ask New Jersey teachers’ union.

The latest CTA ad claims that Whitman will take money away from education.  What Whitman, and Fiorina for that matter had done is to take stand against California’s Triple Threat:  1) Unions, 2) Parasitic Bureaucracies and 3) Lobbyists – after all, both are independently wealthy and have not need to pander to special interest groups to fund their respective campaigns.

Take for instance:  What is the common denominator between fiber optics, MRIs, Lasik, Google, liquid crystal displays (LCDs, holograms and Gatorade? These all sprang from the discoveries of university researchers. To date, Stanford University gets a whooping $1 billion/year from Google – view this as the Jobs Machine – precisely the Jobs Machines Meg Whitman wants to make sure is properly fueled so that California, a state that used to be the number 5 economy in the world, has dropped to number 8 and falling!

On the other hand, the Italian-American Mafia, like the CTA,  is generally divided into crews, or districts, headed by a caporegime, usually shortened to just a Capo, sort of like a captain or sergeant. The titled Capo, is used for a high ranking member of a crime family who heads a crew of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization.

Sometimes a crew might specialize in certain areas like gambling, while other crews might be more involved in legitimate interests like construction. A crew might also operate in certain geographical areas. Likewise, CTA affiliates are specialist and include the California Faculty Association and the California Community College Association.

The number of Capos/crews/Districts depends on the size of a family. The Gambino family has had some 20 capos, the St. Louis crime family has had just a small number of capos. For example. The CTA on the other hand is by far the the country.. About 1,100 chapters or local teachers associations are chartered as CTA affiliates.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), reported in March 2010 that the CTA had spent $211.8 million on political campaigns in California in the ten-year period beginning on January 1, 2000 and ending on December 31, 2009, more than any other union, business, organization or individual. The size of CTA's warchest in the 10-year period was nearly double that of the California State Council of Service Employees, the group that came in 2nd in the Big Money sweepstakes, according to the FPPC.

Additionally, the CTA donated $1,000,000.00 in an unsuccessful effort to derail proposition 8, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Among other things, the CTA has supported efforts to criminalize home schooling, a “No school bulling day” where everyone can look and act homosexually –exposing children to and teaching them that alternative life styles is normal – consequently removing teachers accused of sexual abuse, or incompetent for that matter, are rarely, if ever removed. The CTA has also gone to great length to accommodate Muslim students and reject Christian practices, because the first is a religion of peace, the latter preaches hate.

At roughly the same time as the release of the FPPC’s report, Maplight.Org released a study that showed that CTA gave an average of $17,800 to each California State Senator who voted against a January 2010 school reform bill that would have helped California qualify for federal "Race to the Top" funds.

After passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the CTA and other school interests created an Education Coalition that wages constant war in political and legal arenas to protect its share of the state budget. While CTA supporters consistently argue that local school district issues are non-partisan, these supporters are either uninformed or trying to mislead: Every single school district, from San Diego County to San Francisco, is a microcosm of what is going on at the state and national level: Consider President Obama’s pledge to the SEIU: “Your agenda is MY agenda!” - yesterday, New Jersey voters sent a clear message voting on 479 public school budgets: Enough is enough. A stunning 54% of the budgets went down to defeat, the most since the recession year of 1976, siding with Governor Christie's call for fiscal restraint. The results have clear implications not only for a bitter power struggle between New Jersey GOP Governor Chris Christie and the state's powerful New Jersey Education Association, but also implication for the 2010 California elections including California’s Triple Threat: 1) Unions, 2) Lobbyists and 3) Parasitic bureaucracies. Specific to California, as, the battle for the Soul of the Republican party rages on, the question is, what about a battle against California’s Political Machine (and the CTA), supporting Gerry Brown for Governor and reelection of Ma’am Boxer.? Who is worrying about California’s Triple Threat?

Now, consider that lobbyists outnumber lawmakers in Sacramento by a ratio of 8-1, not counting tax-payer funded unregistered lobbyists. Further, the California Teachers Association is at the top of the list of the interest groups promoting its interest in Sacramento at the tune of $211,849,298, followed by the California State Council of Service Employees—$107,467,272. This type of cold cash can send shills down spineless politicians, drowns out the voices of average voters, and intimidates political opponents and elected officials alike.

The same dynamics played out over the last 30 years in the Raise and Fall of the Detroit Empire: As the unions lobbied lawmakers for more protection and more entitlements, efficiency went down, and you know the rest of the story.

As the union continued to accumulate political power in Sacramento, the quality of education in the state has dropped further than the devalued Green Buck: Wit the significant difference in quality of education between public schools and private schools. Or even public universities and for profit universities. At this time, the government should get out of the business of offering undergraduate and graduate level liberal arts education and leave it to for-profit universities, for example.

Heading into the 2010 election season, the CTA has targeted the paycheck protection act and a proposed public pension reform act, attempting to cut off the source of funds of the sponsoring organizations by filing measures that would repeal $2 billion in state tax breaks for business,  enacted last February, virtually prohibit corporate political contributions and sharply raise property taxes on business.   Guess who is between the CTA and its political ambitions?  Meg Whitmans.

And just like the Capos demand for protection money, the CTA provides protection for for businesses and politicos: The CTA’s goal is to submit a Don Corleone-type of proposal to major business groups and politicos in the state: An offer they cannot refuse. Or a David Stern might say: You choose your poison: – the power of persuasion, or the persuasion of power: If you back the campaigns on union political funds or pensions, you will face measures that will cost you billions of dollars in new taxes.

Who are you going to trust:  An undocumented worker biting the hand that fed here really well and her coach, or Meg Whitman?  The CTA or Whitman?