The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, is rolling out its new $350,000 television ad campaign to generate support for President Obama’s American Jobs Act. Thirty billion of Obama’s $450 billion jobs bill has been designated to supposedly save 285,000 teaching jobs.
According to our estimates, the bill would generate $35.4 million in dues revenue for the NEA. In other words, the teachers union is spending $350,000 in hopes of getting over $35 million in “saved” dues payments – a return 100 times greater than the initial investment. These union geniuses belong on Wall Street.
Our estimates also show that the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, would see $13 million in “saved” dues payments.
Here’s how we arrived at our estimates:
About three quarters of unionized teachers are represented by the National Education Association.
According to the White House, 285,000 teaching jobs would be affected by the jobs bill. Seventy-five percent of that number is 213,750.
Every member pays dues, including $166 per year that goes to the national union, according to a secret union document posted on PublicSchoolSpending.com (213,750 multiplied by 166 = $35,482,500).
Similarly, the American Federation of Teachers, which collects annual dues of $184.20 from each member (according to financial statements found at AFTexposed.com), would save about 71,250 jobs saved. The dues ramifications? A little over $13 million.
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At its national convention last summer, the NEA announced that it will support President Obama’s re-election effort. Earlier this year, the union also announced that it will take $20 from each member’s annual dues payments to spend on “upcoming elections.”
So the union gives to the president, and he returns the favor. The great American tradition of special interests dictating government policy seems safe under the Obama regime.
Given that the relationship between the Democratic Party and the nation’s teachers union is one of co-dependency, this jobs bill and the corresponding ad campaign simply don’t pass the smell test. This bill is only meant to give the teachers unions some walking around money, just in time for the 2012 election. What a coincidence.
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