Do Teachers Like Their Hard-Earned Money Being Spent on Political Lies?

Have I mentioned how glad — how really, really glad — I am that the elections are almost over? Just when little old me thinks I’m done writing about topics related to the election, I find a story like this one at Face The State about a highly deceitful group’s campaign flier:

Accountability for Colorado, which paid for the glossy mailer sent to District 50 households, quotes McGee as telling Boswell, “You weren’t good for jobs in Greeley.” Boswell, who until recently owned a Western Sizzlin’ restaurant franchise near the Greeley Mall, was a guest on McGee’s September 28 show.

Problem is, that quote is a paraphrase of an allegedly biased report in the Greeley Tribune, which McGee moments earlier in the broadcast slams as the “Greeley Pravda.”

“You weren’t handled very favorably when the restaurant closed,” McGee said, setting up his question. Listen to a clip of the broadcast using the player above. [link added]

Boswell says the restaurant’s closure was the result of a poor economy and tighter competition from other restaurants for his price-sensitive customer base.

Take the quote way out of context to make the conservative radio host look like he was saying something completely different? Yes, that would be the shadowy group Accountability for Colorado — which is heavily funded by teachers unions like the Colorado Education Association.

Here’s how it works: The dues of nearly all CEA members are collected automatically through public school district payroll systems, which mark the monthly deduction as one amount. Yet $39 goes to a refundable CEA Every Member Option (EMO) political fund, while teachers and other education employees in some districts also part with an additional $10, $12 or $24 EMO of which they can ask for a refund if they know about it and the deadlines.

CEA and the local unions spend the money freely on candidates and issues and 527 committees like Accountability for Colorado (to the tune of more than $250,000). But how many teachers have time to keep tabs on how that money is being spent? Because I’m guessing many would not approve of their automatically collected hard-earned money distorting the truth and telling out lies. A teacher who would teach that sort of behavior is OK is probably not the right teacher for me. So why is it good enough for how the union spends their money on politics?

Good question.