The NEA's Latest Shenanigans

What does diversity mean to you? Same-sex marriage? Building a giant mosque on the 9/11 spot in New York? Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court?

To the largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), diversity means celebrating the anniversary of the Communist takeover of China by Mao Zedong. The NEA posted this on its website calendar as a diversity event for Oct. 1.

Thankfully, we live in a wonderful era when parents, tea partiers, conservatives and students can rapidly spread the news ignored by the mainstream media. After this activity suggestion for teachers was reported on World Net Daily, the Mao calendar item disappeared (without comment) from the NEA's website.

It's hard to make sense out of the fascination that liberals have with Mao, who is known to history as the champion murderer of all time. Barack Obama's Communications Czar Anita Dunn called him one of her two "favorite political philosophers."

We thought Anita was thrown under the bus after that embarrassment became public, but now she's back with an assignment from the Obama administration to convince the American people that we really like Obamacare after all. The celebrity heads of this taxpayer-funded propaganda project are former Sen. Tom Daschle and Ted Kennedy's widow Victoria.

Anita is unlikely to succeed in this effort, but the NEA will still be working and spending political money to force national health care on us. That's just one of scores of left-wing policies approved at the NEA's annual convention in New Orleans this summer, so NEA's highly-paid staff can lobby for legislation the NEA wants and shovel out money to candidates who support NEA policies.

The NEA was the No. 1 big spender in federal and state political campaigns and ballot measures in the 2007-2008 election cycle, according to a comprehensive analysis compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The NEA spent $56.3 million, four times more than any other big-bucks donor.

The NEA's political contributions go 95 percent to Democratic candidates or to promote leftist ballot issues. Teachers, who pay hundreds of dollars in annual dues to national, state and local affiliates, have no control over the NEA's political advocacy or endorsement of candidates.

Teachers in 28 states risk losing their jobs if they refuse to join a union. Some employees are forced to pay dues even if they don't join a union.

The NEA's Legislative Program, which was adopted at the 2010 Convention in New Orleans, sets forth the marching orders for NEA lobbyists and the authority for political donations.

Here are some of the NEA's major objectives:

— Mandatory full-day kindergarten attendance for all children, with federal money if the state can't afford it.

— Substantial increases in federal education funding.

— Repeal of the right-to-work provision of federal labor law.

— A tax-supported, single-payer health care plan for all residents of the U.S., its territories and Puerto Rico.

— Federal funding for the education of illegal aliens.

— Federal programs to teach schoolchildren about different sexual orientations.

— Legislation to prohibit religious organizations that accept federal funding from basing hiring decisions on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or HIV/AIDS status.

— Affirmative action to redress historical patterns of discrimination.

— Legislation to study possible reparations to African-Americans to address residual effects of slavery.

— Statehood for the District of Columbia.

— Opposition to tuition tax credits, vouchers and parental option or "choice" in education programs.

— Opposition to denying student aid to illegal alien college students.

— Opposition to using draft registration as an eligibility criterion for financial aid.

— Opposition to the testing of teachers as a criterion for job retention, promotion, tenure or salary increases.

— Opposition to legislation that denies illegal aliens' access to public schools.

— Opposition to designating English as the official language of the United States.

— Opposition to the use of voter ID cards for voting in local, state and national elections.

— Opposition to privatization of Social Security.

— Opposition to any constitutional amendment limiting taxes or the federal budget.

These legislative goals are only a small part of the mischief endorsed at the NEA's annual convention. The NEA convention passed many pro-homosexual, pro-feminist, pro-abortion and anti-parent resolutions.

The NEA's left-wing bias is also obvious in its resolutions calling for public school curricula to include multiculturism, globalism, environmentalism, diversity, AIDS, sexual orientation, self-esteem, racism, school-to-work, immigration, gun control, suicide, peace and the United Nations. And the NEA is also seeking funding for programs for children "from birth through age 8."

When will parents wake up to whom is running the public schools?

Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and the author of the newly revised and expanded "Supremacists." She can be contacted by e-mail at phyllis@eagleforum.org. To find out more about Phyllis Schlafly and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Website at www.creators.com.

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