Education

Top Teachers Union Takes On Corporate Tax Loopholes To Fund Education

Brian Beutler | April 10, 2012, 6:05AM

The National Education Association is ramping up a public information campaign to build support for closing big corporate tax loopholes and directing the revenue toward key education initiatives. The push comes weeks after the Obama administration released a framework for corporate tax reforms that would be revenue neutral, suggesting a schism between the powerful union and the White House. But in a Monday interview, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel applauded Obama's record on education and said his group's push is meant to raise awareness of one of many ways to finance more federal investment in education.

"One reason to look at corporate taxes is because it is so huge," Van Roekel said, citing the Center for Tax Justice, which concludes (PDF) that closing seven specific corporate tax loopholes could raise nearly $1.5 trillion over 10 years. NEA proposes using the money to raise the maximum Pell grant award to cover half the average cost of public higher education, fund Title I spending on students from low-income families and other initiatives.

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National Education Association

Teachers Union Takes First Step Toward Endorsing Obama 2012

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 6, 2011, 11:14AM

The National Education Association -- which represents 3.2 million teachers and education professionals across the country -- took its first step Thursday toward endorsing Barack Obama for president in 2012, TPM has learned.

The NEA is the country's largest union, and the news makes it the first to signal formal support for Obama's reelection bid.

The union's Political Action Committee sent a recommendation to its governing group, the Representative Assembly, urging the full membership of the union to stand behind Obama's bid for a second term.

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Crossroads GPS

Both Sides Assail New Anti-Union Ad From Rove-Linked Group

Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 10, 2011, 8:35AM

The big spending group founded by Karl Rove has succeeded in uniting unions and fiscal hawks -- in criticism of the group's new TV ad.

On Wednesday, Crossroads GPS launched a nationwide TV ad attacking the relationship between unions and Democratic politicians.

By the end of the day they had succeeded in putting the National Education Association and the anti-public sector union libertarian think-tank Cato on the same page: the ad, both said, is at best a stretch and at worse untrue. Crossroads disputes the claims and stands by its commercial.

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NM-GOV

GOPer's Ad In NM-GOV: That Woman In Pro-Dem Ad? I Sent Her Husband To Prison (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | September 10, 2010, 3:52PM

Ad from NM-GOV candidate Susana Martinez (R), "Convicted"

Just get a load of this ad. Really, just watch.

Susana Martinez, a district attorney and the Republican nominee for governor of New Mexico, has a new ad firing back at an ad from the National Education Association's New Mexico branch, which featured a teacher criticizing Martinez and praising Democratic nominee Diane Denish on the subject of school vouchers. The ad said that Martinez favored vouchers when talking to strictly Republican audiences, and has given a different message for the general election. "Teachers stand with Diane Denish, because when it comes to education, she's on our side," said special education teacher Freda Trujillo.

Now Martinez has responded with an ad of her own. "Remember this attack ad for Denish? With this teacher?" says Martinez in her spot, followed by a short clip of Trujillo in the NEA ad. "There's a reason she did it. Here's her husband. We convicted him. He's in prison now for 23 years - kidnapping. The ad looks different now, doesn't it? I don't know what they'll do next, but don't be fooled."

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