The teachers unions are the most powerful unions in the country maybe the world. They are also so corrupt that they have managed to turn government school children into a bunch of mindless idiots.

The National Education Association members pay into a “Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund” that allows the union to spend tens of millions of dollars on all state and national politics. In the 2007-08 fiscal year, the NEA spent $2.3 million on top of $1 million spent the previous fiscal year in which they were fighting a school voucher referendum in Utah. Those damn private schools! I hate it when parents want to have the choice of sending their kids to schools that actually care and want to teach their children.

The NEA finished 2007-08 with a surplus of nearly $5.9 million, which means the union will enter the 2008-09 school year with almost $20 million available to spend. And will they be spending that on the school children? Probably not.

Read the full Wall Street Journal story.

Learn more about the unethical approaches of teachers unions.

Another big issue in America is education. I had been surfing the web a little bit and found some information on education vouchers, how it works and the positive results from these voucher schools. Here is a link to The Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice.

I also found a school system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the privately funded Extra Mile Education Foundation, has had very positive results with using private donations to pay the tuition for low income African-American children to attend private Catholic schools. No tax money is used for the vouchers. Most of the students who are enrolled in the program are non-Catholic. 70% of the students come from families whose income is low enough to qualify for free or reduced priced lunches. Of the students who graduate from the program (i.e., from 8th grade), not a single student has ever failed 9th grade, and 96% of the students graduate from high school within 4 years.

From my reading and understanding of how the vouchers work, it sounds like a great idea. I know that our government schools are not getting the job done and part of that problem is the teachers unions and we all know unions are a form of socialism, you pay your union dues and let someone else take care of you no matter how lousy of a worker or teacher you are. On top of that, unions are one of the biggest scams you can be involved with.

Take the time to click on the links and read about these two great organizations and feel free to click on the teachers union link to understand how crooked these organizations are, it will probably blow your mind.