NEA goes after Vermont

In the below article, what Reg Weaver really means is "We will continue to fight against anything that denies our union leadership the opportunity to access the wealth of money still left in the hands of taxpayers because we do believe that taking other people's money is our union's basic right". Any law that keeps the NEA out of our pockets has to be a good one. Go get 'em Vermont, you've been ripped off by these educrats long enough!

Why is it that the Comrades next door in Vermont have been able to put a cap on Big Ed spending and our leaders in Concord just passed legislation that will create a spending boom and decrease the current quality of education our children receive.

The below article appeared in the Eagle Times on October 21, 2007. Bravo to the Eagle Times!

NEA goes after Vermont
There is something ironic about the National Education Association coming after the state of Vermont for its latest effort to solve the problem of the soaring cost of education in grades K-12.

Act 82, an offspring of Act 60 and Act 68, was passed during the last legislative session and is scheduled to take effect next year. While it's a complicated law like its predecessors, it boils down to a state-imposed limit on education spending in local communities. Spend more than what the state says you can and you must go back to voters for a supplemental budget. And that is what has the NEA in a tizzy.

"We will continue to fight against anything that denies young people the opportunity to have access to a great public school because we do believe that it's a basic right," said Reg Weaver of the NEA at a Vermont-NEA convention last week.

Vermont legislators, of course, like to claim that it got down to business 10 years ago when the state Supreme Court ruled that it needed a more equitable system to fund education so students in property poor towns did not get less money because of where they live. But neither Act 60 nor 68 did the trick and with no end in sight to the oppressive property tax burden caused by higher and higher education spending, the Legislature finally got wise and decided to cap spending with Act 82.

New Hampshire, meanwhile, still has not come up with anything that would put an end to protracted court battles. One would have thought New Hampshire's lack of action would have brought the wrath of the NEA.

But the NEA does not seem genuinely interested in anything that actually makes our public schools better; it only wants to ensure nothing stops the continual flow of money that goes into them. New Hampshire has not tried that at the state level; Vermont has.

According to an Associated Press report, Vermont spends an average of $11,000 per student or $1.3 billion a year. Vermont-NEA's president says spending limits do not improve education; apparently unlimited spending doesn't either.

When the Legislature reconvenes in January both Democrats and Republicans should stand their ground and not let the NEA bully them into stripping Act 82 of its intent to help taxpayers handle higher and higher education costs. It certainly won't hurt the schools.