Friday, October 08, 2010

The sky is blue, the sun rises in the east, the CTA urges you to vote for Democrats and bigger government

Several years ago, I quit the California Teachers Association (CTA), and became what is called an Agency Fee Payer. This means that, as California is a non-right-to-work state, I still have to pay dues to the CTA for actual union work, but I get a refund of the part of my dues that would have been spent by the CTA on political activity; activity with which, for the most part, I wholly disagree.

The other day, my wife, who is also a teacher, brought home a packet that had been put not only in her mailbox, but the mailbox of all her fellow teachers as well. I took the time to scan the pages of this packet and let you see just how one-sided the CTA really is, and remember that you click on any of these images to enlarge them:

Well, well - so far, we have Democrats across the board; even old washed up bizarre ones like Jerry Brown, and dense, abrasive, statist ones like Barbara Boxer.

On side two, the cavalcade of crappy candidates continues, with more of the same stale statists who have put California on the road to ruin for decades now, going all the way back to... well... Jerry Brown.

Just in case the first flyer didn't make it clear that the CTA wants Jerry Brown, this one seals the deal. Do I agree with everything Meg Whitman wants to do as Governor of California? That would be a big fat No. However, whatever it is that Jerry Brown wants to do has been tried; he has truly been there and done that, and it didn't work. He set the state on the road to ruin, and the CTA wants him back to wreak even more havoc.

Now, on to the propositions on the ballot. As you read through some of these initiatives, you don't even have to wonder about whether or not you agree with the CTA's position. What you have to wonder is why the CTA is even taking a position on some of these initiatives in the first place. What does climate cha... er... climate disruption have to do with teacher pay and benefits? Yet there is the CTA urging its members to vote against Prop 23.


If you are a California teacher, and you don't want your dues money spent on one-sided claptrap such as this, then by all means, look into other avenues of approach. You can start by visiting the California Teachers Empowerment Network (ctenhome.org), and the Association of American Educators (aaeteachers.org). These two organizations will lay out all your options regarding teacher union membership. You won't get the same kind of comprehensive explanations from the CTA.

And remember to vote in November. If you are not sure for whom or what to vote, you can pretty much take this voting guide and just vote the opposite of whatever the CTA urges you to do.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been a teacher in California for more than 20 years. I do NOT belong to the CTA, and would quit teaching rather than sign up with the Communist Teachers Activists. Every October, I receive a rebate from the CTA in excess of $300 that does NOT go to the union to spend on candidates and initiatives that I abhor, loathe, detest, despise, hate, and reject. What a crime that in order to teach in California, one must either join the union or fight to remain out of it. Now, that's freedom for you!

Darren said...

On the propositions I voted the opposite of CTA's recommendation on all except for 1.

Did you notice that in California Educator, CTA didn't even offer a recommendation on Prop 19, the marijuana legalization one? *There* is an interesting commercial for someone!

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