United Teachers Los Angeles supports merit pay “on a cold day in hell”

The Detroit Federation of Teachers shut down city schools to stop 15 charter schools from being built for free

The California Teachers Association has compared school vouchers to child prostitution

The Washington Teachers Union has withheld kids’ college recommendations for parents who didn’t oppose school reform

In Illinois (outside of Chicago), two union-protected teachers out of 95,500 are terminated for incompetence annually

In Illinois (outside of Chicago), it costs $219,504.21 to fire a bad union-protected teacher

In New Jersey, five union-protected teachers out of more than 100,000 are terminated for incompetence annually

In New York State, seventeen union-protected teachers are terminated a year

In New York State, it costs $128,941 to fire a bad union-protected teacher

In New York City, only ten out of 55,000 tenured teachers were terminated in 2006-2007

In Los Angeles, only eleven out of 43,000 union-protected teachers are even considered for termination annually

The National Education Association received $50 million for shaky investment advice in 2004 alone

NEA members are suing over the union’s endorsement of “Valuebuilder,” a plan with over $1 billion of members’ money invested

New York State United Teachers received $3 million for shaky investment advice in 2005

Washington Teachers Union embezzlement tab: $5 million

United Teachers of Dade (Miami) embezzlement tab: $2.5 million

Massachusetts Teachers Association embezzlement tab: $800,000

Michigan teachers unions' embezzlement tab from one thief: $218,000 in bad checks

Michigan

National Council on Teacher Quality Report Card: Michigan Teacher Policy

Legend

	Best practices.
	State meets goal.
	State nearly meets goal.
	State partially meets goal.
	State meets a small part of goal.
	State does not meet goal.
Full Report – National Council on Teacher Quality

Meeting NCLB Teacher Quality Objectives: C

	Goal A Equitable Distribution of Teachers
	Goal B Elementary Teacher Preparation
	Goal C Secondary Teacher Preparation
	Goal D Veteran Teachers Path to HQT
	Goal E Standardizing Credentials

Teacher Licensure: C

	Goal A Defining Professional Knowledge
	Goal B Meaningful Licenses
	Goal C Interstate Portability
	Goal D Teacher Prep in Reading Instruction
	Goal E Distinguishing Promising Teachers

Teacher Evaluation and Compensation: D

	Goal A Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness
	Goal B Using Value-Added
	Goal C Teacher Evaluation
	Goal D Compensation Reform
	Goal E Tenure

State Approval of Teacher Preparation Programs: D

	Goal A Entry Into Preparation Programs
	Goal B Program Accountability
	Goal C Program Approval and Accreditation
	Goal D Controlling Coursework Creep

Alternate Routes to Certification: D

	Goal A Genuine Alternatives
	Goal B Limiting Alternate Routes to Teachers with Strong Credentials
	Goal C Program Accountability
	Goal D Interstate Portability

Preparation of Special Education Teachers: D

	Goal A Special Education Teacher Preparation
	Goal B Elementary Special Education Teachers
	Goal C Secondary Special Education Teachers
	Goal D Special Education Teacher and HQT

Political contribution statistics from 2004 political cycle.

Party Contribution Percentages

Sources: National Institute on Money in State Politics

Union Political Contribution Totals

Amount	Union
$ 246,855	Michigan Education Assoc/mea
$ 31,600	Michigan Federation Of Teachers & School Related Personnel/mft & Srp
$ 24,050	Detroit Federation Of Teachers/dft

(more)

In Michigan, after 4 years, public school teachers receive what's commonly called "tenure," a special employment protection that teachers unions defend. As the below federal statistics indicate, teachers with just a couple years of experience are practically impossible to fire.

0.1%
experienced (3+ years)
teacher firing rate

1.88%
junior (less than 3 years)
teacher firing rate

9.8%
private school teacher firing rate (national)

Statewide Unions

Michigan Education Association
Total Revenue: $ 73,258,502
Total Expenses: $ 67,067,865
Total Assets: $ 52,270,168

AFT Michigan
Total Revenue: $ 3,672,541
Total Expenses: $ 3,685,784
Total Assets: $ 2,290,522

Largest Non-Statewide Unions

Union Name / District	Affiliation	Total Rev.	Total Exp.	Total Assets
Detroit Federation of Teachers Detroit Public Schools	AFT	$ 6,054,213	$ 5,904,202	$ 5,003,669

Other Unions

Name	City	Total Rev.	Tax Period
Michigan Education Association	East Lansing	$ 73,258,502	2003
American Federation Of Teachers	Detroit	$ 6,054,213	2002
American Federation Of Teachers	Detroit	$ 3,672,541	2003
Grand Rapids Education Association	Grand Rapids	$ 1,528,472	2003
Utica Education Association	Utica	$ 1,404,560	2003
Lansing Schools Education Assn Inc	East Lansing	$ 954,060	2003
Livonia Education Association	Livonia	$ 931,866	2003
Plymouth Canton Education Associa- Tion	Howell	$ 778,221	2003
Walled Lake Education Association Michigan Ea National Ea	Farmingtn Hls	$ 725,907	2003
Farmington Education Association	Farmingtn Hls	$ 712,507	2003

Teacher Contracts

Name	District	Occupation
Grand Rapids Education Association	Grand Rapids Public Schools	Teachers

(more)

FOIA For this massive new project, the Center for Union Facts filed freedom of information requests with dozens of America’s major school districts.

From the stacks of paperwork that ensued, we have calculated a variety of statistics that document how teachers unions – and the laws and policies they defend – keep bad teachers in classrooms. Read on to discover just what all that dues money pays for in many cities around the country.

Detroit Federation of Teachers: Protecting Bad Teachers

The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) is the exclusive bargaining agent for teachers from the Detroit Public Schools District. Policies defended by the DFT and its parent organizations (AFT-Michigan and the American Federation of Teachers) mean that practically no teachers are ever fired by the school system after they work for four years and thus acquire tenure.

A key feature of tenure is the incredible burden put on school districts trying to get rid of bad teachers. In fact, frequently it is so time-consuming and expensive to fire teachers that districts will instead offer these teachers settlements, essentially paying them to stop teaching and leave. To expose this disturbing, union-enforced practice, the Center for Union Facts performed original research into settlements made between Detroit Public Schools and teachers unionized under the Detroit Federation of Teachers for the 2002-03 through the 2006-07 school years. In exchange for promises to leave the district, tenured teachers have received:

months of further pay (sometimes in exchange for staying home!);
guarantees that the district won't tell future employers why those teachers left; and
guarantees that their personnel files will be purged of any references to the district's reasons for pursuing termination in the first place.

Support for the unacceptable status quo also drives the DFT to reject hundreds of millions of dollars for public education -- that is, when those dollars pay for kids in non-unionized charter schools. In 2002 philanthropist Robert Thompson offered the city of Detroit $200 million to establish 15 charter schools. Until the fall of 2002, according to the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick supported Thompson's offer. But on September 25 of that year, the Detroit Federation of Teachers led a one-day walkout that shut down the city's schools in protest of Thompson's offer. The deal collapsed immediately thereafter.

Source: Detroit Public Schools
Data current as of December 11, 2007