Crumbling Institutions of the Left - Teacher's Unions

Allysia Finley does a public service by pointing out the epic math fail of the National Education Assoication (NEA, aka the teacher's union, albeit there are others).  While their pension fund goes broke, the union (and not so much the teachers themselves) are calling for Arne Duncan's resignation over testing, and debating fracking, because, well ... leftists just can't help themselves.  Some lovely highlights:

NEA membership has declined is that student enrollment nationwide has dropped, meaning fewer teachers are needed. Enrollment has ticked up mainly in fast-growing states like Texas, where teachers don't have collective-bargaining rights and right-to-work laws make paying union dues and agency fees voluntary. Wisconsin's collective-bargaining reforms and new right-to-work laws in Indiana and Michigan have prompted tens of thousands of teachers to drop out of the union or stop paying dues.

 . . .

In 2007, the NEA promised employees that it would make their insolvent pension plan 100% funded by 2021—it was 84% funded as of last year—to prevent a mandated reduction in benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and Pension Protection Act of 2006, which govern private-employer pension plans. Yet subsequent investment losses have caused pension costs to soar for the national union and its state affiliates.

Interestingly, the employees of the NEA union are also unionized and picketed the annual convention in Denver last week.  One of the AFSME beefs? The NEA passed along higher costs associated with the Affordable Care Act to the union members?  Ironic doesn't quite capture this outcome.  Even the left is being impacted by the actions of the left.  The good work done by Republicans in TX, WI and MI are helping to prevent your tax dollars from going towards the leftist agenda.  A little ray of hope in an otherwise gloomy Obama era.

What You Should Be Reading

• KPBS tosses out a bunch of softballs for Scott Peters and Carl DeMaio in the CA 52nd race. Predictably there answers don't show much difference, except where DeMaio supports border enforcement.  Also, what the hell is DeMaio doing supporting net neutrality?  Peters has the better position on this, where he asks why the heck is the FCC considering labeling broadband providers as common carriers.  Still voting for DeMaio, because we need a strong GOP majority to keep Obama's lawlessness in check.
• Eight straw donors to the 2012 Bonnie Dumanis mayoral campaign were fined a total of $60,000 by the San Diego Ethics Commission. A little more information from the Azano scandal.
• Obama's top donor in the 2012 cycle (when you total donations of employees and contributions to PACs), University of California (I am pretty sure its the whole system, not just Berkeley).