This morning’s move by the American Federation of Teachers (with help from the National Education Association’s Golden State affiliate) to launch a digital ad campaign aimed at beating back surging support for Marshall Tuck in his bid to become California Superintendent is another sign of how the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union deploys cash to oppose systemic reform. Certainly the ads — including one which accuses the school reformer of wanting to sell off public school buildings — are full of blarney; in fact, so laughable that they may backfire on the AFT (as well as the NEA) even among hardcore progressives. But at least the AFT is being nakedly honest about its ultimate goal — keeping in place current Supt. Tom Torkakson (who has done the bidding of its Golden State affiliate as well as that of the NEA’s California Teachers Association) — instead of concealing its aims under the guise of promoting social justice.
But the very fact that the AFT feels the need to launch a commercial at all is a clear sign that it fears that reformers can actually win control of the most-important agency within the state’s byzantine school governance system. Tuck has so far put Torlakson on the defensive for his decision to appeal the state superior court’s ruling in Vergara v. California, which struck down near-lifetime employment and teacher dismissal rules at the heart of AFT and NEA influence over education policy. But as Dropout Nation determined in an analysis of campaign finance data and disclosures filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, the AFT is spending plenty of money on the Golden State.
Most of the attention on political campaign spending in California has been focused on the efforts of the NEA and its affiliate — and for good reason. California is the biggest base of power for the NEA thank to CTA, which has long been the biggest spender in Golden State politics; the AFT’s center of influence is in New York State thanks to the United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers (the latter of which is also an NEA unit in name only). But the AFT also has a big footprint in California thanks to United Teachers Los Angeles, which scored a victory last week with the ouster of John Deasy as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. This fact, along with the Vergara ruling, which is spawning similar lawsuits in New York and elsewhere, gives the AFT plenty of reason to spend plenty on campaigning.
Just last month, the AFT’s political action committee poured $125,000 into backing Torlakson’s political campaign, according to data from California’s Secretary of State. This is on top of another $125,000 the PAC put into the incumbent’s campaign back in May, just before the state’s primary. So far, the PAC still has $2.5 million in cash on hand, more than enough to finance Torlakson and other allies in public office inside and out of the Golden State.
The PAC for the AFT’s state affiliate, the California Federation of Teachers, also spent $125,000 on Torlakson’s campaign, on top of $13,600 put into his campaign back in July and $65,000 given five months earlier. Add in the $80,848.67 spent by the PAC on buttons and other campaign collateral to support Torlakson’s bid, and $431.57 in catering costs that it picked up on the union’s behalf as an in-kind donation, and the AFT affiliate’s PAC spent $284,880.24 this year to support Torlakson’s effort to keep his job.
But the CFT COPE isn’t just concerned about keeping Torlakson in office to do its bidding. Last month alone, the PAC poured $25,000 into the state Democratic Party’s central committee; so far this year, Democrats have been subsidized by the union to the tune of $55,000. Back in August, it donated $13,600 each into the campaigns of state Treasurer John Chiang, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, and Democratic nominee for state controller Betty Yee. Meanwhile the AFT affiliate’s PAC put money into “slate mailer” outfits working on behalf of labor unions within the state. This includes $50,000 to Opportunity PAC (which claims to be “a coalition of teachers, healthcare givers” and university staffers), and $25,000 to Californians for Working Families, a committee organized by the state branch of AFL-CIO. The PAC also dropped $15,000 into the political action committee of the AFT’s most-important Golden State local, United Teachers Los Angeles.
The PAC is also focusing on those all important state legislative races, hoping to ensure that the senate and assembly remain under the thrall of traditionalists. This includes $16,400 to former San Francisco Unified School District attorney-turned-city supervisor Dave Campos, whose running to fill the assembly seat currently held by Tom Ammiano (along with $15,000 to an independent committee supporting his bid). It also gave $11,700 to the campaign of teacher-turned union boss-turned-politician Tim Sbranti (who beat out an ally of Gov. Jerry Brown, Steve Glazer, to serve as labor’s standardbearer for the seat held by the reliably-traditionalist Joan Buchanan), as well as donated $20,000 to Californians for Economic Prosperity, another independent expenditure committee working on his behalf. Expect CFT and the NEA affiliate, California Teachers Association, to slot Sbranti into the assembly’s education committee once he wins office.
The CFT PAC did have one misstep: It gave $13,600 to the campaign of Derek Cressman, who unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state against state Sen. Alex Padilla, whose two teacher dismissal bills (including Senate Bill 1530) were kiboshed by the COPE’s parent union and the NEA. Given the important role this office plays in certifying (and denying) ballot initiatives the union and other interests use to get their way, the AFT affiliate likely hoped that Cressman could succeed in keeping the school reform-minded Padilla off the ballot. It didn’t work out.
Altogether, the CFT’s main campaign finance committee spent $1 million on political efforts this year, and has $304,416.81 in cash on hand. Expect the AFT and its Golden State affiliate to use every dollar possible to back its favored candidates.
But the political activities don’t end with just this CFT PAC. Another campaign committee run by the AFT affiliate solely deals with ballot initiatives. This is where the AFT’s co-opting of social justice efforts is taking place. The PAC poured $50,000 into Yes on Prop. 47, which is advocating for the passage of a measure aimed at reclassifying most nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors. It is also backing Prop. 45, an effort by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones to force healthcare companies to run rate increases by his office for approval, to the tune of $75,000.
But the AFT is never really concerned about social justice. The PAC gave $25,000 to an outfit called Citizens for Retirement Security, which fought against a proposed pension reform effort in Ventura County, Calif.; that measure was one of many proposals floated by pension reform advocates in the wake of successful initiatives passed in San Jose and San Diego that would have eventually led to a focus on an even stronger measure to overhaul the California State Teachers Retirement System than that which Gov. Brown successfully passed this year.
Altogether, CFT’s ballot initiative PAC spent $967,060.31 so far this year, and has $1.9 million left in cash on hand. While most of the PAC’s spend ended up being given to locals for their political activities (classified as grants for internal political organizing projects), CFT also picked up plenty of cash. The PAC paid $407,638.87 for various expenses such as campaign consultants, staff assistance, office space, and even reimbursement for a “check deposited in error”. This means that nearly half of the ballot PAC’s spending went into the AFT affiliate’s own coffers. [CFT collected just $1,068.23 in fees from the main political action operation.]
But at least these direct political activities are funded by the voluntary donations of those AFT members who chose to do so. There are also the CFT’s organizing and other political activities that are heavily subsidized by national — and ultimately, by teachers through compulsory dues regardless of whether they want to be part of the union or not. This is money that those members, especially younger teachers in the rank-and-file, would likely rather have spent on elevating the teaching profession and improving their development.
The AFT subsidized the Golden State unit (including its Solidarity Account) to the tune of $1.3 million in 2013-2014, according to its latest filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. The AFT also tried to renew its effort to organize teachers working in the City of Angels’ public charter schools; it sent $283,657 to its Los Angeles Charter School effort. Meanwhile the union spent $319,725 on meetings in Los Angeles. While some of which was connected to planning for its annual convention held in the city this past July, the AFT’s meetings (along with the convention itself) were also geared in part to bolstering its presence (as well as that of UTLA and CFT) as a key player in Golden State education politics.
By the time Election Day rolls around, the AFT will have poured even more money into California just to keep its influence from declining. But there’s also a chance that Tuck will win — and that will be a blow to the union and its traditionalist allies everywhere.