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

Kentucky

National Council on Teacher Quality Report Card: Kentucky 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: D

	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: D

	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: B

	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: F

	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
$ 76,250	Kentucky Education Assoc/kepac
$ 2,050	Louisville Professional Firefighters Political Education Cmte

(more)

In Kentucky, 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.

0.13%
experienced (3+ years)
teacher firing rate

5.08%
junior (less than 3 years)
teacher firing rate

9.8%
private school teacher firing rate (national)

Largest Non-Statewide Unions

Union Name / District	Affiliation	Total Rev.	Total Exp.	Total Assets
Jefferson County Association of Educators Jefferson County Public Schools	NEA	$ 210,020	$ 191,132	$ 45,290

Other Unions

Name	City	Total Rev.	Tax Period
Jefferson County Teachers Association	Louisville	$ 997,505	2003
American Federation Of Teachers	Frankfort	$ 404,838	2004
American Federation Of Teachers	Frankfort	$ 328,846	2004
Jefferson County Association Of Educational Support Personnel Inc	Louisville	$ 210,020	2001
Fayette County Education Association	Lexington	$ 94,410	2003
American Federation Of Teachers	Frankfort	$ 85,048	2003
American Federation Of Teachers	Frankfort	$ 84,883	2004

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.

Jefferson County Teachers Association: Protecting Bad Teachers

The Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) is the exclusive bargaining agent for teachers from the Jefferson County Public Schools district in Louisville, Kentucky. According to school district records, however, policies defended by the JCTA and its state union, the Kentucky Education Association (KEA), mean that practically no teachers are ever fired by the school system after they work for four years and thus acquire tenure (which is called a "continuing contract" in Kentucky).

In the Jefferson County Public Schools district there are approximately 4,105 teachers with tenure. Records procured by the district for the Center for Union Facts indicate that, between 2004 and 2007, only 12 tenured teachers were fired. Put another way, Jefferson County Public Schools fires about 0.07 percent of its tenured teachers annually.

It's easy to believe that the vast majority of Louisville's public schoolteachers are doing a good job, but it's a near-impossibility that fully 99.93 percent of its tenured teachers deserve to be in front of kids; any group of people that size is bound to have at least a few more bad apples than the ones noted above.

The best explanation for these numbers, in our opinion, is that the JCTA and its state affiliate are protecting bad teachers with an outmoded employment system. At the state level, the KEA safeguards the law that turns tenured teacher termination cases into equivalents of a criminal trial, and at the local level the JCTA helps bad teachers use this system to protect themselves.

Source: Jefferson County Public Schools
Data current as of November 16, 2007