Shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but the NEA gives money to people doing good things.

There is not a whole lot of intelligence over at Mike Antonucci’s Education Intelligence Agency. The guy fancies himself a spy in the house of education unionism. Having met the guy while he was sitting at a lap top in the press section at an NEA convention a few years ago, if being slightly nerdy and self-important qualifies you as an intelligence operative, I guess he qualifies.

The hot news on his site (which you will have to google because I won’t link to it) is that the NEA gave $13 million dollars to “advocacy groups.”

Whoa! Get outta here!

Is that all!?

While the American Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s political action group were raising hundreds of millions of dollars to smack down public employees, our unions and other progressive organizations, we only gave $13 million.

Well, hell. I know we did better than that. Our political action fund, independent from our dues money, did pretty well in funding pro public education candidates.

If Antonucci, the spy master, thinks members are upset that we give money to such groups as the Asian American Justice Center, the Baptist Center for Ethics, the Tribal Education Departments National Assembly or the Women’s Campaign Forum, he’s confused.

Here’s the thing. I have my differences with my union leadership. Anyone who read this blog doesn’t need to be told. I have even been scrubbed from the various NEA websites after my recent criticisms of the Illinois leadership.

But do I have a problem with who the NEA gives my dues money to?

Only wish we could do more.

Shhh. Keep it under your hat.