Tacoma News Tribune
Editorial, March 3^rd, 1998

No excusing WEA election violations

It's embarrassing to get caught with your hands in the cookie jar- and downright humiliating to get caught by a political enemy who delights in your exposure. Such has been the fate of the Washington Education Association.

In 1996, the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation accused the WEA of diverting mandatory dues to its political action committee without properly reporting the transaction and without the permission of teachers who paid the dues�

They're [WEA] still complaining about the "mean-spirited" Evergreen Freedom Foundation� But the foundation's unfriendliness hardly excuses the WEA in what looks suspiciously like an artful circumvention of Washington's campaign finance laws. Organizations as well-funded and sophisticated as the WEA and the NEA can reasonably be expected to collect and report their political money legally�

Honest people may debate the details of campaign finance reform, but virtually everyone agrees that full disclosure of major contributors is the sine qua non of an honest election. In light of last week's settlement, the WEA's legislative allies should have the decency to stop trotting out the 1996 returns as an argument against charter school legislation.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org

Quotables:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." - John Stuart Mill