Welcome

I suspect that many North Carolinians do not know that state law enables particular special-interest organizations to deduct dues from their members directly from their paychecks. This week, I discuss whether payroll deduction is desirable and fair, as well as recent developments in other states.

Bulletin Board

  • Early April marks a major milestone for college-bound high school seniors: the end of a long college search. That task may be easier in the future, thanks to a new web site created by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. NC College Finder (nccollegefinder.org) provides a wide range of information on 54 accredited four-year universities in the state. Some of the information on the site is to be expected, such as tuition, acceptance rates, the SAT scores and GPAs of incoming freshmen, student/faculty ratios and graduation rates, but a lot of it is distinctly different. The site includes measures of academic quality and the political and intellectual climate at each school. For example, it reports on the political balance of professors. It also provides information on the extent to which students can exercise free speech and the level of student political involvement. Students can also find information schools might not want to publicize, like the average starting salary and student debt of each school’s graduates. The College Finder database was compiled from a variety of sources. Some data come from the colleges themselves, but other sources include the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the College Board, the U.S. Department of Education, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Payscale.com, and the Project on Student Debt.

  • On Thursday, April 14, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools and the Civitas Institute of Raleigh are sponsoring a half-day education budget seminar. The seminar is open to school board members and school leaders throughout North Carolina and will be focused exclusively on current budget problems and strategies for addressing these challenges. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Schools Training Building (4801 Bethania Station Road, Winston-Salem, NC) will be the training site. Registration for the event is $30.00 and includes lunch. After April 7, registration will be $40.00. Register online at www.nccivitas.org/events or by calling 919-834-2099.

  • The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/edu_corner for further information.

  • You will find wisdom, knowledge, and purpose at our research newsletter archive.

CommenTerry

Are you familiar with North Carolina General Statute 143B-426.40A(g)? Buried deep within the Executive Organization Act of 1973 is this little doozy of a statute,

Payroll Deduction for Payments to Certain Employees’ Associations Allowed. — An employee of the State or any of its political subdivisions, institutions, departments, bureaus, agencies or commissions, or any of its local boards of education or community colleges, who is a member of a domiciled employees’ association that has at least 2,000 members, 500 of whom are employees of the State, a political subdivision of the State, or public school employees, may authorize, in writing, the periodic deduction each payroll period from the employee’s salary or wages a designated lump sum to be paid to the employees’ association.

In the case of the North Carolina Association of Educators (just to choose an example off the top of my head), local affiliates set fees and coordinate payroll deduction from members’ paychecks. These deductions flow conveniently from employee to association during each pay period. Once a member joins NCAE and elects to have the school district funnel payment through payroll deduction (cash and credit card payment also accepted), she becomes a member of the NCAE, as well as the National Education Association (NEA) teachers union. Coincidentally, these dues put a dent in the wallets of their members. (For additional information on dues, see Facts and Stats below.)

Of course, I do not care how public school employees or anyone else chooses to spend their money. I’m not a liberal. Rather, I object to statutes that carve out privileges and exceptions for special-interest groups (and corporations, for that matter). If legislators allow education associations to collect dues via payroll deduction, why shouldn’t they allow other organizations to do so? Indeed, allow our public school employees to divert any part of their income to any political, social, or humanitarian organization that they want to support.

There are other ways to level the playing field. Legislators could prohibit the use of school district resources to arrange payroll deductions for any employee association or even eliminate the statute altogether. State legislators in Florida are debating a bill that would take the latter approach. Yet the courts have been sympathetic to education associations who have had their payroll deductions eliminated by state legislators. Last week, the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta overturned an Alabama law that would have banned payroll deductions for members of the Alabama Education Association (AEA). The AEA argued that ban violated free speech and equal protection provisions guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. They also complained that the law was vague, unfair, and cost the organization millions of dollars and thousands of members. If faced with a similar predicament, North Carolina organizations that use payroll deduction to fill their coffers would make similar claims.

My view is straightforward. If an employee feels strongly about regularly supporting a cause, they should arrange for the organization automatically to withdraw the funds from a personal checking account or request that they charge a credit or debit card on a monthly basis. In this way, we can further separate public institutions from the private affairs of public employees.

Random Thought

Who should the Pittsburgh Steelers should draft in the first round of the upcoming NFL draft? Do you choose the best player available at the time, say a running back like Mark Ingram? Or do you fill a need at cornerback or on the offensive or defensive line? Regardless, the front office will need to begin thinking about drafting a kid that can develop into, at minimum, a solid backup quarterback. The Steelers will also need to draft a kicker in one of the late rounds, preferably one that does not destroy public restrooms or get into bar fights.

Facts and Stats

According to the NEA membership website, a full-time active professional member of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) would pay $415 in state and national dues for the 2011-12 membership year. This includes $178 in NEA union dues and $237 in NCAE dues. Local affiliate dues vary. Wake County’s yearly dues add around $86 to the total, while Buncombe County’s NCAE affiliate charges $55 a year. So in the case of a full-time teacher, total membership dues range from $415 to over $500 a year.

Members may also add an optional $40.00 contribution to the NCAE-PAC/NC Foundation. Dues are not refundable.

Mailbag

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].

Education Acronym of the Week

EAW — Education Acronym of the Week

Quote of the Week

"It is well-recognized that if you take away the mechanism of payroll deduction you won’t collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has a lot to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers… [They] simply don’t come up with the money regardless of the purpose."
— Former NEA general counsel Robert Chanin, 1978

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