Information Alert: VEA-NEA says "I Do" to Same Sex Unions

Victoria Cobb, President
Thursday, July 9, 2009

According to its website, the Virginia Education Association (VEA) delegation to the National Education Association’s national convention earlier this month tackled issues like “reducing the dropout rates, properly managing charter schools, controlling infectious diseases in schools, providing resources for boosting teacher quality, protecting substitute teachers, and expanding opportunities for preschool education.”

What the site doesn’t talk about is another issue that the delegation voted to endorse – a resolution supporting national and state efforts to enact same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partner benefits.

Apparently, when the leaders of the Virginia delegation were asked to support a resolution that took no position on same-sex marriage issues, they refused, saying that teachers in Virginia know the issues the VEA is involved with and supports them.

So as of now, every public school teacher in Virginia who is a member of the Virginia Education Association is sending money to an effort to bring same-sex marriage to our nation and our Commonwealth, despite the clear decision by the voters of Virginia to protect marriage.

This comes on top of a long history of extremist liberal advocacy. Just last fall the VEA made the news because it urged teachers to participate in “Obama Blue Day” and encouraged voting age students to vote for Barack Obama for president.

It does not have to be this way. Pro-family teachers in Virginia have an alternative that provides similar resources as the VEA – some even better – without the political baggage. The Virginia Professional Educators offers even better insurance policies and other benefits without supporting liberal causes and candidates (or any cause or candidates for that matter). If you are a teacher who feels forced to be part of the VEA I urge you to check out the VPE.

The only way to ensure that the VEA is unsuccessful is to defund it. In several states, alternative teacher organizations affiliated with VPE have more members than that state’s NEA branch. As long as teachers continue to send dues to the VEA, they will hire the forty plus lobbyists they send to Richmond every session, not to advocate for better education, but to undermine school choice efforts, push for higher taxes, and seek to promote abortion and destroy marriage.

If you are a teacher, I emplore you to either demand that the VEA cease to advocate for these extreme causes or join an alternative organization.