By Kyle Olson, Special for USDR.
Since when did the effort to keep sexual predators away from children become a controversial issue?
When the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers decided to put collective bargaining and adult employee’s so-called rights ahead of child safety.
A bill in Congress – introduced by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and passed by a voice vote in that chamber – would require a background check for government school employment applicants and would bar those with certain serious felonies from being hired. The felonies? Murder, rape, spousal abuse, arson and kidnapping.
It would also “bar school districts and state agencies from transferring workers who have engaged in sexual misconduct with minors to another location,” according to the Associated Press.
It makes total sense, right?
Unfortunately a similar bill languishes in the Senate. Why? Because the Democrats control that chamber and certain Democrats (not all of them) are blocking the legislation. That’s because their party is largely funded and controlled by the national teachers unions, which oppose the legislation.
Now an extreme left think tank, Media Matters, is rushing to the defense of the unions and Senate Democrats who are keeping the bill from becoming law. It’s also attacking former CNN journalist Campbell Brown, who is openly calling for the unions to stop defending sexually abusive teachers.
Media Matters questioned Brown’s “possible” conflict of interest after she recently penned an op-ed in support of the bill in the Wall Street Journal. What is that conflict? Brown’s husband is apparently on the board of StudentsFirstNY, a group launched by former Washington, D.C. school chancellor and frequent union critic Michelle Rhee.
And?
That’s the only “conflict of interest” named – and it’s a “possible” one at that.
Media Matters is apparently so intellectually dishonest it will manufacture non-existent “conflicts of interest” to please its benefactors. The Education Intelligence Agency reported the NEA gave Media Matters $100,000 in 2011-12.
Suddenly, Media Matter’s attack on Campbell Brown makes more sense.
We’ve got some unsolicited advice for the people who run Media Matters. While they are clearly loyal to their sponsors, they might want to distance themselves a bit on this issue. It’s becoming more obvious to the public every day that the unions are responsible for getting a lot of pedophile teachers off the hook, and sometimes helping to place them in other teaching positions, just like the Catholic Church quietly transferred abusive priests from one parish to another.
This ugly issue is going to explode, and those who are responsible are eventually going to pay. It will be interesting to see if outfits like Media Matters will be willing to stand by the unions and share the heat as the truth continues to unfold.
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