Concerned about Education?

[Adam's Apple]

Why Target Wal-Mart?
By Michael Reitz, The Boston Globe
August 16, 2005

Why would the NEA, an organization whose stated mission is to ''promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education," care about where parents buy pencils and backpacks?

for entire article:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/16/why_target_walmart.htm

If url does not work, go to http://www.realclearpolitics.com and read the article there.

 

[Shattered]

Neither of your links work. One goes nowhere, the other you must create an account and become a member.. So, here's the story dug up from elsewhere:

<i> Posted on Wed, Aug. 10, 2005
M O R E N E W S F R O M topix.net
• Education
• Retail
• School Vouchers
• Wal Mart Stores

Teachers unions target Wal-Mart

COMPANY ALLEGEDLY UNDERMINES PUBLIC EDUCATION

By Chuck Carroll

Mercury News

Members of teachers' unions from San Jose and across the country launched a campaign today urging consumers not to buy their back-to-school supplies at Wal-Mart, accusing the country's biggest retailer of anti-education policies.

In San Jose, members of the National Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association were joined by Democratic state Assembly members Joe Coto and Sally Lieber at Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School -- just down the road from a Wal-Mart on Story Road.

<b>About 20 teachers handed out ``report cards'' to reporters that gave Arkansas-based Wal-Mart failing grades for allegedly paying low wages, failing to provide affordable health care, discriminating against women, violating child labor laws and shifting more than $2.5 billion a year in health care and welfare costs for its underpaid and underinsured workers to U.S. taxpayers.</b>

Coto, D-San Jose, said if enough people heed the call to buy their back-to-school supplies elsewhere in the next few weeks, Wal-Mart will feel the pinch.

``It's important for us to let them know the damage that they do,'' he said.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Lin responded today that its customers would see through the campaign's ``publicity stunt,'' and recognize it as a ``smear campaign'' against a company with an ``unshakable commitment to education.''

Wal-Mart is the largest publicly traded company in the world.

Don Dawson, a math teacher at Silver Creek High School in San Jose, said the Walton Family Foundation -- run by the heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart -- has spent about $250 million in the past six years promoting the school-voucher movement and lobbying for tax credits for parents who send their kids to private schools.

Public education advocates are staunchly oppose such changes, saying they will drain funds from public schools that, in California, already rank near the bottom in per-pupil funding.

``You don't solve problems in public education by taking money away,'' Dawson said. ``We can't afford to go backward.''

To Coto, the former superintendent of the East Side Union High School District, Wal-Mart's wage and benefits policies mean too many kids are going to school hungry and with undiagnosed or untreated health problems that make it more difficult to for them learn.

Similar news conferences were scheduled in 33 other cities and in 24 states. Consumers were urged to log onto www.wakeupwalmart.com to find out more about the campaign. The ``Send Wal-Mart Back to School'' campaign was started by the United Food and Commercial Workers union and is backed by the teachers unions, which claim about 3 million members.

Wal-Mart strongly denied being anti-education. ''This year alone in the state of California, we have given over $200,000 to honor teachers of the year in our communities, and we have given scholarships to 347 high school seniors, for a total of over $350,000,'' said spokeswoman Lin.

''Through low prices -- like 25-cent crayons -- and substantial support for local education, students are our priority, not politics. Isn't it time the teachers' unions do the same?''

Wal-Mart said it gave more than $45 million to education initiatives last year, including scholarships and grants to public school teachers. ``We continue to be one of the nation's largest supporters of teachers and education.''

Wal-Mart said interested teachers and customers should go to www.walmartfacts.com to see how it supports education.

At the nearest Wal-Mart to the San Jose school, the store on Story Road, two customers said they hadn't heard the complaints about Wal-Mart's policies before today.

Marycruz Villagomez, a mother with children in public school, said she had been planning to do her back-to-school shopping at Wal-Mart because the price is right. After she heard about the numbers behind the anywhere-but-Wal-Mart campaign, she wavered. ``I'm thinking here,'' she said, pointing to Wal-Mart, ``but maybe I'm going to change my mind.''

Villagomez said she might go to an office supply store that's offering a percentage of its profits on school supplies to a school of the customer's choice.

Frances Delgado, a mother of four school-age children, was more skeptical. ``I don't believe everything I hear," she said, adding that she had no intention of shopping somewhere else.

``Sometimes whoever has the lowest prices is what's best, and right now, Wal-Mart has the best prices.''</i>

Sounds like nothing more than the tripe that was posted by you against Wal-Mart last time.. Low benefits, bad healthcare..

Again, WTH do you want for someone doing a job that requires no skills, social, or otherwise?

 

[Mr. P]

Here's why the NEA is involved.

Don Dawson, a math teacher at Silver Creek High School in San Jose, said the Walton Family Foundation -- run by the heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart -- has spent about $250 million in the past six years promoting the school-voucher movement and lobbying for tax credits for parents who send their kids to private schools.

They (the Union) hate you MAY have choice. They know you will NOT choose a failing school so their jobs are on the line.


Who started all this.....and Why...

The ``Send Wal-Mart Back to School'' campaign was started by the United Food and Commercial Workers union

You don't think they would like a slice of the largest publicly traded company in the world. Do you?
Bet yer ass they do! What better way than to unionize em, HUH?
Can't do that, then try an damage the business....MORONS!!!

Do I care for Walmart? Not really, but I CAN'T STAND UNIONS!

 

[Adam's Apple]

Neither of your links work. One goes nowhere, the other you must create an account and become a member..

Sorry you had so much trouble with this one. Thanks for finding another source. I had some problems with the Boston Globe url, but I accidentally sent the article to the board before I was able to get the problem solved. I have no problem accessing the article from my computer by using the Real Clear Politics url (http://www.realclearpolitics.com).

 

[alien21010]

Here's why the NEA is involved.
They (the Union) hate you MAY have choice. They know you will NOT choose a failing school so their jobs are on the line.


Who started all this.....and Why...
You don't think they would like a slice of the largest publicly traded company in the world. Do you?
Bet yer ass they do! What better way than to unionize em, HUH?
Can't do that, then try an damage the business....MORONS!!!

Do I care for Walmart? Not really, but I CAN'T STAND UNIONS!

UFCW is making themselves more obsolete every day... (From a former union member). Unions are obsolete, and just waste money in the form of elusive benefits, that they can no longer produce on. I like how UFCW spent millions on the protests last year, just to settle for the same contract they were offered a few months earlier. My disillusionment with unions is complete.