OurVoice WEA, the Washington Education Association’s (WEA) political action arm, launched an “It’s Time!” campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness for a “big education rally on the steps of the state capitol in Olympia” next month.
The WEA provides bold red “Facebook icons” with phrases like “It’s TIME to pay for public education,” “It’s TIME for smaller class sizes,” “It’s TIME to fund our schools.” The WEA suggests supporters can use the icons on “car signs, stickers and postcards” to help spread the word. Noticeably, out of all the one-liners the WEA came up with, not one has anything to do with improving education outcomes for students.
It’s not so much the messages that are so ridiculous; it’s the fact that this particular messenger is delivering the messages. As Shift reported, the WEA’s I-1351 is an example of how the “it’s about the children” rhetoric is all too often used as a guise for the union to grasp more money. Unfortunately, WEA funded Democrat lawmakers are all too willing to bow to the union’s every whim.
Unlike the WEA and Democrats, Republicans in the state Senate have actually acted on the messages by, for example, re-prioritizing education over non-education spending at a 4:1 ratio for the first time in 30 years. So, in light of the facts, we’ve developed a bit more truthful messages for the WEA’s use.
