Nonpartisan? I don't think so

The Boston Globe allowed an op-ed column to be printed without fully checking the background of the organization providing the opinion. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation published a reply to a new campaign where the National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher's union, has encouraged parents to avoid shopping for back-to-school items at Wal-Mart because of the retailer's employment policies, which pay employees so poorly that they must access public health programs for which we all pay higher prices.

The Washington Education Association has also been advocating to its members that they avoid shopping at Wal-Mart for its employment practices.

But the issue here is that the Globe called EFF a "nonpartisan, public policy research organization based in Olympia". That is about the funniest line I've read in a while. The EFF is a grouyp whose activities have been to splinter the WEA's membership, to engage the union in litigation to force the union to spend its resources in defense, to criticize the overworked and underpaid public school teachers, and to advocate loudly for school reforms -- namely charter schools -- that Washington voters voted down three times. The last item was also heavily funded with out-of-state money from a certain family based in Bentonville, Ark., the Waltons, owners of Wal-Mart.

So now, EFF comes to defend its patron. They call it ironic that NEA is for choice here but not in educational reform. EFF, check yourself in a mirror. The NEA and WEA are contributing to a robust public policy debate, a debate that could lead to better situations for its members and therefore all our kids.

The Globe has issued a correction, which it should have. A reader of the Romanesko column from the Poynter Institute posted a great letter asking some of the questions that the Globe should have asked before printing this piece. Let us all pass the word that EFF is anything but "nonpartisan" and its "research" is questionable.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.