Teachers Union Gears Up Opposition To Amendment
After spending almost nothing on its campaign against an appointed board of education, the state teachers union dropped $86,000 on advertising in the first week of October, according to its latest financial disclosure report.
When Civil Beat asked in September, the Hawaii State Teachers Association said it didn’t have any official campaign literature on the proposed constitutional amendment that would replace an elected board with one selected by the governor. As of its previous , the union’s government relations committee had not reported spending any money on advertising during this election cycle.
All of that changed after Oct. 1, as if someone had flipped a switch. A few weeks after our inquiry, the union released an election pamphlet to its 13,000 members urging a “NO” vote on the ballot issue. And this shows HSTA spent at least $86,000 in October on its campaign to oppose the amendment:
- $67,830 for TV and radio advertisements
- $12,435 for a survey on the proposed amendment
- $6,100 on a member mailing
Other items on the expenditure report also could have been related to the “NO” campaign — like the $6,000 spent on member T-shirts on Oct. 1. And the Star-Advertiser’s print edition on Tuesday sported an advertisement, paid for by the HSTA Government Relations Committee, urging voters to “vote no.”
By contrast, those on the other side of the ballot issue began orchestrating an energetic “Vote YES For Our Kids” campaign in May and have been running TV and radio ads since before the primary election in September. Civil Beat reported on Monday that , the driving force behind the “Vote YES” campaign, has raised more than $500,000 this season.
