By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

BOISE, Idaho – Idaho’s teacher unions are crying foul over the creation of two nonprofit organizations that allow education reformers to make anonymous political contributions to the campaign to keep the state’s new “Students Come First” K-12 laws.

Former State Rep. Debbie Field, who oversees the new nonprofit organizations, said some supporters seek anonymity in order to avoid retaliation from overzealous union supporters.

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“They will give if they feel like they can give anonymously to a place that will support education, but they don’t want to be maligned,” Field told the Spokesman-Review.

Field said “there’s been so much intimidation from the other side” that some teachers “have been fearful of coming out.”

“That’s just preposterous,” responded state Rep. Brian Cronin, who serves as the spokesman for the anti-reform campaign which is being heavily funded by the National Education Association.

(Yes, you read that correctly – he’s both a lawmaker and a paid mouthpiece for the teachers union.)

Cronin said teachers respect the people of their communities and would never try to intimidate them.

Obviously Cronin’s memory is failing him. There have been numerous instances of teacher union supporters lashing out at their political opponents, even in neighborly Idaho.

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Just last year, when the “Students Come First” laws were being debated by lawmakers, Idaho State Superintendent Tom Luna’s vehicle was spray-painted and its tires were slashed. Worse, his elderly mother was accosted at home. Authorities suspect union sympathizers were the culprits.

Over in Wisconsin, some union supporters became so fanatical during last year’s brouhaha over collective bargaining reform that they sent letters to business owners, warning them to put pro-union signs in their store windows or face a possible boycott.

In California, a group of out-of-control leftists found their way to the home of a school superintendent, where they engaged in loud and angry protests on his front lawn.

Cronin may have forgotten about these incidents, but many education reformers have not.  That’s why they want to quietly contribute to a cause they believe in, without putting themselves or their families in harm’s way.

Who could possibly blame them for that?