Indiana State Teachers Association Trust Fund Update

"No one receiving a check has missed a payment and because of this partnership, no one ever will," said ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger.

Rich Van Wyk: Eyewithness News June 8th,2009

It's an interesting story being reported but is it correct?

I believe it's correct to report "former ISTA president Nate Schnellenberger........" Ed Sullivan, NEA trustee is running the show these days and it's reported that his position is that there is no money. I don't think you can forgot that Mr. Schnellenberger was both the ISTA president and a director of the failed insurance trust.

Perhaps wthr.com incorrectly posted an old story and was quoting Mr. Schnellenberger before NEA put the local in trusteeship. We would hope that Mr. Schnellenberger, not Mr. Sullivan, is correct.

Good news: the story also reports that the thousands of teachers, covered by the health insurance arm of the trust, will continue to receive their health care benefits.

I have a personal observation. This story is almost a month old and seems to be little reported even in Indiana. My local newspaper, the Denver Post, has not covered it at all. The ISTA trust failure coupled with the Department of Labor Multi-employer Critical and Endangered Pension list (note: ISTA was not listed as critical or endangered) seems to be a problem could effect hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans.

This is one tiny blog and we can see a problem. Is this just Chicken Little running around "The sky is falling" or a serious problem that needs to be addressed? Where is the news coverage? Where is the Obama administration and Secretary Solis? Is Congress too busy working on the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act to notice pensions are endangered? Most importantly, where is Big Labor?

It's a union and American problem - Address the problem!