When the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) commits tens of thousands of dollars to a cause, it usually gets results. But not always. Even WEAC - the state's largest teacher union - can come up empty, sort of like an oil company that drills a dry hole.

Consider the Wisconsin Research Center (WRC), a tax-subsidized group described in this column on February 20.

WRC was created mainly with WEAC's support for "monitoring the political activities of the Right Wing and its religious arm in Wisconsin." It has a dubious four-year history.

In apparent violation of state law, WRC failed until last year to register as an organization authorized to solicit charitable donations. It filed misleading information with the Internal Revenue Service to obtain its coveted tax-exempt status as a non-political entity. It has shifted some costs to the budget of another group, letting it skirt state and federal rules on public dislosure of expenditures.

And, perhaps most troubling to WEAC, despite nearly four years of operation, estimated expenditures of more than $100,000, and a statewide network of "monitors" who feed its Milwaukee database, WRC's main activity is a bust. Its amateur- hour newsletter - called "your information clearinghouse on extreme right-wing political activity in Wisconsin" - is generally disregarded.

This is probably not what WRC President Bob Friebert and WEAC political director Gail Gonzalez had in mind for WRC. Friebert worked with Gonzalez to get WRC up and running in 1994.

Friebert signed WRC's articles of incorporation, filed December 23, 1994, and its application for federal tax exempt status, filed with the Internal Revenue Service on February 20, 1995. These documents pledge WRC to a non-political agenda of promoting "tolerance and understanding." The group's activities show otherwise.

A week before Friebert filed WRC's application with the IRS, WRC executive director Susan Matulis sent a letter to supporters. "As the spring elections approach (April 4)," wrote Matulis, "it is important that you get to know the positions of your local candidates, especially those running for school boards." Matulis alerted her readers to "a list of terms that religious right candidates. . .use" and asks WRC monitors to "send in any information on candidates that use these phrases. . ."

Why would WRC "especially" want information on school board races? Because the group's purpose is to label as "extremists" those who don't support WEAC's education agenda. This became clear just three days after Friebert sought tax-exempt, non-political status for WRC in filings with the IRS.

On February 23, 1995, WEAC's Gonzalez spoke on "Identifying the Extremists" before a Wisconsin branch of the American Association of University Women. A promotional piece noted that Gonzalez had 20 years of experience in "political campaigns" and would discuss "the philosopies of some organizations and individuals that are disruptive to furthering the goals of public education." At the event itself, she showed a video on "radical right" political activities prepared by the National Education Association, WEAC's national affiliate. Gonzalez circulated a list of "buzzwords" that "may be used by the Right" and "names of some [right-wing] groups active in Wisconsin." Gonzalez then recruited volunteers who would be active in notifyingWRC of "right-wing political activities."

In other words, WRC was a sham, created mainly with WEAC's support, to criticize political candidates and others with whom WEAC might disagree. The theory was that such criticism would be more effective if it came from a "non-political" group of citizens concerned with "tolerance and understanding."

A frequent WRC target is Leah Vukmir, a nurse practitioner and parent of two children who lives in Wauwatosa. WRC repeatedly uses its newsletter to attack Vukmir for - surprise - "right-wing" activities.

Why go after Vukmir? Because, to the dismay of WEAC, she has achieved national visibility and respect for her views on educational issues, views which often differ with the teachers' union.

Especially troubling to WEAC is that Vukmir gets favorable recognition from mainstream and even left-of-center publications. The January, 1997 edition of Working Mother featured Vukmir and other parents who seek to have more influence on local school policies. Working Mother is part of a publishing triad that includes Ms. Magazine and Working Woman.

In March of 1997, a decidedly mainstream publication, Education Week, published a lengthy story on Vukmir and other parents, calling them "Educated Consumers." It explained why the likes of Vukmir make WEAC and the educational establishment nervous: "Meet some parents with an attitude. They shop for schools they way the shop for minivans, demanding solid information and plenty of it."

Gonzalez and others at WEAC must have groaned when, a month later, Education Week put Vukmir on a national panel of experts on education issues. Other panelists included WEAC's national president, Robert Chase, Senator Edward Kennedy, Harvard's Gary Orfield, and the San Francisco Superintedent of Schools, Bill Rojas.

The WRC attack on citizens such as Vukmir reveals the group's ineptness. Far from marginalizing Vukmir, she is increasingly recognized in Madison and nationally as an informed participant in the educational debate. She founded an organization which now has more than 1,000 members. It holds an annual meeting which is widely reported. The group has a well-designed internet site. So, when legislators see repeated attacks on Vukmir by the WEAC-spawned WRC, who looks foolish?

State and federal regulators are looking into a number of questions. How much of WRC's money has come from WEAC or its affiliates? Did WRC violate state law by raising tax-exempt funds without registering in 1995 and 1996? Did WRC violate the federal prohibition on political activities by not disclosing that it would a "clearinghouse on extreme right-wing political activity" and also monitor local school elections? Did WRC improperly shift some of its costs to the budget of the Institute for Wisconsin's Future? Did that shift let WRC skirt state and federal expenditure reporting rules?

The real question might be: when will WEAC cap this dry hole and try to dig up some dirt elsewhere?

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