When an organization uses its money and political clout to extract money from others, that is corruption.

There is a corporate organization, based in the state of Maine, that gets its revenues from taxes.

It gives huge amounts of money, and the time of its employees and members, to one of the major political parties. Because of this money, and because of the political clout it brings, the corporate organization gets a monopoly on supplying a necessity.

It recently got a 20 percent increase in revenues, in the name of paying new members more, through the Democrat-controlled state legislature. Gov. Baldacci signed it into law.

Cianbro? Central Maine Power?

No.

The Maine Education Association. The MEA.

The monopoly power of the MEA has led to a form of corruption called rent-seeking.

Rent-seeking is the extraction of uncompensated value from others without taking actions which improve productivity. Rent-seeking stems from a special monopoly privilege, namely government protection against competition.

We do not ordinarily think of a union, especially a teacher’s union, as being a force for corruption, but when a monopolistic organization uses its money and political clout to extract money from others, that is corruption.

It cannot be argued that the MEA has taken effective action to improve the productivity or quality of our schools. Over the last several decades, despite quantum growth in expenditures for schools, the quality of our average high school graduate in Maine has declined, and the infrastructure to serve them is crumbling.

I believe in the teachers of our school systems. They do amazing work, against huge negative tides of cultural and bureaucratic influences. This increase did not come from them.

But, their union, the MEA, has used its political money and influence to extract wage increases without open, direct and transparent negotiations with individual school boards or localities, and without offering any effective ideas to improve the quality of Maine’s students.

That is corruption, not democracy. It directly harms the students, parents and teachers who serve them.

The law recently signed by John Baldacci and (narrowly) passed by the Maine Legislature should be repealed.

L.E. Dwight Jr. is president and chief investment officer of Dwight Investment Counsel, a Register Investment Advisor with more than 20 years experience in investment and economic analysis.