It appears the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) have been providing free office space for years to the local branch of an organization with close ties to state and national, politically-active teacher unions.
Few people know that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Retired School Personnel Association (CMRSP) has an office inside the district’s Bishop Spaugh Administrative Center in Charlotte. Civitas contacted various officials within the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system by phone and email numerous times to determine if CMRSP paid rent for the space. As of yet, the only thing the district has confirmed is that CMRSP does occupy office space and the organization does not have a community use agreement with the district. Officials in the district’s budget office have also failed to respond to our requests for information.
The 750-member CMRSP seems like any other professional organization. It provides local school retirees a chance to stay in touch and keep informed about what’s going on in education. When you look a little closer, however, you quickly realize it isn’t just a social club for retirees. According to the organization’s web site,
CMRSP not only provides fellowship with retired colleagues, but also takes an active role in the state and the local community, working through local and district organizations to achieve mutual legislative and political action goals.
On the left side of CMRSP home page are links to organizations such as the National Education Association – Retired (NEA-R); North Carolina Association of Educators; and North Carolina Retired School Personnel, CMRSP’s parent organization.
NCRSP is not shy about advertising its ties to NCAE and NEA. The NCRSP web site says the organization is a division of NCAE. According to the organization’s web site, the purpose of NCRSP is:
To promote the social, economic, and professional status of retired school personnel.
To support the NCAE and the NEA in programs to advance the quality of education and promote the welfare of members.
To act on behalf of retired school personnel on problems involving their health, welfare, interests, and other needs.
To lobby the State General Assembly on legislation related to the State Retirement System and the State Health Plan.
To encourage members to actively influence state and federal legislators on legislation that impacts the quality of retirement living for members of the Division and other retirees.
To cooperate with the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), a division of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and other organizations of retired persons with common goals in promoting programs of mutual concern.
To encourage every member to find some avenue to volunteer.
NCRSP employs two registered lobbyists to work with the NC legislature on behalf of NCRSP members, who are essentially NCAE members. Tom Bennett, the NCRSP contact, 
has an office address of 700 Salisbury St, Raleigh — the same address as the North Carolina Association of Educators. Four of the email addresses listed under NCRSP have @ncae.org listings.
According to IRS form 990, NCRSP is a division of NCAE and last year had annual expenses of $317,000 and paid about $52,000 in annual salaries.
Providing rent-free office space to CMRSP, a group with its own political and legislative goals is tantamount to endorsing the politics and goals of that organization and viewed as inappropriate actions for schools or their administrative units.
If CMRSP is getting free office space, shouldn’t other organizations have equal access to the same benefits? That was the principle the legislature was seeking to uphold when it passed S.L. 2012-179, the Equal Access Act. The law prohibits a school, agency or administrative unit from giving “an education employee association preferential treatment, through procedures, policies, or any other means” or endorsing “one education employee association over another.”
If CMS is interested in obeying the law, it will either stop providing a rent-free space to CMRSP or provide rent-free space to other educational employee associations.
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