The inabilty of the state Legislature to pass a budget on time reflects well on no one.

And if both Democrats and Republicans come out of the annual budget stalemate looking more political than anything approaching statesmanship, those trying to gain advantage out of the crippled budget process come out looking even worse.

Take the California Teachers Assocation, which has been running TV ads the past few weeks urging viewers to support the CTA's push for a "nonpartisan" approach to state funding for public schools.

Which sounds very statesmanlike -- until you consider the messenger.

The CTA after all, is the parent group for teachers union locals like the Vista Teachers Assocation, Escondido Elementary Educators Association, San Marcos Educators' Association and San Dieguito Faculty Association.

The VTA and EEEA, in particular, have been key players in fomenting dissension in our local school districts in recent years.

In the early 1990s, the VTA was one of the main organizers of a recall drive against two Vista Unified School District board members. The VTA (along with other recall proponents) ran one of the nastiest campaigns in local history, demonizing the two board members for their conservative Christian beliefs -- even though neither had done anything in terms of proposing creationism in the science curriculum, as they were accused of.

It's a campaign from which, more than a decade later, the district has yet to recover.

In the late '90s, the EEEA helped lead an equally nasty campaign against Escondido Union School District board member Deborah Beaghler.

And while the CTA TV ads offer a soothing series of sound bites designed to convince us that the teachers union only wants what's best for our children, the truth is that both the VTA recall and the anti-Beaghler campaign in Escondido were really about money.

Specifically, raises for teachers.

The VTA didn't give a rat's patoot about a "Christian right" takeover of a school district (which never happened, anyway).

Rather, school trustees John Tyndall and Joyce Lee were targeted for recall because they had asked the very sensible question of whether the district could afford to grant the teachers across-the-board raises every couple of years, on top of the built-in step raises each teacher already gets year to year as they gain experience on the job.

Beaghler, too, was targeted because she questioned the financial wisdom of devoting a larger and larger percentage of the district's total budget to teachers' salaries each time a new contract is negotiated.

Nonpartisan the CTA and its local chapters may be, but that nonpartisanship is most certainly not utilized in pursuit of educational excellence for our children.

The CTA is a union, and the sole purpose of any union is to further the leverage of its members in gaining better compensation.

Which is fine, and perhaps even nonpartisan.

But TV ads to the contrary, the CTS and its local affiliates don't give a darn about the education our children are getting -- past behavior proves that.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at jtrageser@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5408.