Obama Admin Is Making World Safe From Rapacious Piano Teachers
Government's long, meddling fingers have reached a piano teachers' association, writes Kimberly Strassel in the WSJ:
In March of this year, a small nonprofit in Cincinnati--the Music Teachers National Association--received a letter from the FTC. The agency was investigating whether the association was engaged in, uh, anticompetitive practices.This was bizarre, given that the MTNA has existed since 1876 solely to advance the cause of music study and support music teachers. The 501(c)(3) has about 22,000 members, nearly 90% of them piano teachers, including many women who earn a modest living giving lessons in their homes. The group promotes music study and competitions and helps train teachers. Not exactly U.S. Steel. X +1.04%
The association's sin, according to the feds, rested in its code of ethics. The code lays out ideals for members to follow--a commitment to students, colleagues, society. Tucked into this worthy document was a provision calling on teachers to respect their colleagues' studios, and not actively recruit students from other teachers.
That's a common enough provision among professional organizations (doctors, lawyers), yet the FTC avers that the suggestion that Miss Sally not poach students from Miss Lucy was an attempt to raise prices for piano lessons. Given that the average lesson runs around $30 an hour, and that some devoted teachers still give lessons for $5 a pop, this is patently absurd.
MTNA Executive Director Gary Ingle, who has been at the organization 17 years--and who agreed to talk when I reached out about this case--said that he and the group's attorneys immediately flew to Washington to talk to federal investigators. They explained that this provision had been in the group's code for years, and that it was purely aspirational. The association has never enforced its code, and no member has been removed as a result of it.
The FTC didn't care. Nor did it blink when the MTNA pointed out that the agency has no real authority over nonprofits (it is largely limited to going after sham organizations) and that Congress has never acted on the FTA's requests for more control over 501(c)3 groups. Nor was the agency moved by the group's offer to immediately excise the provision. The investigation would continue.
With a dozen employees and a $2 million budget, the group doesn't have "the resources to fight the federal government," Mr. Ingle says. The board immediately removed the provision from its code, but the MTNA staff still had to devote months compiling thousands of documents demanded by the agency, some going back 20 years.
I don't see a link to the original story?
In any case, what would have happened if they had just ignored the FTC? Told them to take a flying leap off a tall cliff? Really, as the excerpt points out, there is a certain lack of jurisdiction here.
a_random_guy at November 29, 2013 9:40 AM
You can find it here, arg, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579224251626379422, and I for one am pleased my many letters to the FTC have finally paid off in this matter.
Government can work!
jerry at November 29, 2013 11:07 AM
This is ridiculous. They should be going after the lemonade stand cartel and those gypsy car washes that appear every weekend w/ child laborers that claim to be high school athletes and cheer leaders!
norman at November 29, 2013 1:04 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/11/29/obama_admin_is.html#comment-4085125">comment from a_random_guySo sorry - posted the link and regret leaving it out initially!
Amy Alkon at November 29, 2013 1:12 PM
If the FTC didn't investigate this type of insidious behavior; can you imagine where it might lead? Young girls might start going door to door to sell cookies!
Jay at November 30, 2013 8:32 AM
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