EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – When a teachers union endorses candidates for a local school board race, voters often treat it with the same reverence shoppers give to the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

That might not be the case in Illinois’ Edwardsville School District #7.

The Edwardsville Education Association – the local teachers union – recently announced it had endorsed two challengers for the upcoming school board elections and none of the four incumbents, reports The Edwardsville Intelligencer.

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The union’s announcement led the four current board members – Greg Roosevelt, Dorothy Hummel, Brad Hewitt and Bob Perica – to do something very unusual: They issued a press release to draw attention to the EEA’s selfish financial motives for making the endorsements.

In their press release, the incumbents said they had “serious concerns with the Edwardsville teachers’ union’s unprecedented involvement in the upcoming board election,” and concluded “that the union is attempting to influence an election to acquire higher salaries and benefits for the teachers rather than collaborating with the board to find a solution to the funding issues that plague the state of Illinois,” according to the Intelligencer.

The quartet also noted that “the union leadership formed a Political Action Committee to fund and actively campaign for board candidates who support the union’s agenda,” according to the news site.

In the release, board member Bob Perica said it was “telling” that EEA leaders openly admitted in a letter to members that the union-endorsed candidates “will represent our interests while serving on the District 7 school board.”

Teacher union leaders aren’t accustomed to school board members calling them out for their greed and selfishness, which explains why EEA leaders seemed surprised and stung by the incumbent’s press release.

“These (union endorsed) candidates were not drafted to run for the board by the EEA,” union co-president Dave Boedeker told the Intelligencer.

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“If we make this election about the EEA’s motives for endorsing a candidate, we are losing sight of the real issues,” Boedeker added.

Current board President Greg Roosevelt clarified what the real issues were surrounding the April 9 election.

“The union leadership is not happy with the board’s decision to hold the line and freeze their salaries for the 2012-13 school year and to cap the district’s pension contribution for certified employees at 9.4 percent,” Roosevelt told the news site. “As a result, the union leadership is attempting to influence an election to acquire higher salary and benefits rather than collaborating with the board to find a solution to the funding issues that plague the State of Illinois.”

Seeing school board members publicly call out their teachers union for bald-faced greed is wonderfully refreshing. That’s especially true in the Big Labor friendly state of Illinois.

It will be interesting to see which side voters take in this highly unusual – and highly inspiring – tug-of-war between conscientious school leaders and the self-serving union leaders.