The National Education Association, the powerful teachers' union, is involved with a host of causes -- only one of which concerns the education of children, according to some observers.

The causes it champions range from "civil rights" and "human rights," to Social Security, voting reform and health care. In every case, the union's agenda is for bigger and more expensive government, experts say. The NEA has 2.2 million members and estimated 1993 annual revenues of $750 million.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution studied the group's 1994 legislative agenda and found:

• If all its policy recommendations were enacted, it would cost taxpayers and additional $702 billion a year and increase the size of government by nearly 40 percent.

• These plans would cost the average American family of four an extra $10,544 a year.

• The NEA gave Democrats 99 percent of its PAC money in 1994 -- nearly $2.27 million -- despite the fact that most of its members voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

• The average House candidate backed by the NEA in 1994 sought to raise federal spending by $302.2 billion a year, while the 53 incumbents NEA opposed would have cut spending an average of 822.6 billion a year.

Critics say the NEA is wandering far afield from its stated mission to advance education for children. They also note that it is vehemently opposed to privatizing education -- an educational reform which many hope will upgrade the quality of teaching in the nation's classrooms.