Posts tagged liability insurance
Illinois teachers can opt out of unions in August. Here’s why they should.
July 30, 2025 // Just 15% to 26% of Illinois teachers union spending was on representing teachers in 2024. But public education employees can opt out of union membership and keep their hard-earned money.
Commentary: Teachers Need to Ditch Their Union
April 16, 2025 // The California Teachers Association, which considers itself “the co-equal fourth branch of government,” per former Democratic State Senate leader Dom Perata, is no better. As the Freedom Foundation notes, the union reports its political expenditures under three separate filings: The Issues Political Action Committee (PAC); The Association for Better Citizenship (ABC); and, The Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC).
UTAH, Opinion: Republicans Need to Learn Government Unions Can’t Be Trusted
March 3, 2025 // On Feb. 14, Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law I sponsored banning public-sector collective bargaining. This makes Utah the best state in the nation for protecting taxpayers and ensuring that government employees can negotiate their own employment terms. But this victory came only after fruitless attempts to work with government unions—efforts that exposed their pattern of saying one thing while doing another. In early 2024, I introduced a bill that would have required public-sector unions to hold regular recertification elections. As I argued at the time, unions representing teachers, firefighters and police should have to prove continuously that they represent a majority of workers. Taxpayers, too, have a stake: If a union doesn’t speak for most employees, why should the rest of the state be on the hook for its demands?
Opinion: Utah is leading the nation by prioritizing worker freedom
February 21, 2025 // Despite the rhetoric, government unions will still exist in Utah and public employees can still choose to join them. Workers who agree with union spending can support their unions wholeheartedly, while those who do not are free to decline membership and can negotiate their job requirements directly with their employer. The difference now is that these unions will no longer have a monopoly in representing public employees, including Utah public employees who did not want the representation in the first place.
Back to school, back to the union? Commentary
September 9, 2024 // Union membership is a personal decision, and for a variety of reasons, thousands of Minnesota educators across the state have said no thanks to what the union is prioritizing. Just as educators encourage their students to be independent thinkers and hold true to themselves, so too should educators be trusted by their colleagues to make decisions that are best for them and their families. The right to say “no” to union membership is just as important as the right to say “yes” to it — but educators first need to know they actually do have a choice. And it’s important that respect exists for that choice.
NEA, IEA SPEND LITTLE ON REPRESENTING TEACHERS, BUT PRIORITIZE POLITICS
July 26, 2023 // Illinois teachers concerned about how NEA and IEA spend their hard-earned money have options. They can stop paying dues by opting out of union membership yet maintain all of the raises and other benefits their employers provide. Other professional organizations can provide liability insurance and job protection coverage, often at a fraction of the price of union membership. Less than 8% of NEA and IEA’s combined spending was on representing teachers in 2022 NEA and IEA spent a combined $659 million in 2022, according to the unions’ LM-2s, which are reporting documents the unions filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. $2.5 million to For our Future Action Fund, which claims to “build progressive power” $500,000 to Building Back Together, the organization “advanc[ing] the policy agenda of the Biden-Harris Administration” $450,000 to Strategic Victory Fund, which seeks to build “the infrastructure needed to build long-term progressive agendas and issue advocacy in states” $395,000 to Chicago-based Midwest Academy, a training organization that claims “empowering progressive organizers is our mission” $300,000 to America Votes, the “coordination hub of the progressive community” $270,000 to Democracy Alliance, an organization seeking to “advance progressive policy reforms” $225,000 to State Innovation Exchange, which equips legislators to “move bold, progressive public policy” $150,000 to Progressive Caucus Action Fund, which publishes a “progressive playbook”