Posts tagged public education
Study shows how Missouri taxpayers are subsidizing teachers’ unions
March 13, 2025 // While it may not sound controversial, Straka explains the reality is that “union participation in NEOs [new employee orientations] is designed to pressure employees into joining the union, contributing to union political funds, and inculcating pro-union sentiment among employees.” “All of these meetings take place during work hours at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continues. “Missouri lawmakers should ensure that no teacher or public school employee is required by their employer to attend union events, listen to a union sales pitch, or otherwise interact with a union against their will.
The Freedom Foundation creates teachers’ union alternative
March 10, 2025 // “Public employees are leaving their unions in record numbers, frustrated by the funding of radical agendas driven by union bosses,” Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe said in a news release. “The Teacher Freedom Alliance offers an alternative for pro-America educators who seek to restore traditional values in the classroom and provide students with the high-quality education they deserve– free from political influence and union control.”
Commentary: Biden Values Public Unions Above Public Service
December 12, 2024 // “It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people,” he said. “The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.” Yet it never happened. The White House issued various directives, and every political appointee I know was routinely in the office . But despite this widespread discontent among his own appointees, Biden never got the workers back. One reason is that civil servants overwhelmingly view the return-to-office push as a bad-faith political stunt designed to assuage critics in Congress or provide economic benefits to cities. The belief that regular presence in an office is beneficial, expressed by many managers in the private sector, doesn’t have much traction.
Union leaders come together for Harris
October 21, 2024 // Some of the nation's largest unions are launching a new get-out-the-vote effort to support Vice President Harris. AFCME President Lee Saunders and AFT President Randi Weingarten join The Weekend to discuss their efforts to win in key states.
Op-Ed: Greszler: Harris, Walz policy records undermine pro-worker rhetoric
August 23, 2024 // the Biden-Harris Administration is also picking winners and losers among blue-collar workers. Its regulations governing wages and labor agreements on government contracts are disastrous. They almost exclude non-union workers from federal contract jobs, including 89% of construction workers who aren’t unionized; force many workers who perform federal contract jobs into unions, including requiring them to pay into union pensions they’ll never receive. Not only that, but despite the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to empower and unionize more workers, the unionization rate hit a new record low of 10% in 2023 (6% among the private sector), and the gap between union and non-union wages also hit a record low. That’s because union wages increased 6.4 percentage points less than non-union wages between 2019 and 2023. For Walz’s part, he’s signed a slew of labor laws ostensibly aimed at helping workers, but by driving up the costs and legal liabilities of employing people in Minnesota, they have instead hamstrung job growth in the state.
VIRGINIA: Fairfax County’s teachers unions fail students. Commentary
January 19, 2024 // But all hope is not lost, even in the face of chronic absenteeism and declining standards in public education. In 2023, 20 states expanded K-12 educational choice options for America’s children and families. If public funds followed children instead of failing institutions during the pandemic, families with fewer resources also could have homeschooled or taken their children to one of the many private schools that didn’t shut their doors on the orders of teachers unions. Just as they are across much of the nation, here in Fairfax County, teachers unions are a substantial obstacle to quality public education — and school choice is the solution.
Opinion: Banning teacher strikes in Oregon’s best interest
November 29, 2023 // Certainly, teachers’ union strikes that intentionally bar children from the classroom pose a significant barrier to quality education. If parents and taxpayers could face legal penalties for disrupting public education, why shouldn’t teachers’ unions? 37 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit teachers from striking. Teachers’ unions who initiate strikes in Nevada, for example, are fined $50,000 for each day that students are unable to attend school. In Maryland, unions who authorize a strike are immediately removed as the district’s exclusive representative. Oregon should follow the lead of Nevada and Maryland’s anti-strike legislation, both of which punish disruptive unions while protecting teachers.
Maryland Teachers Union employees earn $181,000 on average
November 19, 2023 // According to MSEA’s federal filing, at least 11 employees earned more than $200,000 in total compensation last year. Kristy Anderson, the general counsel, earned $285,962. Executive Director Sean Johnson earned $276,892. Assistant Executive Director Cathy Perry earned $259,210. Project Baltimore found that MSEA collected $26.5 million in revenue last year, the highest amount on record. Of that $26.5 million, $16.9 million went towards “salaries, other compensation, employee benefits” for the unions 93 employees. If $16.9 million went to 93 employees, that means on average, union employees earned $181,720 in total compensation. Keep in mind, MSEA is a tax-exempt nonprofit with a specific mission to elevate public education.
This Labor Day, ask yourself: Are unions living up to their promises?
September 4, 2023 // Good people across the country may believe that handing more power to public sector union executives will fix teacher shortages or improve ineffective government programs. Instead, these good people should reflect this Labor Day and ask themselves whether public sector unions have lived up to these promises over the past 50 years. They should also ask how we can hold union executives accountable and improve how public sector unions work. Unfortunately, anyone trying to advance ideas to improve public sector unions soon discovers union executives aren’t interested. Public sector union executives will go to war to ensure they keep their power — even at the expense of the employees they purportedly represent.
America’s Largest Teachers Union Isn’t Beyond Reform
July 20, 2023 // Washington can make the NEA less political and more accountable by revising its federal charter.