Posts tagged public school teachers
Montana taxpayers foot the bill for woke politics at teachers union conference
November 27, 2024 // More disturbing than the content of the MFPE conference programming is the fact that Montana taxpayers had to foot the bill for educators to attend the union’s indoctrination. For decades, Montana law has required school districts to “close the schools… for the annual instructional and professional development meetings of teachers’ organizations.” Not only may teachers attend such meetings “without loss of salary,” but teachers who do not attend “may not be paid.” A similar state law permits school districts to schedule up to three district-paid “pupil-instruction-related days” for “teacher activities devoted to improving the quality of instruction,” such as “attending state meetings of teacher organizations.”
Jewish Teachers Forced to Pay Dues to Anti-Semitic Labor Union They Don’t Belong To
November 24, 2024 // The lawsuit says the EERA and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the union signed leaves the plaintiffs trapped in a union at odds with their political and religious beliefs. “UTLA inserted requirements into the CBA for adoption of model curricula for the classroom that is openly ant-Semitic, and has provided teacher training opportunities where teachers are taught how to avoid detection for anti-Israel rhetoric. UTLA also supports anti-Semitic and anti-Israel professional development classes–classes that can advance teachers’ careers.” The end result is that both “the EERA and the CBA compel Plaintiffs to associate with UTLA’s anti-Semitic speech and curriculum despite Plaintiff’s objections based on their sincerely held beliefs.
State of the unions: 8 facts you need to know about unions in Colorado
August 8, 2024 // Colorado is a modified “right to work” state because, under the state’s Labor Peace Act, workplaces with unions may hold a second election to become an all-union workplace. If at least 75% of eligible workers approve its Labor Peace Act election, the workplace becomes all-union, meaning every worker must join the union and pay dues. The act was passed in 1943 as a compromise between unions and business owners. In 2023 and 2024 to date, nine Labor Peace Act elections have been held — six won and three lost, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
Labor Union Strike Activity Increased 280% in 2023
March 20, 2024 // Crucially, the BLS data do not capture all strike activity because BLS only includes strikes involving 1,000 or more workers lasting at least one full shift. For example, a six-week strike involving 750 Temple University graduate student workers was not captured in the 2023 data, because it did not meet the BLS size limitations.
Taxpayers funding teachers unions? In Idaho, it’s all too common
February 5, 2024 // The Boise School District goes a step further by providing teachers a monthly salary enhancement for “professional activities” that just happens to approximate the cost of union dues and can be conveniently deducted from their paychecks and forwarded to the union by the district. At least 51 school district teachers union contracts include provisions providing paid time off for teachers who serve as union officials to engage in union work and advocacy on-the-clock and at taxpayer expense. Some contracts even specifically permit teachers to lobby the legislature on the union’s behalf while on paid release from their teaching duties. Again, while the direct cost to taxpayers is difficult to measure precisely, it could easily range from $500,000 to $1 million per year. And at least 31 school districts provide the teachers union with preferential, no-cost access to and use of school facilities and communications well beyond what community groups or even competing unions are entitled to.
WILL sues to preserve Act 10
January 30, 2024 // “There is no question that 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 significantly changed labor relations in Wisconsin. But since Act 10’s enactment over a decade ago, state and federal courts have repeatedly rebuffed constitutional challenges to the law by those who oppose it,” WILL wrote in its memo to the court. “Both the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and Seventh Circuit in [the Walker case] had little trouble concluding that Wisconsin was free to distinguish between public safety and general employees, with the latter labeling this conclusion as ‘uncontroversial.’”
Opinion: An educator is leading NC’s battered ranks of teachers to unionize
July 31, 2023 // After two years of pushing unionization as a volunteer, Mangrum has taken a part-time, paid consulting role with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second largest teachers union with 1.7 million members. Her job is to explore the union’s potential to organize a significant share of the state’s 94,000 public school teachers. “We have members across the state,” Magnum said. “Two years ago we didn’t have any.” Just how many, she wouldn’t say, but she allowed that it’s more than 100
Outgoing New York Teachers Union Boss Leaves Behind an Organization Deep in the Red
February 20, 2023 // NYSUT and its allies pushed hard last year for a mandate that requires New York City’s public schools to phase in class-size limits over the course of five years. At least 20 percent of the city’s schools will need to reduce class sizes, requiring more classes and more classroom teachers. The union has also been fighting to stymie the growth of charters: Earlier this month, Governor Hochul in her most recent budget proposal moved toward increasing the number of charter schools in New York City. “If I was paying dues under the assumption that the union was using those dues to represent me with my employers, it would be a little concerning to me that so much of that is being used for other things,” the senior organizing director of Americans for Fair Treatment, Brigette Herbst, says. “Perhaps they should focus more on those representational activities.”
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
October 24, 2022 // As it turns out, Pastors for Children should be renamed Pastors for AFT. As the Capital Research Center found out, “The evidence suggests that Pastors for Texas Children is beholden to special interests and would better be called “Pastors for Texas Teachers Unions.” The organization has taken at least $25,000 in funding from the American Federation of Teachers, but that may not be all. The group put on a “virtual fundraiser” in October 2020 headlined by Diane Ravitch, a onetime school reformer who “now toes the teachers union line.”
Seattle Teachers End Strike, Aiming for More Employees for Fewer Students
September 16, 2022 // Seattle Public Schools spends nearly 85 cents of every dollar it receives on employee wages and benefits. Pay ranges from a minimum of $63,180 to a maximum of $123,506. The average salary for a Seattle public school teacher was reportedly $88,897 in 2020-21. There are roughly the same number of human beings roaming the halls of Seattle’s schools today as there were in 2013-14. The difference is there are 1,725 fewer students and 1,711 more employees.