Posts tagged SCHOOL CLOSURES
Teachers union chief hires seasoned lawyer ahead of Hill testimony
April 20, 2023 // Randi Weingarten is lawyering up. The American Federation of Teachers president has retained a top white-collar defense attorney ahead of her scheduled testimony on school closures during the height of the Covid-19 crisis to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic next week. Weingarten is taking a swipe at the panel’s Republicans ahead of an all-but-assured grilling from conservatives looking to probe the union’s alleged influence over federal disease-mitigation guidelines the GOP blames for closing schools.
Teacher Unions Suffer Pandemic Backlash
December 13, 2022 // A big complaint of union members is that the National Education Association and its state affiliates report spending more than twice as much money on political expenditures than they do representing its members. According to a Freedom Foundation investigation, the Oregon Education Association (OEA) has lost just shy of one in five of its members. They have taken advantage of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that mandatory union dues violate public employees’ First Amendment rights
Florida Teachers’ Union Bleeding Members
November 3, 2022 // The Florida Education Association (FEA) lost more than 4,500 members – a 3.3 percent drop – in just the 2020-21 school year. By comparison, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 2.3 and 2.1 percent of their memberships, respectively, in the same single school year.
Op-ed: The Teachers’ Unions’ Blame Game
August 23, 2022 // AFT’s allocation of 30 percent of its 2020–21 expenditures to politics, totaling $48.4 million in political activities and another $5.9 million in contributions. And they’re only second to the National Education Association (NEA), which devotes nearly 50 percent of its expenses to political endeavors, according to research from Americans for Fair Treatment. Given that the NEA spends twice as much on politics (almost all of which is devoted to Democrats) as on representing its members, the union resembles a political, rather than membership, organization.
Dems, union leaders responsible for school lockdowns face few repercussions, despite evidence that kids harmed
August 3, 2022 // According to data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, 70% of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic. A study published by the conservative think tank Just Facts reported that the mental stressors brought about by school closures will destroy seven times more years of life than lockdowns saved. A study by the American Enterprise Institute also found that nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began, and schools that stayed remote longer saw even more students leave. The World Bank reported last month that the school closures will cost this generation of students $21 trillion in earnings over their lifetimes, which is far more than the $17 trillion estimated in 2021.
Pro-shutdown teachers union bosses raked in $200K during pandemic
July 12, 2022 // The top officials at Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, each made over $200,000 while advocating for school and business closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to filings with the U.S. Department of Labor, President Denise Specht made $211,639 between Sept. 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021. Her vice president and treasurer each made $216,000. More than 80 Education Minnesota employees made over $100,000 during the same time period, the filing shows. Several of these employees are only described as “field staff” on the Department of Labor filing. Gov. Tim Walz,
Freedom Foundation: 4,000 California teachers have left the union since COVID’s start
April 29, 2022 // “We share with them the highlights, quotes, and PowerPoints and the other thing we share with them during these round tables is information about where their money is going,” Wiegel added. “Most teachers don't really know where their union money is going. A small portion goes towards their benefits but the vast majority of it is going to the national level of the union where it’s spent on political candidates and activist organizations.”
Oakland Unified letter warns union about planned one-day strike
April 27, 2022 // Oakland Unified has warned its teachers union not to walk out of classes for a planned one-day strike this Friday, saying the walkout would have a harmful financial impact on the district and is a violation of the current contract,
MORE THAN 38,000 WORKERS HAVE LEFT GOVERNMENT UNIONS IN ILLINOIS
April 15, 2022 // The unions’ own federal reports show 9% of workers have chosen to break away from unions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME. More than 38,000 state and local government workers across Illinois have chosen not to join or pay a government union since the U.S. Supreme Court restored that right in 2018 in Janus v. AFSCME.
Illinois: AMENDMENT 1 WOULD CEMENT STRIKES AS GO-TO WEAPON FOR CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION
March 10, 2022 // The Chicago Teachers Union has gone on strike five times and walked out on students at least three other times since it got the right to strike in 1984. Gaining greater power through Amendment 1 would embolden militant union tactics.