Posts tagged teachers union
New Book Details Government Unions Using Taxpayer Dollars to Push Radical Ideology on the Nation
July 6, 2023 // Teachers unions are writing the playbook of the hard Left. The Freedom Foundation obtained “Racial Justice in Education,” an internal document published in 2018 by the National Education Association. It illustrates, in shocking detail, the degree to which the nation’s largest teachers union embraces the tenets of critical race theory and shows how this neo-Marxist ideology serves as the fountainhead of the union’s support of a host of radical policies, from defunding the police to banning voter ID requirements.
Commentary: How the Teachers Union Broke Public Education
June 7, 2023 // School closures were not just an issue that impacted teachers, kids, and parents—this policy will have decadeslong ripple effects that will reverberate through every aspect of society. While savvy middle class and affluent families may opt for charter and private schools as a solution, the poorest and most vulnerable children, such as my former students, will remain trapped in a rotting system. The children who never catch up will grow into damaged, illiterate adults who cannot participate in the labor force and who are plagued by social dysfunction and decay. Ultimately, the union will achieve its vision of remaking the world—only it will be a broken, disfigured world that no one wants.
Why Government Unions—Unlike Trade Unions—Corrupt Democracy
April 9, 2023 // Newly-elected governors and mayors in most states quickly discover that they have no managerial control over schools, police, and other government operations. If an elected executive has the backbone to try to buck the union, and restore managerial powers when an agreement comes up for renegotiation, the executive in many states will find that unelected arbitrators have the final say. Near-zero accountability makes its practically impossible to transform a lousy school, or an abusive police culture, because the supervisor can’t enforce good values and standards. No accountability also removes the mutual trust needed for any healthy organization. Why try hard, or go the extra mile, when others just go through the motions? The absence of accountability is like releasing a nerve gas into the agency or school. Rigid work rules guarantee massive inefficiency. Basic services such as trash collection, and road and transit maintenance, cost two to three times what it would cost in the private sector. Need someone to help out or fill in? Sorry, not permitted. Need teachers to do remote teaching during the pandemic? There’s nothing about that in the agreement, so it must be negotiated.
Opinion: Imagine there’s no public employee unions
February 21, 2023 // But try as President Joe Biden has, it just hasn’t been enough. Automation (including not only factory machinery but also the gig economy), trade, high-profile union corruption cases, failing pension funds, and a string of adverse court rulings are among the many factors rendering private sector unions irrelevant to workers in most modern fields. This has led the unions to desperate measures, such as organizing esoteric, low-income professions, including graduate student teachers and video game testers. Yet the story is quite different for unions in the public sector. The unionization rate of public employees remains robust, at more than 33% of all government workers nationwide. Local government workers are the most likely to be unionized, at a rate of nearly 39%, and public sector union members are concentrated in states that mandate collective bargaining. The states with higher rates of unionization seem to correlate with the nation's least functional state governments: California (54.5%), Illinois (48.7%), New York (66.7%), and New Jersey (59.3%) among them. As their private sector cousins starve, public employee unions are fat and happy — a strange development, given that there was no public sector collective bargaining at all 70 years ago, when unions were at their apex.
The Largest Teachers Union Embezzlements of All Time
February 8, 2023 // Denise Inez Owens was the treasurer of the Worcester County Teachers Association when she stole more than $433,000 of state and national dues money to feed her gambling addiction. The Maryland State Education Association discovered the theft in March 2009, but did not report it to authorities. Instead the union persuaded Owens to sign a confession and agree to a restitution plan. Owens then resigned her union position and returned to work as a middle school teacher without notifying the school district or union members of her crime. A newspaper discovered the incident three years later when the state union filed an insurance claim for its losses, and stated the theft was “not reported because of potential impact on membership and loss of members.”
Op-Ed: Just why are Utah teachers unions against school choice In Utah?
February 3, 2023 // Utah Education Association President Renée Pinkney said members of the state’s largest teachers association are carefully monitoring the legislative process with respect to HB215. “If it passes tomorrow, we will be devastated. Our hearts will be broken,” she said. UEA members are “incredibly upset” that the salary increase was not decoupled from the choice scholarship so each could be considered on their respective merits, she said.
From Coast to Coast, What’s Going On with State & Local Teacher Union Affiliates
January 24, 2023 //
Looming Akron teacher strike: Here’s what parents and caregivers need to know
January 2, 2023 // AEA has a strike organization in place and will work with its membership to staff selected picket lines, Shipe said. She did not elaborate on those plans, but said AEA has received an outpouring of support from the Akron community, from all APS unions like bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, cafeteria works and others, including labor unions in other school districts and private-sector unions. "Our labor brothers and sisters are united in our efforts to secure safe schools and responsible and fair wages," she said.
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
Teachers unions could be blocked from receiving federal funding under new legislation
November 21, 2022 // The No Federal Funding for Teachers’ Unions Act, introduced by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, stipulates "no Federal funds may be provided to a labor organization the members of which are education professionals." It defines an education professional as someone who is employed by an elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education.