Posts tagged Virginia Education Association
Youngkin administration moves to protect public employees and taxpayers from union excesses
May 27, 2025 // First, the regulations would expressly extend to public employees the right to select a union pursuant to a secret-ballot election. In so doing, the proposed rules would protect public employees from being pressured or coerced into unionization via the infamous “card check” process, by which union organizers approach employees directly about publicly signing union petition cards. In its brief comment on the proposed regulations, the Virginia Education Association (VEA) claimed that, “All collective bargaining resolutions adopted by Virginia school boards, to date, provide for free and fair secret ballot elections…” But, as the Freedom Foundation documented in its comment, this is simply incorrect:
Virginia Tech graduate students and staff are launching labor unions
September 7, 2023 // It’s an effort that has been in the works for three years, as the groups have quietly recruited members while, across the country, campus labor unions have gained attention. On Tuesday, members of the United Campus Workers of Virginia Tech (UCW-VT) and the Virginia Tech Graduate Labor Union (VT GLU) will team up in a rally on the Blacksburg campus. They hope going public will attract new members and draw attention to their efforts to press university administrators for improvements for campus workers at all levels. Together, the unions have a potential membership of about 20,000 people affiliated with Tech.
Opinion: Glenn Youngkin’s path to White House must plow through teachers union monopoly in education
August 24, 2023 // The unions are highly motivated. One of Gov. Youngkin’s top priorities is Education Savings Accounts, which will provide every family with thousands of dollars a year to spend on schools of their choosing. Virginia families got a taste in spring of 2023 when the governor approved a $30 million grant fund for families to hire tutors and get other educational services. The fund was oversubscribed, showing incredible demand from families for education freedom. Yet more such policies, especially ESAs, are the greatest threat to teachers’ unions, since they break the de facto monopoly of public K-12 education. That monopoly contributes to student failure. According to the National Assessment of Educational Priorities, which is typically called "the nation’s report card," Virginia’s students are massively falling behind. Barely 37 percent of 4th graders are proficient in Math, while only 31 percent are proficient in English – down 10 and 6 points in three years, respectively. By 8th grade, average scores are even lower, with less than a third of students achieving proficiency in math, reading, and writing. Education Savings Accounts are the ticket to excellence Virginia students need. They’ll give families access to a marketplace of options, spurring the competition and innovation that could transform student performance for decades to come. Sadly, teachers’ unions would rather keep as many students in public schools as possible, even if it means stunting student success.
Op-Ed: Loudoun County teachers deserve all the facts
April 11, 2023 // NEA president, Becky Pringle, makes over half-a-million dollars each year, and VEA Executive Director, Brenda Pike, has a total compensation of $225,861, which is nearly five times higher than the average teacher salary in Virginia. Loudoun officials have estimated the school district will spend over $3 million annually to fund administrative positions that earn more than two times the starting teacher salary. The teachers and school staff members are not winners in this scenario. As I see in heavily unionized states, today’s model of collective bargaining for public employees reeks of a Ponzi scheme with all the money going to the top and very little benefit trickling back down to local teachers.
Opinion: Loudoun County School Board Should Be Wary of LEA’s Collective Bargaining Push
March 20, 2023 // In states like Illinois and Michigan, collective bargaining allows teachers to show up for work intoxicated and avoid discipline. In Connecticut, collective bargaining made it possible for a state hospital employee to fatally abuse a patient and then get his job back …caring for more vulnerable people. New York holds perhaps the most chilling example of the harm that befalls students and the community subject to collective bargaining: a union used taxpayer dollars to protect a teacher who admitted to repeatedly sexually abusing students. Collective bargaining locks public employees into multi-year contracts that ensure limited job advancement, teachers are taken out of the classroom to do union business on the taxpayer’s dime, and individual freedom is stifled. After all, when you are represented by a union, you give away your voice and your power to that union.
Teachers need to think twice before they let unions into their paychecks
March 13, 2023 // According to Americans for Fair Treatment, the VEA reported $12.6 million in revenue in 2019 (based on IRS filings), with 82 percent of this coming from membership dues. As of 2019, the union’s largest liability was federal income tax. While the organization is tax-exempt, it is holding $4.2 million in case of “uncertain” federal income tax obligations. The second largest liability is the pension for union employees. Currently, the union’s pension obligation sits at $2.3 million, down from more than $4.7 million in 2017. Union employee salaries and benefits were the largest expense category but according to the latest filing, VEA had only 66 employees. Executive Director Brenda Pike was the highest-paid employee at $194,136 in base compensation, plus nearly $32,000 in retirement and nontaxable benefits. At the national level, NEA has 510 employees who earned an average salary of $134,000. Let that sink in. The union wants to take part of a teacher’s salary, up to $1,000 a year, knowing full well that teachers do not earn enough (in fact, using this as a recruitment talking point), so that they can first and foremost, pay their own union employees much, much more than most teachers will ever earn.
From Coast to Coast, What’s Going On with State & Local Teacher Union Affiliates
January 24, 2023 //
Where can public sector employees collectively bargain in Virginia?
July 29, 2022 // The ordinance — which creates bargaining units for police, fire and emergency personnel, as well as municipal labor and trade workers, professional workers, and administrative and technical staff — was finalized last week after months of negotiations between the council, Mayor Levar Stoney and pro-union municipal employees. Fairfax, Loudoun County, Arlington County, Virginia Beach, Alexandria, Mel Borja, Del. Elizabeth Guzman, Del. Kathy Byron, Del. Nick Freitas, Black employees,