Teachers unions have strayed far from their original purpose of supporting classroom teachers and have morphed into a powerful political machine that primarily serves the Democratic Party.
But here’s the game-changer: the power to dismantle this machine lies not in distant courtrooms or legislative halls, but in the hands of teachers themselves. Teachers can take it apart from the inside, one dues opt-out at a time.
Thanks to landmark legal victories and new alternatives, teachers no longer have to fund this partisan juggernaut with their hard-earned paychecks. It’s time to defund the unions, keep more money in the pockets of teachers, and refocus education on the kids.
For decades, teachers unions like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) compelled educators to pay dues as a condition of employment. That meant a teacher’s salary was automatically funneled into union coffers, whether you agreed with their agenda or not.
But in 2018, the Supreme Court delivered a blow to this coercive system with the Janus v. AFSCME decision. The ruling affirmed that mandatory union dues violate the First Amendment by forcing public employees to subsidize speech and political causes they might find objectionable. In other words, you can’t be forced to pay for someone else’s politics anymore.
Teachers unions are deeply political and overwhelmingly partisan. More than 99 percent of the AFT’s campaign contributions in the last election cycle went to Democrats, and this lopsided giving has been the norm for decades.
The unions are essentially money-laundering operations for the Democratic Party, siphoning billions from teachers’ salaries to prop up one side of the aisle. A 2017 Education Week survey revealed that only 41 percent of teachers nationwide identify as Democrats, with the rest leaning conservative or independent. Yet nearly all union political spending backs Democrats. (More recent national surveys that exclude independents show marginally higher support for Democrats.)
Many teachers have stuck with the unions out of fear, particularly because of the liability insurance they provide. No one wants to face a lawsuit without protection. But the game is changing.
The Teacher Freedom Alliance just announced that they’re offering free liability insurance to teachers who leave the union. They provide $2 million per teacher, which is twice the amount typically provided by national unions like the AFT or NEA. And this insurance is in the teacher’s name, not the union’s, giving teachers direct control and peace of mind. More than 2,500 teachers have already opted out this year to join the alliance.
If you’re one of the 59 percent of teachers who identify as conservative or independent, staying in the union at this point is downright crazy. Why would anyone hand over their dues to fund causes they oppose when they can opt out, keep their money, and still get superior liability protection? The unions’ grip is loosening, and teachers hold the key to breaking it entirely.
Randi Weingarten of the AFT and Becky Pringle of the NEA don’t represent everyday educators. They’re political operatives raking in about half a million dollars each year in salary. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted teacher salaries have only crept up by 3 percent since 1970, even as public school spending per student has skyrocketed by 164 percent over the same period.
Where’s all that money going? Not to the classroom teachers. It’s padding union bureaucracies, funding lavish conventions, and ultimately bankrolling Democrat campaigns.
The unions do nothing for the best teachers. They fight tooth and nail against merit pay, which would reward excellence and boost salaries for top performers. Instead, they protect the lowest common denominator through rigid collective bargaining that treats all teachers the same, regardless of skill or effort. Individual educators can’t negotiate their own deals with employers because the union monopolizes the process. Get the union out of the way, and the best teachers would thrive, commanding higher pay based on their results.
Take Becky Pringle’s NEA as a prime example of misplaced priorities. Out of their 3 million members, they chose Ashlie Crosson as “Teacher of the Year.” At their annual convention, Crosson let the mask slip. She declared that her job as a teacher is “deeply political” and always has been.
That’s who Pringle elevates – not someone focused on academic excellence, but a political activist. The unions reward ideology over instruction.
At AFT’s convention this year, Randi Weingarten announced a “partnership with the World Economic Forum to create a curriculum.” Teachers who don’t buy into this globalist agenda or the unions’ endless political pet projects need to wake up. They hold the real power. If they lock arms and spark a mass exodus, they’ll send a shockwave through the system.
Opting out en masse will either force the unions to stay in their lane, focusing on education instead of politics, or cripple their influence by starving the beast of funds.
Randi and Becky aren’t concerned about everyday teachers who just want to educate kids without the drama. They’re obsessed with using teachers’ dues to advance far-Left agendas and elect their Democrat buddies. But teachers can fix that incestuous relationship. We can save our country from this partisan overreach by dismantling the teachers unions.
