A Simple Way to Pay Teachers More | | |
As the Howard County Public School System engages in the agony of budget-cutting, including the likelihood of larger class sizes and laying off teachers, here’s a recommendation that would help without doing either: stop funding the State and National arms of the teachers unions.
Teachers generally like their local union, but many are unhappy with where their dues go. Did you know that almost 80% of the dues that teachers pay the union year after year, goes to state and national unions. Leaving only 20% of their money to support their own local?
State and National arms of the teachers unions spend a huge chunk of their funds to support political candidates and ideas. Between the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), all fifty states contain active affiliates. The educators they pry dues from finance a sophisticated, far left political apparatus often inconsistent with their own beliefs. Both groups -- which compete for members but also collaborate with each other through the NEA-AFT Partnership -- are consistently among the organizations that contribute the most money to candidates and political groups.
| | All the numbers on this page are for the 2023-2024 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data released on February 06, 2025. Open Secrets | | THE TEACHERS' UNION AGENDA | | |
In addition to the amount of money used for campaigning, another major issue is what they are campaigning for – instead of focusing on the myriad issues plaguing education today, the teachers’ unions are De-Emphasizing Education.
In reality, both AFT and NEA spend considerable time and resources supporting a progressive wish list of economic, social, and foreign policy completely untethered from education achievement. The NEA featured action items including a ceasefire in the Middle East, support for abortion access, and calls to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees. Additional NEA calls to action include:
- Restrictions on gun owners’ rights
- Advocacy for increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations
- Efforts to normalize illegal immigration
- Support for new federal election laws
- Calls to strengthen the “social safety net” and expand welfare programs
In recent years, AFT has taken up fights, including:
However a person thinks about any of these issues, the two largest teachers’ unions in the country collecting money from teachers to advocate issues unrelated to education and for deeply contentious political causes— represents dramatic mission creep, at best, and exploitation, at worst.
“Teachers’ unions exploit members to push far left agenda,”
Russ Latino - June 10, 2024, Magnolia Tribune.
| | The "Maryland State Education Association" | | |
The Maryland State Teachers Association (MSDA) is so politically involved that a 16-year Democrat Senator, Jim Brochin, who left office in 2019, recently said he “knows how Annapolis works and who holds the power. And right now, . . . the Maryland State Education Association – the state’s largest teachers union – appears to be in charge. (emphasis added)
"The power they have over this Democratic legislature is astounding. . . . I get calls from Democratic legislators all the time. My colleagues and former colleagues. They call me up and they say, this is unbelievable. This union is out of control,’” said Brochin. “The Blueprint for Maryland is a financial disaster. It’s going to take the state down,” he continued. “Somebody’s got to stand up and say enough, and nobody is doing it.”
“Former state senator says teachers union power bankrupting Maryland,
must be challenged,” by Chris Papst, Feb 12, 2025
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So What Can We Do?
Ten years ago, the Wicomico County Teachers Association (WCTA) engaged in an effort to disaffiliate their local union from the State and National arms.
The effort was begun by Kelly Stephenson, a special education high school teacher who had been a member of the WCEA for over 10 years. For most of that time, she believed her union was there to support the needs of teachers. That changed when she became a union official and realized the amount of money being sent to the state ($30,000 a month) and national (about $500,000/year).
She was also troubled by why – and how -- MSEA chose political candidates to endorse. The rank and file had no say in the selection of candidates, and MSEA gave its officials a list of candidates from which to choose – all of whom were Democrats!
“Though Kelly leans liberal, she believes, like most teachers, that the union’s job is to represent teachers in their profession, and it’s totally inappropriate for them to push for a political and social agenda.”
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Kelly noted, “I believe in diversity, but I don’t understand how a stance on gay marriage improves the school system. I’m not against gay marriage; I just don’t believe that we should be voting on positions about it in our teachers’ union.” Instead, she said that she and her colleagues would prefer that their union help them with the growing number of discipline problems. “We had teachers that were physically assaulted by students. … And teachers have been attacked in other districts as well, but our state union wouldn’t even address the issue.”
Unfortunately, the MSEA used draconian measures to defeat the efforts of Kelly and her fellow teachers leaving a trail of destroyed lives in its wake. “Kelly learned, like all independent-minded teachers who try to work from the inside of unions learn, “It’s not about serving teachers, . . . It’s all about unions. No one can propose an idea that’s different than the union’s.”
To read the whole story of Kelly’s fight to win independence for her union, read Chapter 16, Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers Unions for the Heart and Soul of our Kids and Country, by Rebecca Friedrichs, 2018, Post Hill Press.
Even though Wicomico County’s effort failed, times have changed and unlike the WCEA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the Howard County Education Association’s CBA makes no mention of any relationship with the state and national arms. Moreover, HCEA is much stronger that the WCEA, and, with their help, the union and the teachers could have five times the amount of dues money to spend on behalf of our Howard County Public School System (HCPSS); it needs all the help it can get!
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