John Hinderaker chronicles the modest decline of teachers unions and hopes for more. As long time readers may remember, I have opposed teachers unions for-close-to-ever.
When the faculty of the university system of which I was a member voted on union representation, I voted “no.” Needless to say I was outvoted and a faculty union came into being.
I had only two choices, join and pay dues or pay “representation” fees without being a member. I chose the latter. And retired sometime later having been forced to contribute to a system, some of whose policies and all of whose politics, I opposed.
It changed in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Janus v. AFSCME, that public employees cannot constitutionally be forced to join or contribute financial support to a union. Janus restored the freedom of teachers and other public sector employees, and opened the door to reform.
Janus obviously came too late to help me, as I’d completely retired from teaching 10 or more years earlier. Nevertheless Janus is an important step in wringing some of the coerced, involuntary contributions to Democrat candidates out of the national system.
Hinderaker documents a decline of 11,000 members in MN alone since 2019. And the National Education Association - the largest national teachers union - lost 17,000+ members in the past fiscal year alone.
Teachers unions spend little of their funds on actually representing teachers. The main “hit” from such losses is upon political activities on behalf of Democrat candidates.
