Posted on 06/21/2007 10:57:04 AM PDT by jazusamo
Thursday, June 21, 2007
If the Washington Education Association truly put teachers and students first, they'd be cheering a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision along with the rest of us. The court stood up for teachers' free speech rights.
Instead, the union is decrying last week's 9-0 ruling, calling the state law that was before the court "seriously flawed," and vowing to pursue more ways to get its way, despite what individual teachers want.
There is nothing flawed about getting permission from educators before spending their paychecks on politics with which they might disagree. Only a bully would see things differently. The only flaw in asking for permission before sending teachers' dues to political campaigns is that it slows the union down in its effort to weigh in on everything from pregnancies to the presidency.
What some educators have demanded, and what the U.S. Supreme Court rightly affirmed, is that the union ask for permission before spending any portion of a teacher's paycheck on politics without his or her permission. The union shouldn't have its hands on those dollars in the first place, but until state lawmakers find the courage to stand up to the Democrat-financing machine that is the teachers' union and end mandatory unionism in Washington state, the union will have its way with teachers' hard-earned money, even the money of teachers who say they would rather not affiliate with the union's political stances.
Siding with Washington's paycheck protection law, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the unanimous court that "what matters is that public-sector agency fees are in the union's possession only because Washington and its union-contracting government agencies have compelled their employees to pay those fees," and that "agency-shop arrangements in the public sector raise First Amendment concerns because they force individuals to contribute money to unions as a condition of governed employment."
This is the crux of the issue. Mandatory unionism is undemocratic and any confusion or flaws that the union cites could be fixed if the WEA would simply become a voluntary organization. What's the union afraid of? That teachers are smart enough to figure out that the hundreds of dollars they are forced to send the union each year in compulsory dues would be better off in their own pockets.
Solutions rest with Legislature
Teachers can rally lawmakers for more pay without an overbearing, expensive union. The majority of the state Legislature is all about finding a way to do even better by educators, with or without union pressure. If lawmakers can't produce what teachers would like to see, it isn't for a lack of desire. The fact is, educating every child in Washington state is super expensive. More than half of the state budget goes toward financing public education, and asking taxpayers for even more is tricky. But the Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire are doing their best for education. And they'd do their best even if there were no union.
Why? Because lawmakers have kids. Because lawmakers are business owners and community members who understand the value of an educated populace. And they understand that well-paid, well-treated teachers are happier in their jobs and thereby more effective. What lawmakers aren't so good at is standing up to the WEA. They must be afraid of the union and the thousands of votes it influences with its relentless misinformation campaigns and vilifications of all things Republican or conservative. That leaves Washington educators stuck with union dues as a condition of employment.
The WEA should go voluntary voluntarily. That's one way to keep itself out of court. But instead, it continues to put itself above workers it claims to represent. Consider its effort this year to see House Bill 2079 passed. The bill attempted to mitigate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the WEA and allow the union more leeway with educators' dues. The bill was signed by Gregoire, who should be ashamed of her approval. It's a reversal. When she was attorney general she stood against such practices, siding with free speech rights and the vast majority of voters who in 1992 voted for Initiative 134 - the protective measure that has been challenged in the courts, the protective measure vindicated by all nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, the protective measure the union continues to defy.
Elizabeth Hovde 's column of personal opinion appears on the Other Opinions page each Thursday. Reach her at ehovde@earthlink.net
Ping!
Thank you, Mark Levin.
It should be a nation wide law making it illegal for unions to donate money or otherwise get involved in ANY political campaigning PERIOD.
Union dues belong to it's members, and should be used for member benefits as was the origional idea. It could be put to much better use, such as cheaper group medical insurance, tuition grants for union members children, pension top ups, etc etc.
Instead, they spend hundreds of millions propping up corrupt democrats in hopes of robbing the treasury for member benefits, which they'll pay for through higher taxes anyways.
Unions and their retarded Marxist idiology just can't seem to grasp the unworkable vicious cirle their beliefs creatre, which always ends in mass murder by a Stalin or Hitler who comes along eventually to wipe the slate clean and start it all over again.
Of course, now the law is the problem, in the WEA's view. There is a veto-proof majority of Rats in the WA State Legislature, all they gotta do is pull the strings there.
No big deal, they do it all the time.
Agree completely. Unions should not be involved in politics but crooked politicians and unions would have a hard time surviving without each other.
I like your tag line.
Yes, Ms. Hovde writes great columns, IMO.
The control the Rats have in our legislature is sickening, they don’t even attempt to disguise their partisanship any longer.
Thanks! I took it from another FReeper who used it as a post on a shamnesty thread!
Note: I am not going to be around much, if at all, until July 4th. Traveling with little opportunity for Internet. 
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
Good news :
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Washington’s voter-approved campaign-finance law in a long-running dispute about the state teachers union’s use of nonmembers’ fees for political purposes.
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/135909.html
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