(The Lion) — Since the pandemic, teachers’ unions have been widely criticized for having liberal agendas that undermine public education.
What’s worse, according to one union watchdog, is how taxpayers are unwittingly funding them.
A new study by the Freedom Foundation found the Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Missouri – both state affiliates of the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions – are abusing the public school system for their own gain.
Of Missouri’s 518 school districts, Freedom Foundation researcher Ben Straka reviewed 103 current or recent union contracts. He found 71 Missouri districts were directly deducting union dues from teacher paychecks, a dubious practice banned in many states.
When a district uses payroll deduction, all a union must provide is a signed membership form, which can be forged. In fact, the Freedom Foundation’s legal wing has represented nearly 20 public employees from various states who were fraudulently enrolled in paycheck deductions.
And even when dues are willingly given, they’re not always used in the interest of teachers.
“The MNEA’s online membership enrollment form indicated that the union automatically transferred a portion of every member’s dues payment into the union’s statewide political action and ballot measure committees,” wrote Straka.
In the 2024-25 school year, $213 of each teacher’s dues paid to the MNEA will be automatically sent to the National Education Association (NEA), which in turn spent $39 million the previous year on “political activities and lobbying.”
Straka advocates for Missouri lawmakers to instead institute paycheck protection as in states such as Iowa, Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee, preventing unions from withdrawing dues from teachers’ paychecks.
In Missouri, Straka also found 68 school districts were subsidizing unions by continuing to pay educators while they did union work.
“The total taxpayer subsidy for public school employees spending time out of the classroom on union business could easily amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year,” Straka wrote.
He instead suggests school staff receive unpaid time off, use their personal paid time off, or be compensated by the union itself.
Another common but unsavory practice is forcing new employees to listen to a union pitch as part of their orientation.
While it may not sound controversial, Straka explains the reality is that “union participation in NEOs [new employee orientations] is designed to pressure employees into joining the union, contributing to union political funds, and inculcating pro-union sentiment among employees.”
“All of these meetings take place during work hours at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continues. “Missouri lawmakers should ensure that no teacher or public school employee is required by their employer to attend union events, listen to a union sales pitch, or otherwise interact with a union against their will.”
Last, he argues it shouldn’t be legal for school officials to favor teachers’ unions when it comes to accessing publicly available resources.
“State lawmakers should end the favoritism and better safeguard taxpayers’ interests by prohibiting public schools from providing unions with more generous access to and use of school resources, communications systems or facilities than is available to charitable or community organizations,” Straka concluded.
