Why I Left Teaching: Union Politics
Guest commentary by Bill Frye
I taught science full-time for more than two decades and enjoyed a
rewarding career educating a generation of public school students in
Westmoreland County. I retired from teaching earlier than I wanted,
though, and I’d like to tell you why.
As a union member for most of my teaching career, I never disguised
the fact that I disagreed with much of the Pennsylvania State Education
Association’s political dogma. The union promoted values and ideals that
I not only disagreed with, but also routinely had no relevance to
education.
Before you jump to conclusions, let me assure you that I’m not
anti-union. I’ve been generally happy with the local union in my old
school district. I’ve also been a member of the farmers’ union all my
life. Unions have an important place in society.
It is the state and national teachers’ unions—the PSEA and the
National Education Association—that I grew to resent. Their use of my
union dues to support political causes I disagreed with ultimately led
me to leave education.
Case in point: A school year’s first teacher in-service day usually
consists of the administration welcoming teachers, introducing new staff
and outlining goals for the year. But in the fall of 2012, PSEA
sponsored a pep rally and played a video for the entire school staff to
encourage us to help re-elect President Barack Obama. Normally, events
like this happen after the school workday—when attendance is voluntary,
not when teachers are a captive audience.
What’s more, the PSEA’s magazine
The Voice—which is sent to
180,000 members and paid for with our dues—regularly featured ads
praising President Obama while denigrating and lampooning his opponents.
Teachers paid for this political activity no matter which candidate we
personally supported—and every other taxpayer paid for it as well.
How? Pennsylvania allows government unions to use taxpayer-funded
payroll systems to collect their members’ dues—as well as optional
political action committee contributions that can be sent directly to
politicians.
But aren’t unions prohibited from using members’ dues for politics?
Take it from the PSEA itself: Last year, their magazine featured a
notice that 12 percent (which amounts to $7 million) of teachers’ dues
would be used for political activity and lobbying. That’s in addition to
millions in PAC money.
Unions use teachers’ money to advocate for policies that will leave
teachers, students and all of us poorer. The main example is how the
PSEA is advocating against reforming our deeply indebted public pension
system.
One incentive for me to continue in public education was the pay and
working conditions for educators. I looked forward to what, at least in
my opinion, is a very generous retirement—which I will credit the unions
for helping to achieve. But I’m also a landowner and property tax
payer. I’m told the pension systems are $50 billion in debt and will
require huge property tax hikes if nothing is done.
I feel sorry for people on fixed incomes—like some of my teacher
colleagues who retired years ago—who will have to struggle to pay these
rising taxes.
Everyone agrees the pension system, as it currently exists, is not
sustainable. There are solutions to bring economic viability to the
system. But the PSEA, using members’ dues money, is one of the main
roadblocks to reasonable reform. In a recent “alert” email to members,
the union called the latest compromise proposal a “pension attack” that
“targets women and new employees” while offering no solutions except to
raise taxes.
I couldn’t take any more of PSEA’s fear-mongering and divisiveness on
political issues, so I spoke out. As a result, the personal attacks I
received (from union members!) made me choose to retire and focus on my
farm business.
But, as a taxpayer, there’s no escape: I’m still forced to help PSEA collect its political money.
Legislation called paycheck protection would stop PSEA and other
government unions from using public payroll systems to siphon their
political money from teachers’ pay.
I think if legislators truly support teachers, they should pass this
effort to give them a bigger say over how their money is spent in the
political world. Government unions might then engage in productive
negotiation instead of political lobbying.
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Bill Frye is a retired public school science teacher from Westmoreland County.
