The nation’s largest teachers’ union is predicting a 14 percent drop in membership over the next two years and a $28 million budget cut for the next school year following the Supreme Court’s ruling that public sector unions can no longer compel non-members to pay dues.
“We have been preparing for this for over a year; we are prepared to weather this storm,” said Princess Moss, secretary-treasurer of the National Education Association (NEA), reports Madeline Will at Education Week.
“Still, the proposed budget reflects a hard new reality for the nation’s largest teachers’ union,” Will writes. “It necessitates cutting $50 million over two years—$28 million in the first year and $22 million in the second year. That reduction is accompanied by a loss of 31,000 agency-fee payers in the first year, and a 14 percent membership decline over two years.”
In Janus v. AFSCME, the high court ruled public sector unions cannot collect “agency” fees from nonmembers to cover the cost of collective bargaining.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association (NEA) referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling as a “radical decision” and one that is “a blatant slap in the face for educators, nurses, firefighters, police officers and all public servants who make our communities strong and safe.”
Unions delivered the talking point to media that the decision was “rigged.”
“Even though the Supreme Court sided with corporate CEOs and billionaires over working Americans, unions will continue to be the best vehicle on the path to the middle class,” Garcia said.
BREAKING: @NEAToday President @Lily_NEA reacts to radical ruling by #SCOTUS: "We are living in a system that is rigged to benefit special interests & billionaires, all at the expense of working people." FULL STATEMENT: https://t.co/uE4j5lQPGh #Janus #JanusvAFSCME #Union
— NEA Public Relations (@NEAMedia) June 27, 2018
A recent study by the Center for Union Facts revealed that, from 2010 to 2017, labor unions in general sent some $1.3 billion in member dues to progressive groups aligned with the Democratic Party without obtaining the approval of their members.
The data showed, for example, that America Votes received $15.1 million from union member dues, while the Democratic Governors Association was the recipient of $14.5 million. Abortion vendor Planned Parenthood received nearly $1.2 million from union members through their union dues.
As the Washington Post reported following the 2016 presidential election, some 40 percent of union household members vote Republican, and likely would not approve of their union dues being donated by union leadership to left-wing groups.
According to the New York Times, the Supreme court’s decision will affect these left-wing groups and causes.
“If the progressive movement is a navy, they’re trying to take out our aircraft carriers,” said Ben Wikler, of MoveOn.org, the Times reported.
However, progressive groups are optimistic that the loss of union funds will be compensated for with grass-roots activism. Planned Parenthood, for example, has turned itself into a political action organization with its leadership of the Women’s March.
Earlier this year, former Planned Parenthood facility director-turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson observed to Breitbart News the gradual transformation of Planned Parenthood into a political movement during the tenure of former CEO Cecile Richards.
Johnson said Richards left “a trail of misery in her wake – over 2.5 million babies aborted on her watch, a decrease of 51% in breast cancer screenings, a grand total of zero mammograms, a drop of 65% in pap smears, and an organization that has eschewed healthcare in favor of building a political movement by serving 670,540 less patients since 2006.”
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