“I grew up in Italy. There, we call this ‘extortion.’”

While New Jersey teacher union officials and legislators thought they had the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation-won Janus case down for the count, the  Foundation has countered with a lawsuit to grant these two teachers the freedom they deserve.

Laura Waters has the story in the74million.org.

Susan G. Fischer teaches Italian in New Jersey public schools. All in all, she calculates that she’s involuntarily ceded about $30,000 of hard-earned salary to union dues during her 30-year teaching career. Mandatory payments increase annually; her tab last year was $1,222. While she harbors no resentment toward the $25 a year she pays to her local bargaining unit at Ocean Township Public Schools and the $50 per year she pays to the Monmouth County unit, praising the collegial relationships and professional development opportunities, she’s always resented the $200 per year she pays to the National Education Association and, most adamantly, the $800 per year — Fischer calls it “highway robbery” — that goes to the state union, the New Jersey Education Association.

Fischer told me, “I grew up in Italy. There, we call this ‘extortion.’ Pay if you join, pay if you don’t join. There’s no choice.”