Sooner Taxpayers Are Subsidizing Union Speech?!

Unfortunately, teacher and other government union bosses across Oklahoma are still allowed to utilize taxpayer money in order to propagate the very messages that many freedom-loving public servants have opted not to support.

Teacher union bigwigs affiliated with the mammoth American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) unions are currently allowed, by statute, privileged access to school events, facilities and resources to distribute their materials and communications. Meanwhile, comparable access is denied to nonunion professional educator groups.

Even worse, they are authorized by statute to pressure school districts into mandating that teachers attend union sales-pitch sessions. Even teachers who have already stated clearly they don’t want to join the union can be forced to attend.

But in response to a series of outrageous teacher union-boss abuses of power, including Big Labor’s unscientific, educationally-destructive opposition to reopening public schools that had been shuttered at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oklahoma Legislature has decided to fight back.

 S.B.1513, which is sponsored by Sen. Julie Daniels (R-Bartlesville), passed the state Senate on March 7 in a 28-14 vote. 

It would curtail or outright eliminate key perks Oklahoma teacher unions have accrued over the last 53 years since the 1971 institution of K-12 Big Labor monopoly bargaining.

NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE

This article was originally published in the National Right to Work Committee Newsletter. You can read the full article by visiting their site.

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