A Parent’s Intro To Unions

Since their inception in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, teachers unions have become some of the most powerful special interests in the contemporary political landscape. Two notable unions at the national level are the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. In California, there is the California Teachers Association (CTA), which is affiliated with the National Education Association. The CTA has over 1,100 local affiliates throughout the state. There’s also the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), affiliated with the AFL-CIO. 

While these groups claim to champion quality public education, frustrated teachers and parents are realizing that these unions put their increasingly-radical political agenda ahead of students and families. The Parent Union and California Policy Center are fierce advocates for teachers, parents, and students. We, therefore, stand in opposition to teachers’ unions as they oppose the best interests of all three.

The landmark 2018 U.S. Supreme Court Decision, Janus vs. AFSCME, ruled that “the practice of states and public-sector unions collecting agency fees from nonconsenting employees was a violation of the First Amendment.” In other words, public employees (including teachers) have the right to freely associate and not be members of a union. The implications are significant for teachers who disagree with unions’ partisan political advocacy or simply don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars per year to a collective bargaining institution. The California Policy Center’s Janus Project, which seeks to inform teachers and other public sector employees of their constitutional rights, has been incredibly successful helping California teachers and other union members leave their unions. 

Every year, teachers unions rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in member dues. They face no penalty or reckoning when teacher-union backed schools fail to adequately educate students. In California, public school students have some of the worst student achievement scores in the nation, yet the state’s teachers unions continue to wield tremendous political power. 

In 2018, the CTA brought in over $356.3 million and the CFT brought in over $107.6 million in revenue.  In 2020, CTA spent nearly $6 million in political donations at the federal level and nearly $217 million at the state level. During the 2019-20 legislative session in California, the CFT spent over $1.2 million in general lobbying.

But the teachers unions’ influence goes far beyond education issues. They spend their millions on a wide range of political causes that have little to do with education. The Secretary of State and Ballotpedia report what ballot measures the CTA supports and opposes. Notable examples are Prop 85, which would have required parental notification for a minor to get an abortion. The CTA spent $275,000 in opposition to Prop 85. The CTA also endorsed Prop 47 in 2014, which reduced the classification of certain crimes like shoplifting, grand theft, forgery, and fraud from felonies to misdemeanors if the value of stolen goods does not exceed $950. 

Unions in California and across the nation lead the campaign to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In December 2020 and early 2021, the CTA and CFT fought Assembly Bill 10, a bill to reopen schools. California teachers unions held school reopenings hostage with a  wish list of union demands that had nothing to do with student or teacher safety. In a state where students were already overwhelmingly falling behind, school closures caused massive damage to academic and mental wellness for California’s children. 

Although it may seem like unions’ deep pockets and political power are insurmountable, California parents are a force to be reckoned with. Over the last two years, parents  have come together to stand up for their children in a bonafide parent movement, with many parents running for their local school board. California Policy Center’s Parent Union works with parents, parent groups and school board candidates to help them understand and push back against the teachers union agenda.