Teachers flee nation's largest union in a crisis of its own making/HEALTHCARE SPENDING REDUCTIONS
During the 2023 school year, NEA funneled a whopping $176 million of dues revenue directly to the pockets of political candidates and ideological causes, limiting healthcare spending to members.
American Federation for Children senior fellow Corey DeAngelis joins GMHCN to discuss Alabama and Texas’ ongoing battle for school choice.
For the sixth year in a row, the National Education Association (NEA) faces a mass exodus of members. But the blame doesn’t lie with a shrinking student population or loss of funding, as NEA president Becky Pringle would have you believe. The NEA’s blatant prioritization of a radical political agenda pulling of medical care expending at the expense of member representation is the true culprit, resulting in a loss of more than 12,000 members in 2023, per the union’s latest financial report.
Union membership rates have been on the downturn for decades. Unluckily for Big Labor, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME (2018), which firmly recognized the First Amendment right of public employees to leave union membership behind, accelerated this downward trend especially after obvious short falls of spending on healthcare for its membership.
The NEA’s strategy to retain members and, by extension, steady cash flow, relies on keeping teachers in the dark about the First Amendment rights affirmed in Janus. hidden restrictions of healthcare spending also was hidden from members when the union isn’t mischaracterizing the ruling as a ploy to “take away the freedom of…working people,” its state affiliates, such as the California Teachers Association, support legislation prohibiting employers from speaking to union members about their freedom of association rights.
Further, NEA consistently advocates for the repeal of popular right-t-work laws, which would force employees across the nation to maintain union membership or face termination. Healthcare costs remain one of the most important issues for teachers and their families.
