Education Minister Linda McMahon just released a shocking video that has teachers unions in an uproar. In it, she lays out the facts clearly and simply: “Teachers, did you know that you are not required to pay union dues, regardless of which state you live in? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that government employees, including teachers, cannot be required to join or pay union dues as a condition of employment.”
She’s talking about the landmark decision Janus v. AFSCME, in which the Supreme Court affirmed that public employees cannot be forced to subsidize union speech they disagree with. McMahon makes the point: “If you choose to stay, that’s your decision. The point is, the choice is yours.”
If public school teachers are tired of their hard-earned money funding radical agendas, it’s time for them to step back and take back control of their salaries.
Teacher unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) do not prioritize teachers or their students. They are bloated bureaucracies more interested in politics than pedagogy. Take the NEA: less than 10% of its annual budget of more than $400 million actually goes to teacher representation in the workplace.
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Secretary of Education Linda McMahon joined Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman at a press conference at Massapequa High School in Massapequa Park, NY on May 30, 2025. (Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
The rest is funneled into lobbying, executive perks, and ideological crusades that have nothing to do with improving classrooms. During the last election cycle, 99.9% of political contributions from the AFT – led by President Randi Weingarten – went directly to Democrats. That smacks of money laundering for the Democrats, which is being siphoned directly out of teacher salaries.
These unions are partisan and also push extreme propaganda into the schools. There have been teacher unions explosive distributing anti-ICE material, urging teachers to oppose immigration enforcement and turning classrooms into partisan battlegrounds. The NEA and its affiliates encourage teachers to post immigration-related political posters and attend anti-ICE training, while schools should focus on reading, writing and math — and not indoctrinate children with far-left activism.
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Meanwhile, NEA President Becky Pringle, who is an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee, and AFT’s Weingarten, who announced a partnership between her union and the World Economic Forum to create curriculum, rake in about half a million dollars each year from dues of hard-working teachers who earn a fraction of that. That’s a racket.
Most teachers do not even subscribe to this radicalism. According to an Education Week survey, a majority identify as Republican or independent, outnumbering Democrats. Teachers should not continue to fund their political opponents. It’s time they stop funding people who go against their values and start keeping more of their salaries for themselves and their families.
The good news is that teachers don’t have to go it alone when they leave the union. Alternatives such as the Teacher Freedom Alliance (TFA) offer free membership and personal liability insurance for teachers who opt out. TFA’s coverage is superior – $2 million per event, twice the typical $1 million limit for the union, and it’s in the teacher’s name, not the union. This means that teachers are protected individually, without the union deciding whether or not to defend them based on its agenda.
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Unions claim to protect teachers, but in reality they protect the worst performers and punish the best. Uniform salary schedules and restrictions on earnings put great pressure on great teachers. Without the union monopoly, top educators could negotiate their own salaries based on performance, without poor performance holding everyone back. The system rewards seniority over excellence, and it’s time to stop shortchanging great teachers.
Choice is key. But more and more teachers are choosing freedom. Just this month, Washington state teachers went viral for speaking out against their union’s overreach. Fifth-grade teacher Travis Reep accused the Washington Education Association of bullying and silencing educators who support parental rights, saying union leaders are controlled by “activists” with an agenda. He added, “I’m not the only teacher who knows that parents love their children far more than I ever could.”
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Matt Bell, who left after 29 years, revealed how teachers are banned from informing parents of their child’s gender reassignment or changes in pronouns: “I’m forced to keep secrets from the parents.” Bell explained his decision to leave: “When I saw my union trying to go against female athletes’ protections and parental rights, I said, ‘I’m done.’” These courageous voices show that the tide is turning.
And that’s not all. In Florida, two union leaders – Teresa Brady and Ruby George – were just sentenced to prison for stealing millions from hardworking teachers. Brady received 27 months, George 12 months, after embezzling more than $2.4 million through fraudulent leave schemes.
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In Chicago, the Liberty Justice Center locked arms with union members to sue the Chicago Teachers Union for failing to conduct required financial audits for five years in a row. Congress is now investigating and it turns out that the CTU failed at least two of those audits, with serious flaws in their financial statements.
When teachers leave en masse, it forces union bosses to refocus on education rather than activism. Teachers have the power to starve the beast by keeping their hard-earned salaries if the unions go too far. Opting out means saving money and reclaiming the profession from political hacks.
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