Meanwhile, in Maryland and 26 other states where teacher dues payment may be compelled, 1.3 million teachers pay forced union dues or fees as a condition of employment. The forced dues — typically between $700 and $1,000 for a full-time teacher every year — are divvied up by the various local, state and national teacher union affiliates, the AFT and National Education Association.

Under monopoly bargaining, a major culprit behind our lackluster public school system, individual teachers lose their right to negotiate with the principal or school board. Instead, once union agents gain the power of “exclusive representation” to negotiate wages and work rules, it becomes illegal for teachers to have a direct bargaining relationship with their employers or to be judged on their individual merit.

Unfortunately, the union hierarchy often cares more about filling its coffers and pursuing its political agenda than creating an atmosphere that rewards quality teachers who educate, inspire and serve as role models.

For example, union officials are notorious for blocking merit pay proposals, which would allow the best teachers to make more money. And teacher union bosses appear to be more willing to let our nation’s children fall further behind the world in math and science than let school boards offer higher compensation to fill jobs in these crucial subjects.

In many states, teacher union officials also misuse their monopoly power to order strikes that shut down schools, idle students, and cost taxpayers millions. Individual teachers who refuse to abandon the classroom are often targets of name-calling, intimidation and union fines.

The NEA and AFT union empires use a portion of their $1.3 billion in annual forced dues revenues to fund radical ideological activities. And this does not sit well with many teachers. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is currently providing free legal aid to thousands of teachers and other employees who object to their compulsory fees funding the political agenda of union bosses, whose ultimate goal, according to one former NEA official, is “to re-order the priorities of the United States of America.”

Foundation-won Supreme Court rulings establish that, while teachers can be forced to pay some dues, they cannot lawfully be forced to fund non-bargaining activities. But teacher union officials routinely make it as difficult as possible for teachers to exercise this right.

An individual should be free to join any association of his or her choosing — be it a union, a political party, or a church — or none at all. Fortunately, there are truly professional, nonunion alternatives out there, such as the Association of American Educators. These groups reject compulsion and are totally voluntary. So naturally, these groups are far more accountable to their members.

Even so, it is unconscionable that teachers are forced — as a condition of employment — to support unions like the NEA, which heavily fund political activity— often at odds with individual teachers’ deeply held political or religious beliefs.

Teachers may have the right to refuse to fund union activism, but fighting a union to get money back can be difficult, and backdoor procedures do not reliably protect the individual liberty of our children’s educators.

Our teachers deserve better. That’s why it’s time to end forced unionism altogether. No teacher should be forced to join or pay money to a union just to teach our children.

WEB EXTRA

To find out more, click these links.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

http://www.nrtw.org/

National Right to Work Act

http://www.right-to-work.org/facts-issues/nrtwa.htm

Mark Mix is president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. He also serves as president of the National Right to Work Committee, a 2.2 million member public policy organization.