Rebecca Friedrichs, previously the lead plaintiff in Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, is thrilled that the Supreme Court ruled to roll back union control over education.
Ruling 5-4 in favor of plaintiff Mark Janus in Janus vs. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that could drastically impact the stranglehold that teachers unions have over public education. Friedrichs sought this restitution, but was not granted a rehearing after the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
In an interview with Red Alert Politics, Friedrichs shared some of the many battles she had with the union during her decades of teaching.
“When I was 22 years old and serving under a mentor teacher … I tried to report a teacher who I thought was abusive because she picked on and grabbed six-year-olds,” Friedrichs said. “My mentor teacher sat me down and said ‘Rebecca, today is the day that you learn about teachers unions and teacher tenure.’”
This brief encounter shaped Friedrichs’ fight over the next 20-plus years with teachers unions. When she refused to sign her union paperwork, she was told that it was mandatory to at least pay “fees,” though she could opt out of “dues” that fund the organization’s national activities and political advocacy.
Yet, Friedrichs soon realized that the rebate process for dues was difficult to navigate and that the difference between fees and dues was only $50 – meaning that some of her money was potentially still funding things other than collective bargaining, such as the national union website, which is rife with policy statements, magazines, and mailings.
When Friedrichs championed school choice policies and pushed back against the union for a graphic sex-ed 5th-grade curriculum they helped institute with Planned Parenthood, she found herself bullied at meetings and called “a radical right-winger.” She also said that leaders would occasionally bully young teachers by threatening to remove their professional liability insurance if they didn’t join the union.
Above all, Friedrichs emphasized that the teachers unions are the cornerstone and root cause of what is impeding improvement in education. They convince teachers that they are needed, but then actively work to circumvent the needs of those they are supposedly representing.
Now retired from teaching, Friedrichs seeks change on a different scale. She is currently working on a book, “Standing Up to Goliath,” which includes interviews with 40 teachers and parents about their experiences with unions.
She also recently founded an advocacy organization, For Kids and Country, to empower teachers and parents in the fight for more local control over education, as she believes that “if we can help teachers break away from the bully unions, we can save our schools and save our country.”
Now that Janus has been decided in favor of individual freedom and against compulsory union dues, it is one step in the right direction toward loosening union control over public sector employees in general, and educators in particular.
John Schilling, president of American Federation of Children, issued a statement on the ruling, saying, “Today is a win for families and educators across the country. We’re glad to see that educators will be able to keep more of their hard-earned money … educators shouldn’t be forced to give their pay to union leaders whose self-serving political agenda opposes giving parents the right to choose the best school for their children.”
