Rebecca Friedrichs - Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country

B ATTLING S TATE AND N ATIONAL T EACHERS U NIONS
FOR THE
H EART AND S OUL OF OUR K IDS AND C OUNTRY

SPENDING BREAKDOWN FOR CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
20002009

Source: Big Money Talks: Californias Billion Dollar Club: The 15 Special Interests that Spent $1 Billion to Shape California Government. California Fair Political Practices Commission, March 2010.

After spending eighteen million dollars to defeat that 1993 voucher initiative, CTA spent even more in a future battle against educational choice. According to the report, The biggest expenditure, 26,366,491 dollars, was made to oppose Proposition 38 on the 2000 ballot. The measure sought to enact a school voucher system in California. It was defeated 29.4 percent to 70.6 percent.

I learned a fundamental truth about teachers unions from my experience with the voucher initiative, and this truth has held true throughout my almost three decades in Americas public schools. The truth? The teachers unions claim to put the needs and safety of children first, but they do not. They use the adorable faces of children, the vulnerability of children, and the innocence of children within their messaging to grab the hearts of empathetic voters so they can get what they want from the American taxpayers, but they are not in the business of doing whats right for Americas school kids (or their teachers). Theyre in the business of promoting themselves, pushing their one-sided political agenda onto the American people through our schools, and gaining widespread power using the billions theyve collected for decades from educators forced fees.

The ranting of a radical right-winger? Nope, this comes directly from top union leadership:

And that brings me to my final and most important point, which is why, at least in my opinion, NEA and its affiliates are such effective advocates, Bob Chanin, NEAs top legal counsel for 41 years told thousands of teachers at an NEA Representative Assembly meeting. Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children, and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues.

I TS A LL A BOUT
THE M ONEY

Union leaders are making thirteen to fourteen times more than the average American starting teacher, and six or seven times more than the average California teacher.

About three years into my career, I received some unsettling news. My doctor told me Id never have children. I was devastated. Id been praying for my future children since I was nine years old, and the only thing I ever wanted to be more than a teacher was a mother. My heart ached over my reality.

My husband at the time (Im no longer married to him) was working on his MBA. He was busy with school and work travel, so I threw my energies and passion into my students and they became a huge part of my life. I served on all sorts of committees, earned my masters degree in education, took a bunch of neat classes, and made some games to help me inspire kids to love learning. I was very fulfilled in the classroom, but I desperately wanted to be a mother, so there was an empty place in my heart.

Around Christmas time during my seventh year of teaching, I awoke one night in a horrible sweat. Then it happened another night and another. A week later I received the astonishing news that I was pregnant. I was overjoyed, but my doctors were concerned. My infertility had been caused by serious scar tissue on my cervix; the result of emergency surgery because of early stage cancer. Theyd removed all of the dangerous cells, but theyd taken most of my cervix too, so getting pregnant and carrying a baby to term was considered nearly impossible. Id begged God for a child, so concern or not, I was going to protect my baby and bring him into this world.

At four months along, my doctors stitched up what remained of my cervix, and I had to leave the classroom in exchange for six months of strict bed rest. It was at this time that union work rules and I came face to face.

Youll recall that I had refused to join the union because they protected the nasty Witch while children were abused, so I was an agency fee payer. Remember that fee payers are punished for daring to refuse to pay the overt political expenditures of the union; even though we still pay 100 percent of the collective bargaining fees, which amount to hundreds of dollars a year. Well, one of the punishments I faced was the inability to purchase disability insurance through my employer because disability insurance was a benefit provided only for union members in good standing. As a fee payer, I wasnt in good standing, so I was without disability insurance when I was placed on bed rest and had to go on something called differential. That means I received my wages, but I had to pay my substitute every day as well. I was only a seventh-year teacher, so I was low on the pay scale. After taxes, paying my substitute took up the bulk of my pay. My husband was working, but he was also going to school, so this was a huge burden on our modest budget.

Now, Ive never in my life expected anyone else to pay my bills or give me any special treatment, but when I look back at the way union rules and benefits left my family and me so incredibly vulnerable when I was trying to bring life into the world, I almost gag at their hypocrisy. You see, the teachers unions and their favored politicians are the ones who lead the battle cry against what they call our nations war on women. They advertise, help organize, and support the Womens March on Washington DC in cities all over the globe, give money to Planned Parenthood claiming its going to womens health, and continually pat themselves on the back for being warriors for women fighting for family leave and other perks to support women and families in the workplace.

Yet, there I was, a woman lying flat on her back for six months trying to bring a precious baby into the world, and because I wouldnt become a member of their political club, they denied my family and me the right to disability insurance and the funds we needed to properly nourish and protect an innocent child. I was being penalized for being a woman with an independent mind, and the pressure and financial woes my union created added great stress to an already very high-risk pregnancy. I was paying them hundreds of dollars a year to be represented, but when I really needed work-related support, they bullied my baby and me.