Education Secretary McMahon tells teachers they can opt out of union dues

Education Minister Linda McMahon just dropped a stunning video Teachers unions Jogging. It states the facts clearly and simply: “Teachers, did you know that you are not obligated to pay union dues no matter what state you live in? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees, including teachers, cannot be required to join or pay a union as a condition of employment.”

She’s talking about the landmark decision Janus v. AFSCME, where the Supreme Court affirmed that public employees cannot be forced to support union speech with which they disagree. “If you choose to stay, that’s your decision,” McMahon explains. “The point is: the choice is yours.”

If public school teachers are tired of their hard-earned money funding extremist agendas, it is time for them to walk away and take back control of their paychecks.

Teachers 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 bureaucrats more interested in politics than education. Take the NEA – less than 10% of its annual budget of more than $400 million actually goes toward teacher representation in the workplace.

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon joins Nassau County Executive Bruce Blackman during a news conference at Massapequa High School, in Massapequa Park, New York, on May 30, 2025. (Alejandra Villa Luarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

The rest is directed In pressureand executive perks and ideological campaigns that have nothing to do with improving classrooms. In the last election cycle, 99.9% of the NAACP’s political contributions – under the leadership of President Randi Weingarten – went directly to Democrats. This reeks of money laundering for Democrats, drained directly from teachers’ salaries.

These unions are partisan, and also push extremist propaganda into schools. It was the teachers’ unions Detonation Posting anti-ICE material, urging teachers to rally against immigration enforcement and turning classrooms into partisan battlegrounds. The NEA and its affiliates encourage teachers to post political posters on immigration and attend anti-immigration training courses, while schools should focus on reading, writing and arithmetic – not indoctrinating children in far-left activities.

Look at the annual NEA conference In Portland, Oregon, their decisions sound more like a declaration of war on the Trump administration than an education policy meeting. They called Trump a “fascist,” objected to his education policies and vowed to fight every step toward accountability and choice.

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Meanwhile, NEA President Becky Pringle, a senior member of the Democratic National Committee, and the AFT’s Weingarten, who announced a partnership between her union and the World Economic Forum to create curriculum, raise about half a million dollars each year, extracted from the dues of hard-working teachers who earn a fraction of that. This is a racket.

Most teachers do not even agree with this extreme. According to an Education Week poll, a majority do as well Republican or independentsuperior to the Democrats. Educators should not continue to fund their political opponents. It is time for them to stop funding people who work against their values ​​and start keeping more of their paychecks for themselves and their families.

The good news is that teachers don’t have to go it alone when they leave the union. Alternatives like the Teacher Freedom Alliance (TFA) offer free membership and personal liability insurance for teachers who choose not to participate. TFA’s coverage is superior – $2 million per case, twice the union’s typical $1 million limit, and it is in the teacher’s name, not the union’s name. This means that teachers are protected individually, without the union deciding whether to defend them based on its own agenda.

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Unions claim to protect teachers, but in reality they protect the worst performers while penalizing the best. Standardized pay scales and withholding of merit pay mean that great teachers are dragged down by a heavy burden. Without a union monopoly, top teachers can negotiate their pay based on performance, freed from the low performance that holds everyone back. The system rewards seniority over excellence, and it is time to stop belittling great teachers.

Choice is key. But more and more teachers are choosing freedom. Just this month, Washington state teachers spread far and wide To speak out against their union’s overreach. Fifth-grade teacher Travis Reeb accused the Washington Education Association of bullying and silencing teachers who support parental rights, saying union leaders are driven by “activists” with an agenda. “I’m not the only teacher who knows that parents love their children much more than ever before,” he added.

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Look at the NEA’s annual conference in Portland, Oregon. Their decisions sound more like a declaration of war on the Trump administration than an education policy meeting.

Matt Bell, who left after 29 years, revealed how teachers are prevented from telling parents about their children’s gender transition or pronoun changes: ‘I’m forced to keep secrets from the parents.’ Bell explained his decision to leave: “When I saw my union trying to go against the protection of female athletes and go against parental rights, I said, ‘I’m done.’” These brave voices show that the tide is beginning to turn.

And that’s not all. And in Florida, two union bosses — Theresa Brady and Ruby George — were sentenced to prison for stealing millions from hardworking teachers. Brady got 27 months, and George 12 months, after embezzling more than $2.4 million through fraudulent leave schemes.

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In Chicago, the Freedom Justice Center collaborated with union members to sue the Chicago Teachers Union for failing to conduct required financial audits for five consecutive years. Congress is now investigatingIt emerged that CTU had failed at least two of these audits, with serious flaws in its financial statements.

When teachers walk out en masse, it forces union leaders to refocus on education rather than activism. Teachers have the power to starve the beast by keeping their hard-earned salaries when they go beyond unionization. Opting out means saving money and taking back the profession from political hacks.

Click here to read more by Corey Deangelis