Peter Greene writes here about the mass email that went to teachers in many states, advising them about their right to stop paying union dues and have no collective bargaining on their behalf.
Teachers have been targeted by the rightwing Mackinac Center in Michigan, which has never before shown any interest in teachers’ wellbeing.
But there they are, ready to help you kill off your union.
And, wow– it sure is inspiring to see the one percenters so deeply concerned about teacher freedom of speech. I mean, to devote all this time and money just because they want to make sure that every teacher has a chance to exercise her rights. It’s inspiring. Just like all those other times they were out there in the schools making sure that teachers were free to express their opinions and stand up for students and advocate for better education without fear of losing their jobs and– oh, no, wait. They DeVos’s and Koch’s were the ones agitating for the end of job protections so that teachers could be fired at any time, including for speaking up and exercising their First Amendment rights. In fact, the number of times that groups like Mackinac have been out there standing up for teachers’ rights, First Amendment and otherwise, would be, by my rough count, zero. None.
It’s almost as if this whole thing isn’t about teachers’ First Amendment right at all.
It’s almost as if this was just a ploy to bust up the unions and make sure that teachers had even less voice in the world of education. It’s almost as if this was a way to drain funds from the Democratic Party.
Do you think the Koch brothers and the DeVos care about you? Don’t be fooled.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dear God, is there any end to these horrible rightwing/libertarian/Ayn Randish “think” tanks? The libertarian billionaires have built up a whole broad and vast network of these phony baloney propaganda mills advocating for the deconstruction of what little democracy that we do have in favor of limited government, lower taxes, deregulation, privatization, blah, blah, blah. Mackinac Center, AEI, CATO, Heritage, Federalist Society, US Chamber of Commerce, etc., ad nauseam. And all these scum bags get plenty of air time on the media as if they were non-partisan, objective experts and scholars! Ha! What a sick joke. Guess who is the real power behind these SCOTUS and lower court picks? From huffington post: For the second time in less than two years, President Donald Trump is poised to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. But he’s not the one remaking the nation’s most powerful court for generations of Americans. It’s Leonard Leo.
Leo, executive vice president of The Federalist Society, a national organization of conservative lawyers, has played a central role in the selection and confirmation of three Supreme Court justices: John Roberts, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. And on Wednesday, Leo announced that he’s taking leave from his job, effective immediately, to personally advise Trump on a replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.”
Where are all the progressive think tanks? Crickets.
Even on CNN, progressive individuals may get some air time, but the “think tanks” are always conservative. The right’s perspective gets more attention. Unfortunately, lots of people may feel a “think tank” carries more gravitas unlike the lobbyist group they actually represent.
Nearly all the comments at the mypaymysay FB page are pro-union.
(Sorry, hit “Enter” too soon.) Let’s hope Janus backfires on them, in the most audacious manner possible.
Florida teachers union has already filed a lawsuit. Florida quickly passed a union busting law which states that a union must have 50% of the teachers as members in order for the union to represent them. https://www.news4jax.com/news/teachers-unions-challenge-new-law
Actually, that is the law. But decertification can only occur within 90 days of contract renewal. Further, the application for a new election has to be made by an employee.
The Florida law would allow a Public Employer the right to call for a special election anytime a Public Workers Union fell below 50%. Further, the employer would bring the action. Public employees are not covered by the NLRA.
So here is my question to you how many retired teachers voted for these clowns. How many retired Union members transplanted from high union density states. Vote for right-wing anti-union Republicans.
Staten Island has the densest union household density in the state of New York. It votes Republican all the time. How many teachers did I hear in Oklahoma self-describe as Republicans? Did we not celebrate on this a Republican teacher who defeated a state Republican party leader. The Union movement was dead when they passed Taft Hartley; if for no other reason than it purged the radical socialists from the Union movement.
,” I could pay half the working class to kill the other half.” Jay Gould
Add a couple of question marks and a period. I miss the edit button.
It will have the effect of silencing any views other than the dominant (and elite) ed reform narrative that promotes charters and private schools.
Public schools won’t have a seat at the table when ed reformers set policy that applies to public schools.
As usual, public school students are the big losers in an ed reform iniative. They just lost the only organized, powerful EFFECTIVE advocacy group they had.
They’ll be left with the weak and ineffective “agnostics” in ed reform, who do absolutely nothing to advocate on their behalf.
Look for more school funding cuts, more dumb and gimmicky mandates from ed reform think tanks- more pain for the unfashionable public school sector and more funding and attention showered on the charter and private school sector.
We need some advocates in government. We don’t have any. Our schools will continue to get short shrift as long as ed reformers wholly dominate debate and policy- they don’t value our schools. In fact, they hope to eradicate them.
Campaign finance reform. Until then, NEA and AFT $$$ must only support home-grown state-level and congressional educator candidates. No more national support for candidates who are phoney supporters of public schools. Until real public education candidates come along, the purse should be closed.