Once upon a time, a teacher landed a job in an Oregon public school. She acquired a decent salary since she had some years of experience under her belt. Dishearteningly, she learned an organization, supposedly the voice of teachers, was allowed to extract almost $1,000 from her hard-earned paycheck each year. She didn’t like having her money given to Planned Parenthood, recreational marijuana use, and only one political party, for example.  Money talks, and the extracted dues usurped her freedom of speech.

She and thousands of other public employees grew weary of having their money, speech, and freedom of association stolen.  So many cried out, in fact, that the United States Supreme Court heard them and ruled against the wanton theft of speech and association.

Not surprisingly, the organization that once had power to extract dues from her pocket was upset. Rather than admit their wrong and apologize, they devised a new scheme to extract money from the pockets of taxpaying, hardworking educators and other public employees. Currently in Oregon, the educators’ unions and some legislators think an added payroll tax that sends revenue straight to government unions is a great idea.

The teachers’ unions use educators to fund whatever agenda those in union power have in mind.  They are not concerned with their members’ true concerns. Consider their oft-repeated cry for smaller class sizes. In what way does adding an extra payroll tax help a school district lower class sizes?

This Oregon public school teacher will continue to pray, hope and work for a happy ending for all educators.