These Two Teachers Wanted to Quit NJEA But A New Law Didn’t Let Them.
December 13, 2018
NJ DOE Watch: Says One Staffer, “This is Like Trump’s White House.”
December 17, 2018These Teachers Wanted to Resign from NJ’s Teacher Union But a New State Law Undermines Their Rights. So They’re Suing Gov. Murphy and NJEA.
I have the lead piece in The 74 today on how two veteran New Jersey teachers are trying to resign from the state’s teacher union, as permitted in the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME but a preemptive law passed by the State Legislative interferes with that right. But that’s much of a muchness: NJEA regularly pushes the Legislature and Gov. Murphy in particularly child-unfriendly ways. The column starts here:
Susan G. Fischer teaches Italian in New Jersey public schools. All in all, she calculates that she’s involuntarily ceded about $30,000 of hard-earned salary to union dues during her 30-year teaching career. Mandatory payments increase annually; her tab last year was $1,222. While she harbors no resentment toward the $25 a year she pays to her local bargaining unit at Ocean Township Public Schools and the $50 per year she pays to the Monmouth County unit, praising the collegial relationships and professional development opportunities, she’s always resented the $200 per year she pays to the National Education Association and, most adamantly, the $800 per year — Fischer calls it “highway robbery” — that goes to the state union, the New Jersey Education Association.
Read the rest here.
One other note: For this piece, I had a great interview with Sue Fisher, most of which didn’t make it into the piece. Later this week I’ll post the full interview.
1 Comment
Your story about Betsy DeVos just got posted on my FB page. Unless I’m missing something, she did not say she’s recommending the removal of civil rights protections for students of color – or as you write “Black boys”. You say “Any day now she’s going to do it.” If you’re a serious writer, you don’t say that. If she does it, then you write that. If you think she’s going to do it, say “I think she may”. But speculative opinion is not acceptable. In these days of fake news, it just drives us nuts. And we don’t need that.