Op-Ed: Teachers’ unions are ‘political creatures’ feeding on ‘teacher salaries’

Teachers’ unions have a stranglehold on American public education. But now, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking the fight to the unions.

“Teacher unions no longer resemble the teachers that they supposedly represent, but are now political creatures that perpetuate themselves by feeding on teacher salaries and special privileges from states and school systems,” Paul Zimmerman wrote Monday in an op-ed for Fox News, commending DeSantis’ “Freedom Blueprint” for education reform.

If enacted, it would raise teacher pay while forbidding union dues being withdrawn directly from teachers’ paychecks. Union membership would also have to be renewed annually, putting the pressure on unions to prove their worth to teachers. Also, DeSantis’ plan would require unions to represent over 50% of a school district’s teachers before engaging in negotiation

“We are going to continue to work to provide increases in teacher pay. We’re going to increase teacher recruitment,” said DeSantis. “What we don’t want is that money going to teachers’ unions.”

On Monday, DeSantis announced a Teacher’s Bill of Rights which includes a plan for increased pay and further encourages transparency and accountability for unions.

As previously reported by The Lion, the average Florida teacher’s salary for 2020–21 was $49,583, according to the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics. In contrast, the Florida Education Association (FEA) – the state’s largest teachers’ union – has 43 employees making more than $100,000 annually. The president and other high-ranking employees make more than $200,000 per year. 

“This blueprint could not come at a better time to repel the unprecedented attempts of teacher unions to wrest control of the education system from parents and transform our schools into laboratories of progressive social and cultural experimentation,” wrote Zimmerman.  

He cites many examples of such radical agendas.  

• The National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers – the two largest national teachers’ unions – promote principles from Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender ideology in school policies and advocate for biological males to compete in girls’ sports.  
• The Detroit Federation of Teachers negotiated an “anti-racism” summer course for teachers which required them to actually alter their lessons according to the perceived ethnicity of their students.  
• The Montgomery County Education Association in Maryland forced schools to adopt “restorative” discipline practices and “mental wellness approaches” that Zimmerman claims will “inevitably encourage more misbehavior and classroom disruption to the detriment of student learning.”  
• And the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers negotiated a deal called “Protections for Educators of Color” which requires schools to fire white teachers before teachers of color.  

Wherever you go, the conclusion is the same: teachers’ unions do little good – for students, teachers, or anyone else.  

They are political parasites, sucking the funds from public schools just so they can lobby for politicians who will keep pouring taxpayer dollars back into them.