Unions Keep Deducting Dues Without Consent, Teachers Say
Just a few weeks before school let out last May, unexpected visitors showed up in Bethany Mendez’s classroom.
They didn’t come to discuss the nuts and bolts of education or the work the teacher was doing to assist young students with learning disabilities.
Instead, the visitors wanted to know why she was leaving the teachers union, and if she fully understood the ramifications of resigning her membership.
“This made me very angry and upset to actually have them come to my classroom during instructional time during the day,” Mendez told The Daily Signal in an interview. “I thought the meeting was regarding a student who might have to go into one of my classes. But these were union representatives who showed up in my classroom to question me as to why I was leaving the union.”
Mendez teaches elementary school students with learning disabilities in California’s Fremont Unified School District.
Since she had her own bouts with dyslexia when she was roughly the same age as her students, Mendez explains, she became motivated to become a teacher and devote herself to assisting children who require specialized instruction.
For union officials to interrupt her instructional time, Mendez thought, was inappropriate and overly intrusive.
“I struggled with dyslexia …read more