EXCLUSIVE: Teachers Opposed to Union Politics Reassert Free Speech Rights

COVID lockdowns proved a turning point for teachers who balk at union policies

Part of a developing series about union abuse of dues for partisan gain

When Trent Bryden’s local union became complicit in efforts to keep students out of school during the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided it was time to make a clean break.

Otherwise, the Pennsylvania high school teacher knew he would be footing the bill for political activities and policy decisions he did not support.

Fortunately, under the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, public employees cannot be coerced into joining a union or paying union fees as a non-member.

“COVID polices were the turning point for me,” Bryden told Restoration News in an interview. “Up until then, I was willing to stay with the local union because it wasn’t as political as the state or national unions. But that changed during COVID,” he added.

“When I saw the local union was pushing to keep students home, and to have students do more online learning, it became apparent they were becoming part of a larger agenda and that was the last straw for me. I saw this was hurting kids.”

Bryden has been a teacher in the Wallenpaupack School District in Northeastern Pennsylvania for the past 19 years. He estimates that teachers and other school employees pay about $1,000 each year in dues with most of those funds going to Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and the National Education Association (NEA).

“Only a relatively small percentage of the dues goes directly to the locals,” Bryden said. “There is also something called the PACE program in our district and others where teachers can voluntarily donate something like an extra $200 a year for political activity. I never participated in the PACE program since I didn’t agree with union’s politics. PACE was portrayed as a nonpartisan political action committee, but that was really a misrepresentation.

“PACE takes the money and spends it on causes benefitting the Democratic Party,” he explained.

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Unions Camouflage Donations

PACE, which stands for Political Action Committee of Education, is a political fund of the PSEA. The name has suddenly become ubiquitous in the press thanks to legal complaints filed with federal and state officials last week against the PSEA. PACE is prominently mentioned not because it has violated any laws, but because it hasn’t.

By contrast, the Fund for Student Success, which the PSEA established in 2018, has come under scrutiny for allegedly serving as a conduit for what the Freedom Foundation describes as “an illegal scheme” to “surreptitiously” funnel “nearly $1.5 million in teachers’ union dues” to support the gubernatorial campaign of Josh Shapiro in 2022. The foundation, which is a free market “action tank” devoted to challenging the power of political power of government unions, is the group that filed three separate complaints the PSEA.

Since PACE has been registered as a political action committee since 1968 and has consistently disclosed its contributions and expenditures to the Pennsylvania Department of State, the foundation points out that the PSEA must clearly be aware of the campaign finance reporting rules.

Although the allegations only serve to bolster Bryden’s concerns about how the unions make use of membership dues, the high school teacher had already made the determination that  he is in a better to position to ply his trade outside of the PSEA and its affiliates. He recalls that at the beginning of each school when it came time for teachers to pay their dues someone from the Wallenpaupack Education Association would lobby on behalf of making PACE donations and claim they were not really political.

Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) & Political Action Committee of Education (PACE) logo

“They would say this is a way for you to make life better for students and to have teachers paid more,” Bryden said. “But in fact, they are just funding rank politics and it was never about these supposedly altruistic education bills coming out of Harrisburg.”

Bryden joined Americans for Fair Treatment, (AFFT) a national nonprofit that advocates for the constitutional rights of public employees, because in his words “they do a wonderful job of cataloging how the PSEA spends its members’ dues on politics.”

(RELATED: North Carolina Democrats Oppose Education Freedom—Except for Wealthy Elites)

By examining LM-2 financial disclosure forms the PSEA is required to file with the U.S. Labor Department, AFFT found that union is curtailing its spending on representational activities while increasing its political expenditures. The most recent financial disclosure form covering Sept. 1, 2022 to August 31, 2023 shows that only 14.3 percent of PSEA’s spending went toward representational activities compared to 20.2 percent in the prior reporting period. Meanwhile, spending on political activities and lobbying exercises jumped from $3.2 million in the last reporting period to $5.02 million in the most recent reporting period.

Where did all this money go?

AFFT has the lowdown.

Most of the funds are devoted to left-wing causes. There is, for example, a $6,600 donation to Actblue Charities, the 501(c)(3) arm of the Democratic fundraising group Actblue. PSEA also donated $50,000 to the Keystone Research Center, a “progressive” policy institute that advocates for higher taxes and more government spending.

“PSEA’s use of membership dues for partisan political activities highlights a broader trend affecting unions nationwide,” Isabel Blank, the senior communications director at AFFT said. “This practice underscores a growing concern about the extent to which union resources are being channeled into political efforts, often at the expense of their members' diverse political views and interests.

“We have nearly 600 members across 40 states echoing Trent’s concerns, reflecting similar issues in their own local, state, and national unions.” Blank continued:

Employees frequently tell us that they appreciate the local union's work in negotiating and addressing workplace issues, but many are unaware that a significant portion of their dues is directed to state and national levels, where it is spent on political activities unrelated to their workplace concerns.

Politically Red Hot

PSEA is the largest and most politically potent public sector union in Pennsylvania representing about 137,087 teachers in Pennsylvania, according to government figures. But AFFT’s research shows the union has lost about 5,000 members since 2018. The fact that such a small percentage of its resources is devoted to representing its members could be a factor.

Bryden expects this trend to continue unless the unions redirect their efforts back into the classroom experience.

“During COVID there was a lot of technological incompetence, and yet the union was calling for more online learning,” he said. “The only conclusion I could come to is they didn’t want to do their jobs, which is to teach and take care of kids. So, their desire to do less work was being put above the wellbeing of kids despite the salary they were being paid.”

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