Teachers as targets

Regarding “Union blasts dues bill” (Page A3, Tuesday), the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee heard SB 13, a bill that is a farce being pushed by individuals willfully misguiding the public and using the strong antiunion sentiments of this state for their agenda.

Proponents say the bill weakens unions in the state. The fact is this bill targets only teachers, not the strong unions, while these same teachers are busy preparing the children of our state for the burdens and overwhelming stresses of another round of testing for which they will be judged in ways that do not measure experience, ability or growth.

Texas is a right-towork state where unions are already weak and have little influence in corporate or political arenas. The largest group representing teachers is a non-union professional association opposing strikes and the strongarm tactics of labor unions.

If this is a bill to target unions then why are educators the only included group, and unions with real strength — firefighters, police and first responders — are explicitly excluded from the language of the bill? The truth is that this bill punishes teachers for standing in the way of an agenda seeking to dismantle the public school system.

The other lie promoting the bill is that payroll deductions for membership dues cost taxpayers money in support of unions.

Payroll offices across the state consistently say there is no cost to add another payroll deduction alongside other deductions employees have, such as United Way, insurance and even gym memberships. The fact remains that this is a political agenda to attack educators and those in public education for not going along with plans for privatization of public schools.