As Washington state teachers take a well-deserved break during the summer months, the Freedom Foundation is ramping up efforts to ensure educators are equipped with the resources necessary to determine whether dues paying membership with the Washington Education Association (WEA) is a worthy investment.
A new outreach campaign, including physical mail and digital communications, exposes WEA scholarships meant for purchase of LGBTQ+ resources for use in rural classrooms.
The grants, funded entirely by dues payers, has received widespread criticism: “Our classroom budgets are tight, these grants would be better spent on school supplies,” noted one Washingtonian teacher.
In response to WEA controversy, the Freedom Foundation’s outreach materials ask educators a simple question: “Your union dues support Washington Education Association’s LGBTQ+ agenda. Do you?”
Dozens of teachers have resigned their WEA membership in response.
For teachers unprepared to part with union representation, an additional outreach campaign in Washington state invites teachers to save money on WEA membership by opting out of the Washington Education Association’s political action committee (WEA-PAC).
With the help of voluntary contributions from teachers, WEA-PAC claims to support pro-education, pro-labor candidates “regardless of party affiliation.”
Instead, since 2020, WEA-PAC has given 63% of member contributions to Democratic candidates for a total of nearly $5 million. Plus, 35% of member contributions were used to support union operations, while just 0.51% was given to Republican or Independent candidates.
But it’s not just WEA-PAC members whose monthly payments support their union’s political agenda. During the 2022 election cycle, WEA contributed $1 million in membership dues directly towards WEA-PAC’s political advocacy.
Regardless of how members feel about the nature of WEA’s ideological giving, the Freedom Foundation’s outreach efforts ensure that this summer, Washington teachers will be equipped with the facts necessary to make an informed decision about whether dues paid for workplace representation are best spent on bringing controversial politics to the classroom.
