Freedom on the horizon for Pa. teachers?

 

How much money will you have to pay a private political organization just to keep your job this year?

If this question sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is — unless you are a public school teacher in Pennsylvania or one of 24 other forced-union states. Then, it’s the sad reality. But a U.S. Supreme Court case argued on Monday could change that for tens of thousands of public employees.

Here’s why many Pennsylvania educators, like us, are hoping California public schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs, plaintiff in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, wins her case.

As Pennsylvanians were already pinching dollars for holiday gift-buying, traveling, and year-end expenses, many public schoolteachers were hit with another expense.

Each year before Christmas, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) — the state’s largest teachers’ union — sends out an obscure document called a Hudson Notice. The notice is essentially an invoice, specifying the amount of this year’s “fair share fee,” or what teachers who’ve chosen to opt out of union membership are still forced to pay to the union.

Read the rest of this article here at the Pottstown Mercury where it was originally published on January 11, 2016. 

Keith Williams teaches Language Arts in Adams County's Conewago Valley School District. Jodie Kratz teaches Special Education in Dauphin County's Central Dauphin School District. Matt Eason teachers Health in Chester County's Avon Grove School District.