…on May 21, 2008, the SDEA Representative Council (a body of some 200 elected leaders of SDEA) approved a proposal to charge an “agency fee” (or “fair share fee”) for all Visiting Teachers protected by the SDEA Collective Negotiations Agreement with SDUSD who do not choose to become dues-paying union members.
Translation: San Diego teacher union leaders voted to extract fees from substitute teachers who are not protected in any way by the union, whether they choose to join the union or not. It is not clear if anyone representing substitute teachers was eligible to vote.
As education budgets are cut in California, schools are forced to rely on more “support” or “long term substitute” teachers instead of hiring new staff with contracts or benefits. Because of this rule, these non-union support teachers are forced to financially support an organization that is working to keep them from getting teaching contracts with benefits or protection.
This discourages non-union teachers to work at all and cuts off the lifeblood of our children’s educational system: new, ambitious, and qualified teachers. It’s criminal.
