The union that represents Tennessee teachers made it crystal clear this week that it’s not happy with Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to stop school districts from automatically deducting dues from teacher paychecks.
Tennessee Education Association (TEA) Executive Director Jim Wrye made two appearances before state committees to paint the legislation as an attack on teachers.
“Singling out teachers we find is grossly unfair. They would be the only public employees explicit in the law if this were to pass that would ban payroll dues deduction,” said Wrye.
Left unsaid in the meetings is the possibility that teachers who are provided a more conscious choice to pay their union dues, might decide they no longer want to spend their own money funding the political actions the TEA has been engaged in.
One of the more noticeable political expenditures came last year, when the TEA spent $2,500 in a losing effort to back former Representative Terri Lynn Weaver in the Republican primary for the 40th Tennessee House District in Smith, Jackson, Dekalb, Cannon, and Wilson counties.
Weaver had spent more than ten years in office attracting negative attention including sponsoring legislation to classify children born through artificial insemination as illegitimate and most recently, boasting about attending the rally before the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol.
The association gave Weaver more money in 2022 than Nashville House District 52 candidate Delishia Porterfield, who served Tennessee students as a special education teacher.
The TEA provides money to candidates and political action committees through its Fund for Children and Public Education (FCPE). Online the organization explains why to its members.
“If educators don’t influence education decisions, then others will be more than happy to make decisions for us,” wrote the TEA. “Through FCPE, members can work together to support issues that matter to us. While teachers can rarely afford $1,000 political contributions, teachers together making $10 and $15 contributions can make a huge difference.”
The organization’s public facing website doesn’t spell out how much money it spends each year on candidate contributions, but an examination of state records shows it’s perhaps more than members may realize.
The TEA spent $232,100 in candidate campaign contributions last year. That’s more than Amazon who contributed $129,500 and Blue Cross Blue Shield who contributed $56,500 combined.
The disparity isn’t just a one-year aberration either.
State records show the TEA spent $675,506 over the last three election cycles on candidate contributions. By comparison Amazon spent $543,650 during that same period.
TEA Amazon
2017 = $37,500 2017 =$0
2018 = $181,246.68 2018 = $26,500
2019 = $53,500 2019 = $111,000
2020 = $116,589.85 2020 = $139,000
2021 = $54,500 2021 = $137,650
2022 = 232,100 2022 = $129,500
The money to make those contributions appears to come largely from the membership dues Governor Lee’s legislation could impact.
The TEA reported dues making up 84% of its contributions on its fiscal year 2020 taxes and according to Wrye, most school district’s provide teachers with the option of automatically deducting those dues from their paychecks.
An estimated 46,000 teachers do.
Under Tennessee law, participation in the TEA is voluntary for teachers and the proposed legislation wouldn’t prohibit the TEA from setting up other convenient ways for its members to choose to pay their dues.
At Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting, Clarksville Senator Bill Powers suggested taxpayers would benefit if the association used some of the resources it’s spending on political campaigns, to do just that.
“Taxpayer resources in K-12 education should not be used to support these activities,” said Senator Powers. “Can you imagine the nightmare that some of these smaller LEA’s (local education agency) have trying to do the job, so they (TEA) can be the benefactors.”
