Public Union Democracy

Pennsylvania Next in Union Crosshairs

  • Nathan Benefield, Priya Brannick
  • January 24, 2014

Government union leaders are ramping up their attack messaging machine in Pennsylvania and planning a rally to bully state lawmakers as they did in Wisconsin and Michigan. But…

Media

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Health Care

How Government Unions Support Obamacare

  • Elizabeth Stelle
  • January 14, 2014

Government unions such as the NEA and SEIU lobbied for passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which will raise the cost of health care through various mandates…

Media

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Education

Keeping Teachers in the Classroom

  • Priya Brannick
  • January 2, 2014

Given our still-sputtering economy, Americans have grown used to their public schools facing tight budgets. This fiscal squeeze has drawn out a hidden crisis in public education: How do we…

Commentary

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Education

Top 5 Blog Posts of 2013

  • Nathan Benefield
  • December 30, 2013

As 2013 winds to a close, we thought we’d run down the top stories of the past year.  Here are Commonwealth Foundation’s top 5 blog posts, as chosen by you…

Media

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Public Union Democracy

PSEA Pours $3.8 Million Into Politics

  • Priya Brannick
  • December 9, 2013

In the last year, the Pennsylvania State Education Association poured $3.8 million of its members’ dues into “political activities and lobbying,” according to its 2013 financial disclosure report. That’s an…

Media

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Your Union Dues Pay for PSEA Politics

  • December 5, 2013

As a teacher, you love being told what to think, right? That’s unlikely, but it’s exactly what the PSEA has been doing with union members across the state…

Media

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Public Union Democracy

Union Gave $650,000 from Teachers’ Dues to Anti-Republican Group

  • Priya Brannick
  • December 5, 2013

Remember the shadowy group, Pennsylvanians for Accountability, which ran “shell game” prime time attack ads on Gov. Tom Corbett for “bankrolling big tax cuts for his corporate backers”?  The…

Media

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Public Union Democracy

Union Dues Pay for PSEA Politics

  • Priya Brannick
  • November 21, 2013

“If you DON’T care about funds for your school…then by all means throw this away,” reads a June 2011 insert in PSEA Voice, the magazine of the 185,000-strong Pennsylvania…

Media

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Education

Union Dues Backing Political Groups Prompted My Resignation

  • November 19, 2013

This perspective on union spending by Pennsylvania public school teacher John Cress originally appeared at Free to Teach, a project of the Commonwealth Foundation. I have been a middle school…

Media

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