For the second year in a row, the Clark County Education Association has refused certified mail containing membership cancellation requests from the very teachers it claims to represent.
CCEA already restricts resignations to a narrow annual window during the middle of summer break, from July 1 through July 15. That barrier makes leaving the union unnecessarily difficult. But CCEA has gone further. During its own designated window, the union has refused to accept properly delivered correspondence from teachers who want out.
Last year, the Freedom Foundation conducted substantial outreach to Clark County educators before the opt out period. Teachers who decided to leave completed forms directing CCEA to cancel their memberships and stop withholding dues from their paychecks.
The teachers returned those forms to the Freedom Foundation through business reply mail at no cost to them. We then forwarded the completed requests to CCEA by certified mail so there would be a documented record of delivery.
CCEA refused the mail.
We then hired a professional process server to deliver the teachers’ requests directly.
CCEA rejected the process server too.
These were not advertisements, anonymous political literature or junk mail. They were explicit instructions from public school employees seeking to end their memberships and financial relationships with a private political organization.
In 2026, Clark County teachers again entrusted the Freedom Foundation with their completed cancellation forms after we promised to send them by certified mail during CCEA’s designated window.
Once again, CCEA refused every certified mailing.
New President, Same Obstruction
President Kristan Nigro inherited leadership of a union with an established pattern of obstructing members who want to leave.
She also inherited the responsibility to stop it.
Under Nigro’s leadership, CCEA continues to refuse correspondence containing explicit instructions from Clark County teachers demanding that their memberships be canceled and that dues no longer be withheld from their paychecks.
A union cannot credibly claim to represent teachers while deliberately avoiding communications from those same teachers.
CCEA may dislike a member’s decision to resign. It may resent the Freedom Foundation. It may prefer that fewer educators learn they have another option.
What it cannot legitimately do is refuse the mail and then behave as though those teachers never spoke.
Rights Do Not Vanish When the Union Rejects the Envelope
Freedom of association is a fundamental First Amendment principle. Teachers have the right to decide which private organizations they wish to join, support and remain associated with.
CCEA should not be permitted to defeat clearly expressed resignation requests simply by refusing to accept the envelopes containing them.
Its conduct demonstrates exactly why independent outreach remains necessary.
Without organizations informing employees of their rights, many teachers would never learn about CCEA’s restrictive resignation window. Without documented delivery attempts, the union could more easily deny receiving cancellation requests. Without public accountability, CCEA could continue treating resignation as a privilege it controls rather than a decision belonging to each individual teacher.
A union confident in its value would accept the letters.
A union respected by its members would not need procedural traps to keep them paying.
A union genuinely committed to educators would honor their decisions, even when those decisions cost the organization money.
CCEA’s repeated refusal of certified mail sends Clark County teachers a clear message:
The union wants their dues. It does not want to hear what they have to say.
Teachers deserve better. They deserve an organization that earns their voluntary support rather than obstructing their attempts to withdraw it.
President Nigro should immediately end this practice, acknowledge the teachers’ cancellation requests and ensure that dues are no longer withheld from educators who have clearly stated that they no longer wish to belong.
She should go further and end CCEA’s deliberately restrictive two-week resignation period. Teachers should be permitted to cancel their memberships effectively the next available pay period. At an absolute minimum, CCEA should accept resignations throughout the entirety of the summer rather than limiting teachers to a narrow window while many are away from school and it is the last thing on their minds.
The Freedom Foundation will continue expanding its outreach while CCEA continues making it difficult for teachers to exercise their rights.
And should any teacher report being bullied, harassed, intimidated or discouraged by a union official because of a personal decision regarding union membership, we will expose that conduct publicly and launch an aggressive campaign demanding accountability.
CCEA can choose voluntary support and respect for teachers’ decisions.
Or it can keep building the case for why every Clark County educator needs to hear from us.
