Teachers in Oregon are fed up. For the past few years, we’ve been meeting and hearing from hundreds of educators who’ve been sharing their horror stories of being bullied by the Oregon Education Association and its far-left extremist advocates.
Many of these teachers kept silent for years, but now they’re speaking out.
Case in point, Sue Smith, a teacher from Portland Metro and former school board member.
“Opting out of teacher’s union is very easy,” she said. “But the hardest thing is getting past your fear. We need to stand up for what we believe in. We need to be strong, and we need to start taking a stand instead of sitting back and waiting for everybody to take a stand for us.”
And that’s exactly what we saw with nearly 800 OEA-affiliated educators — mostly teachers — opting out this year alone. Many are speaking out and sharing their stories to encourage more to follow.
The sad truth is that OEA claims to represent Oregon teachers but provides only enough service to maintain the illusion it cares about anything more than advancing a far-Left political agenda with someone else’s hard-earned money.
According to its most recent financial report, OEA in 2019 raked in more than $25 million in dues and fees, with only 23 percent spent on anything remotely connected to teachers and representation.
The national affiliate (NEA) spent a paltry 8.5 percent on representational activity.
We watched this play out firsthand in Newberg, Ore., where OEA weaponized its rank-and-file teachers and activists to push back against Newberg school board members and teachers who simply wanted to take politics out of class and bring back quality education.
Dave Brown, Newberg School Board chairman, noted, “We may have been the tip of the spear here in Newberg, but I can tell you, this is going on everywhere.”
This is a great example of what happens when more and more teachers and school employees take a stand against the bullies. Kim Rice, another Oregon teacher, said, “I left the union because I disagreed with the progressive agendas being implemented in my building, district and state.”
If you’re a teacher or know one, join these great educators and hundreds of others to show that here in Oregon we will not tolerate this and will put a stop to this corruption. You can visit OptOutToday.com to learn more.
