The Columbian
May 16^th, 1999

Politics in Disguise

Imagine being required to give $600 of your earnings each year to one of the most politically active groups in the state. It then spends part of your money supporting political candidates you can't stand, issues you find abhorrent, and even puts fliers, partially paid for by you, into your mail box at work to let you know just how you should vote.

That is more than an imaginary exercise for some state teachers and public school employees. Compulsory union dues are collected by the Washington Education Association and spent in part on politics, at state and national levels, that some of the unions 67,000 members find disagreeable.

This has placed teachers in a love-hate relationship with their union for years. Most teachers support the union's ole in collective bargaining and contract maintenance, but some are frustrated that the union uses their general-fund dues to finance political campaigning that they oppose�

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org

Quotables:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." - John Stuart Mill