July 3, 1998

TEACHERS VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY TO REJECT UNION'S POLITICS

According to the Washington Education Association's own newsletter, Action, during this Past year, the number of voluntary contributors to the union's PAC has fallen another 14 percent- from 11,671 to 10,071. 85 percent of public school teachers in the state of Washington do not want to support the politics of their union leaders.

Perhaps more startling, in what may be the most pro-union school district in the state, more than 96 percent of teachers in the Seattle School District choose not to contribute to the PAC, despite the urging of the high-powered executive director who is paid by the National Education Association to oversee the district.

Furthermore, the statewide decline has occurred despite an internal union campaign that vilifies the efforts of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to uphold workers' and teachers' First Amendment rights. An overwhelming majority of union-member teachers have now spoken in Washington and are sending one simple message: when given the choice, they choose not to support the union's politics. Is it any wonder that labor leaders spent more than $22 million to defeat California's paycheck protection initiative?

Council	Membership Count (December 1997)	WEA-PAC Members (May 1998)	Percent WEA-PAC
Kent	1,540	502	32.60
Vancouver	1,251	400	31.97
Pilchuck	3,553	1,128	31.75
Lower Columbia	1,610	476	29.57
Rainier	2,443	575	23.54
Riverside	2,886	666	23.08
Sammamsih	2,210	505	22.85
Puget Sound	4,553	967	21.24
Spokane	2,898	577	19.91
Chinook	4,845	933	19.26
Cascade	3,836	680	17.73
Fourth Corner	3,876	661	17.05
Bellevue	876	142	16.21
Southeast Wash	3,339	514	15.39
MidState	3,942	339	8.60
Soundview	1,858	117	6.30
Eastern Washington	4,049	245	6.05
Tacoma	2,400	128	5.33
Olympic	5,074	261	5.14
Seattle	3,509	132	3.76
North Central	2,363	57	2.41
WEA-Retired	2,281	39	1.71
Summit	2,270	27	1.19
TOTAL	67,462	10,071	14.93

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