Agency Fees: How Fair Are "Fair Share" Fees?
Executive Summary
"State legislators should repeal the statutes that
require or allow agency fees," concludes Myron Lieberman in
the first in a new series of publications now available
through the Education Policy Institute. Agency fees are the
amounts that nonmembers of a union must pay to the unions
for representation services. In Agency Fees: How Fair Are
"Fair Share" Fees?, Lieberman dispels a number of popular
cliches with evidence that:
- the closer the agency shop fees are to dues, the more
teachers will opt for membership and payment of full dues
instead of agency fees;
- the contention that everyone benefits from union
representation is fallacious on its face;
- a decisive objection to agency fees is that fee
payers are forced to subsidize political causes to which
they are opposed;
- the National Education Association and the American
Federation of Teachers are utilizing agency fees (and
dues as well) to support political candidates as well as
political causes;
- because the agency fee comes out of the pockets of
the teachers, not school district budgets, school boards
are not as careful to protect teacher rights as they
should be;
- the unions do not notify unit members of their agency
fee rights unless required to do so by court order or the
threat of one.
Even on the most benign view of the matter, agency fees
constitute taking money from employees for purposes they do
not wish to support, and for activities that may be against
their interests. Furthermore, "union determination to take
advantage of teachers' lack of information about teacher
rights is hardly consistent with the ideal of a union or
professional organization devoted to protecting them,"
writes Lieberman.
Dr. Myron Lieberman is Senior Research Scholar, Social
Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State
University, Bowling Green, Ohio; and chairman of the
Education Policy Institute.
Publications in the EPI Series on Teacher Unions
are available at a cost of $6.00 each through the Education
Policy Institute, PMB 294, 4401-A Connecticut Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20008-2322 202/244-7535, Fax 202/244-7584
http://www.educationpolicy.org
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