SB 1513 is headed toward debate on the floor of the Oklahoma State House of Representatives. As we previously noted, this legislation is quite straightforward in its intent: no school district can force employees to meet with an outside organization, districts can’t use their resources to communicate on behalf of outside organizations, and no outside organization gets preference over another.
Why would any taxpayer, parent, or school employee be anything but pleased by this common-sense bill? They wouldn’t, which is why the unions – and their fellow travelers at various other “education associations” who enjoy a place at public education trough – are having to lie about the legislation.
Consider this Legislative Alert from the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration (image below). “School districts would be prohibited from allowing employees to meet, communicate with, or listen to employees from an employee organization, or other membership organization.”
This transparently dishonest description carefully omits the words “requiring or coercing,” which are found in the actual legislation. This is what the bill says:
They are lying. The union establishment are openly lying to their members, and willing to do it over something as simple as public schools not being able to force employees to meet with them. More than that, they are willing to mobilize public employees to push lawmakers to vote based on a lie.
Any Oklahoma state legislator who parrots this dishonest verbiage is lying to voters. They are lying because they are ultimately more afraid of the union political machine than the voters in their district.
Voters should remember that elected officials answer to them, while the unions are accountable to no one. Taxpayers empower themselves by supporting their lawmakers in pushing back the unelected, unaccountable union interests that demand a seat at the table.
Reform – even reform as small as SB 1513 – is incompatible with union domination of public schools. Until lawmakers join forces to push them out, stories like this will continue to play out to the detriment of school children, taxpayers, and good government.
