Anti-teacher union crusaders also want to make all children worship Christianity in public schools
by digby
I don’t know why I continue to be surprised by their deviousness. It’s utterly predictable, But still. Check out this story by Sarah Posner in the Prospect about the latest supreme court challenge to bust the teachers unions:
A version of this article was originally published in the December 2015 issue of Clarion, the newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY.
On Monday, the Supreme Court will take up Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case with profound implications for the future of public-sector labor unions, and the labor movement as a whole. At issue is the underpinning of public-sector unionism—that public employees who opt out of union membership can still be obligated to pay for their individual share of the services and collective bargaining they receive from the union. The Court could even decide to make union membership an opt-in rather than an opt-out proposition, allowing the public employees unions are required to represent to glean the benefits of representation without paying dues.
While the plaintiffs in Friedrichs base their claims on a free speech argument that many find dubious, tucked away in the case lies another, real First Amendment concern: the separation of church and state. The lead plaintiff in the challenge before the High Court is Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher in California’s Savanna School District; she is joined in the suit by nine additional individuals, and one organization: the Christian Educators Association International (CEAI), which bills itself as an alternative to the “secular” teachers’ unions, and argues openly that the Constitution does not bar teachers from imparting their Christian faith in their classrooms.
Should those unions find themselves on the losing side of the Friedrichs case, an important bulwark against the incursion of religion in public schools will be undermined.
“Many public-school educators believe that they must make their schools God-less under the banner of ‘separation of church and state,’” CEAI’s executive director, Finn Laursen, has written, “to the extent that an environment is created that is hostile to religion.”
The teachers’ unions, Laursen maintains, “have such control that student needs become secondary” to those of the union. In that “hostile” public-school environment, according to Laursen, “the sin nature [sic] of mankind is accepted and even promoted.” There are “forces are at work,” he writes, that aim to “control the minds of our children by systematically promoting such things as sexual orientation being genetically driven and same sex marriage being acceptable under the banner of tolerance.”
There’s lots more about the Koch sponsored law firm that’s handling this case pro-bono.
There’s always a hidden agenda and long term strategy in this stuff. Whatever happens in our elections the battles in the courts over economics, corporate power, unions and “social issues” is going to be bruising over the next several years. These cases have been in pipeline for a very long time, and the courts have been fairly successful stacked with conservatives. A few more GOP appointees to the federal bench and things could really get dicey. The hardcore right wing legal community is as extreme as Ted Cruz.
Update: A report from a Cruz Rally:
Cruz currently leads all other Republicans in Iowa and has cracked the 30 point level in most poll averages – more than three points ahead than second-place finisher Donald Trump.
A family band garbed in red, white and blue kicked off the heavily produced affair, performing original Christian songs with lyrics such as “I wish kids prayed in school before classes” and “kids need a mom and a dad.”
“From the schoolhouse to the courthouse, they’re silencing His word. And now it’s time for all believers to make our voices heard,” they sang at one point.
.