Teachers Saving Children® Inc. - National
Newsletter
Volume 7, Number 2
December 1996
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"But when He (Jesus) saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion..."
Two thousand years ago on a quiet starry night in the city of Bethlehem, Christ our Savior was born. He came as a babe, grew into manhood, and began His ministry at the age of 30.
During His time of ministry He turned His eyes to those without power or status. He was moved with compassion to reach out to those with needs: physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual.
As we seek a clearer glimpse of Christ this Christmas season, we look upward; but God is directing our eyes downward, toward our fellow men and women. He is showing us individuals in need of mercy and compassion: men and women in crisis pregnancy situations; those with financial needs; or persons, including the unborn, who depend upon a simple act of kindness from others in order to survive.
This Christmas season Christ is challenging each one of us to be sensitive to the needs of others. Let's look for opportunities to reach out for "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matthew 25:40b).
I'm a TSC member who quit the union. In a closed or union shop like the Aurora City (OH) School District where I teach, the association is seen as providing bargaining services for all the teachers-members or not-and therefore the dues are taken out of every teacher's pay whether or not they choose to belong. I write this not to dispute those who believe it best to stay in the union. Those of us who have visibly demonstrated that we really mean it when we say we will not be a part of the NEA/OEA (Ohio Education Association) pro-abortion partnership give credibility to the fight that those pro-life teachers who are fighting to bring about change from within.
My experience began five year ago. I was a former vice-president of our local AEA and had thought that someday I might run for AEA President. I had stood on the picket line with my peers in 1978 when we went on strike. However, when I attended a Right to Life Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1992, I found out about the NEA/OEA's pro-abortion resolution. I realized that despite my years of being an active union member I have been invisible when it came to standing up to the NEA/OEA for contradicting my religious views and moral values on the right of the unborn to life. How dare they take my dues money and place it in the coffers of the very pro-abortion candidates and causes that I was donating to my personal charities to defeat? How dare they represent all of us in the profession as being pro-abortion? Then the choice of whether to quit the union or to try to change it from within confronted me. How could I continue to be a member and say that I was angry about NEA/OEA's pro-abortion position but still give them my dues money? I felt decided that they would have to take every dime from me before I would willingly give them a penny to further their reprehensible and immoral pro-abortion agenda.
As angry as I felt towards the NEA/OEA I did feel afraid. I wondered what all my colleagues would think of me when I became a fee payer. I wondered if I would jeopardize my teaching position without the union enthusiastically protecting me. I wondered if I would look foolish for denying the union about 75 dollars per year when the remaining 450 dollars still went to the NEA/OEA. I put my trust in God for having chosen to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. For the next three years I became a fee payer. I wrote letters to every member of my local association and explained my reasons. I got one answer from 100 letters. No one chose to do what I had done, although a couple of fellow teachers redoubled their efforts to work within the NEA/OEA to bring the OEA's representative assembly to change their pro-abortion position to a silent one. Each year I wrote letters to members of my local association that I guessed were deeply devout Christians and encouraged them to at least join TSC. Few of them did. With all the fears that teachers naturally have of being dismissed without the protection of the union, I sensed that my decision to be a fee payer was seen by my peers as an overly dangerous risk.
I continued to write my protest letters for the next three years insisting that NEA/OEA grant me a conscientious objector status and donate all of my dues to a charity of my choice. NEA/OEA continued to deny me conscientious objector status for the next three years. Finally after they received my letter the fourth year, they notified me that they were granting my request. My guess is that they began to fear that by denying me yet again I could take them to court and insist that all my dues for the past three years be given to charity. I hadn't done anything to intimate that I was about to see a lawyer. They just suddenly acquiesced. I had my dues given to a local soup kitchen called the Center of Hope in Ravenna (Ohio). I chose this charity because it is a nonpolitical concern with a pro-life philosophy as it deals with unwed mothers and the poor. My local association hung on to my dues money for the whole school year and then in September 1996, they wrote a check to the Center of Hope. OEA assumed all the credit for the donation making it clear they were donating their money to the Center of Hope. While it doesn't get me a tax deduction, I still feel vindicated for having chosen this manner of protest.
Some things I learned from my experience:
NEA/OEA was not eager to grant this conscientious objector status. I learned that it had to be on religious moral grounds about the abortion issue that I objected, not that I was philosophically opposed to unions as bargaining agents. They delayed granting my status as long as they could. They ignored all my letters to the OEA magazine. They are hostile to those of us who are pro-life in our behavior.
Even as a fee payer, the union is obligated to provide all services and protection, except strike benefits and government privileges, that it provides to its membership.
I can't judge my fellow association members for not doing what I did. They each have their own personal reasons to follow the path their own consciences dictate to them.
My stand was useful to officers in my local who could truthfully claim at OEA and NEA representative assemblies that our association has had members who have quit because of the pro-abortion NEA/OEA "Reproductive Rights" resolution. I felt respect from many of my peers.
Even for the three years when I was not allowed to be a conscientious objector and have all my dues given to charity, I still was able to deny OEA about 75 dollars of my dues each year and give that money to Right to Life causes.
I learned to take solace in the fact that my behavior made me faithful in God's eyes, however ineffective my pro-life stance was seen by some in my local association. People in the community heard about my stance and I could feel the support of a number of the parents when we talked.
Now that the NEA/OEA has granted me conscientious objector status, three or four of my fellow staff members asked me this school year for copies of my letters to OEA. I obliged them by putting all my OEA letters on a floppy 3.5 disk on Microsoft Works 3.0. Interested teachers can read all my correspondence and even use the same text when writing their letters. Since September '96 I've been giving out floppies of my letters to anyone who requests them. I'll gladly share this information with TSC who in return can share it with anyone who requests it.
Teachers Saving Children® Inc. does not take a position regarding union membership. Since its inception, TSC has tried to present articles and information on both sides of the issue. In June 1994, TSC put together a brochure entitled "Participation in Teacher Unions: Your Rights, Responsibilities, and Options" which gives information on three union membership options available to educators.
The most important thing is to become informed by getting all the facts, know what your local contract states, and then follow your conscience. Some feel that they must stay in and try to change from within. There are others who feel that the loudest, clearest "vote" one will ever cast on the issues is by either paying "fair share" or filing religious accommodation. Whatever option you choose, your decision is respected.
Now is the time for action. Choose what option you feel would be the best for you in making your voice heard and then do your part of what must be done for change to take place.
The membership year is from September 1 - August 31. Membership for this current year is still open to all pro-life/pro-family educators and concerned citizens and will be good until August 31, 1997. Contributions and memberships are NOT tax deductible.
For more information contact the Executive Director at PO Box 125, Damascus OH 44619-0125.
Notes from Teachers Saving Children® of Pennsylvania, Inc.: Full of hope and enthusiasm to become a viable state affiliate, the Board of Trustees, at its October 12, 1996 meeting, elected the following officers to serve until August 1997: Michael Grella, Executive Director; Scott Moyer, Assistant Executive Director; Barbara Purcell, Secretary; and Linda Burroughs, Treasurer. The Board members present were reminded of the courage, faith, and untimely death of its first elected Executive Director, Katherine Berdanier. "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." (I Corinthians 3:8 KJV).
TSC of PA has taken only its first steps. We have not processed all the necessary paperwork to become an officially recognized state affiliate. Final approval is anticipated by March or April of 1997. We look forward now to the challenge of increasing our membership during 1997 and ask for your prayers. The lives of countless children depend on our "Fighting for Life in Education." We are determined to do just that.
We need to encourage NEA members who represent our philosophy to run for delegate; it is an unforgettable experience that every educator should have at least once in his or her career. We need delegates who believe that our dues money should not be spent to support abortion and should not be spent to support any issue that is not directly related to education.
If you have made the choice of maintaining union membership, please help us fight this battle. Run for NEA delegate. It's so simple. Just contact your NEA state affiliate office and/or your local association president for complete information. Don't make it complicated by campaigning, because if the Lord wants you to win, you'll win!
If you cannot attend the NEA convention, please encourage other educators who share our views to consider becoming a delegate. Get involved either as a candidate and/or educate yourself about the candidates. Then PRAY and VOTE!
For those pro-life teachers and school employees who can't go to Washington DC,
it is suggested that you attend the pro-life marches or rallies being held in your own local areas.
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