Since Wisconsin's conservative Republican Governor Scott Walker curtailed powerful teachers unions under Act 10, membership in teachers unions continues to dramatically fall, which benefits everyone.

Since Governor Walker signed Act 10 into law, the bargaining power of the teachers unions has been sharply diminished and teachers are now no longer required to join, according to Julaine Appling of the Wisconsin Family Council.

“There is little to no incentive for the teachers to pay the big union dues to use it, since the teachers get basically nothing,” she says. “And so since they don’t have to join and their dues aren’t being taken out of their checks, many teachers have decided to opt out on joining.”

Appling says since the stranglehold of the unions has been loosened, schools are finding new beneficial ways of rewarding teachers.

“Many of the school districts I just saw on a report in the last couple days are looking at very creative ways to pay teachers according to performance and also in consideration of leadership responsibilities that they take on within their schools,” she explains. “So now they can be rewarded for that. Before, you couldn’t do that.”

Governor Walker is up for reelection this November, and his liberal Democrat opponent is vowing to restore bargaining power to the public unions if she is elected.

-top of page-