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about us |
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| The ichoosecharity.org
website is part of the Paycheck Protection Project and a service of
the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-profit public policy organization.
The Teachers Paycheck Protection Project has been underway since 1996, and was initiated at the request of teachers who called themselves "Teachers for a Responsible Union." Since then, EFF has successfully fought to keep the Washington Education Association (WEA) from suppressing teachers' rights to free speech through litigation and public relations. The project has a simple goal: protect the First Amendment rights to political free speech of Washington state teachers. However, accomplishing that goal could bring to a halt the political might of a National Education Association (NEA) affiliate which seems to thrive by violating members' rights. The project is also intended to advance responsible and representative government that fulfills the obligations that voters imposed with the passage of Initiative 134 -- public disclosure of election influences as well as paycheck protection. Washington was the first state to enact a law requiring unions to obtain annual written permission from workers before using their payroll deductions for politics. This law -- adopted as an initiative in 1992 with 72 percent support -- is based upon the constitutional prohibition on compelled political speech. After the paycheck protection law was adopted, more than 85 percent of teachers chose not to support the WEA's politics. Not willing to release the reigns of control so easily, the union took steps to circumvent the law. By the 1996 election, the union collected less than $10,000 per month form voluntary sources, but nonetheless executed an aggressive $2 million political plan. The battle is not yet complete for the teachers and other workers who are exploited by union officials' ideological agendas and political appetites. But through ichoosecharity.org we hope to empower teachers with the information they need to take control of their union fees. Click here for more information about the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
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