Opinion

Teachers have a lot to learn from Trump’s education secretary

Video message reminds teachers they aren't required to pay any union dues

By Corey DeAngelis Fox News

Published February 16, 2026 5:00am EST

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Head of Minneapolis teachers union tells Al Jazeera elected officials are in anti-ICE signal chats

Fox News correspondent Brooke Taylor reports on DHS officers in Minneapolis being told to wear bodycams amid unrest and the head of a teachers union claiming elected officials are in anti-I.C.E. signal chats on ‘America’s Newsroom.’

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon just dropped a bombshell video that's got teachers' unions scrambling. In it, she lays out the facts plain and simple: "Teachers, did you know you are not obligated to pay union dues no matter what state you live in? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees, including teachers, cannot be required to join or pay a union as a condition of employment."

She's talking about the landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision, where the Supreme Court affirmed that public employees can't be compelled to subsidize union speech they disagree with. McMahon drives the point home: "If you choose to stay, that’s your call. The point is: the choice is yours."

If public school teachers are tired of their hard-earned money funding radical agendas, it's time for them to opt out and take back control of their paychecks.

Teachers unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) aren't prioritizing educators or their students. They're bloated bureaucracies more interested in politics than pedagogy. Take the NEA – less than 10% of its more than $400 million annual budget actually goes toward representing teachers in the workplace.

TEACHERS UNION PRESIDENT ANGERED BY TRUMP'S EFFORT TO DISSOLVE DEPARTMENT OF........

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