Shasta Teachers Can Opt Out of Funding the $1 Billion Democrat Slush Fund
- Rex Ballard
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
If you read our recent report on how teachers’ unions have quietly moved more than $1 billion from member dues into Democratic campaigns, left-wing nonprofits, Planned Parenthood, race theory groups, and other partisan causes, you already know the problem. Click here. Here’s the solution every Shasta County teacher needs to hear: You no longer have to pay a single cent if you disagree with who the union is giving the money to.
In a landmark 5-4 decision on June 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public-sector employees — including every teacher in California — cannot be forced to pay union dues or “agency fees” against their will. The Court held that compelling workers to subsidize a union’s political speech violates the First Amendment right to free speech and free association.
Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee who did not want to fund his union’s political agenda, took the case all the way to the highest court in the land. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion: “The First Amendment is violated when money is taken from nonconsenting employees for a public-sector union.”
Before Janus, teachers who refused to join the California Teachers Association (CTA) or National Education Association (NEA) could still be forced to pay “fair share” fees covering most of the union’s costs. That system is now illegal nationwide. After Janus, dues are 100% voluntary. No teacher can be compelled to send money to the CTA, NEA, or any local affiliate.
This ruling hits especially hard in California, where full-time educators often pay $850+ in CTA state dues alone — plus national NEA fees and local chapter assessments — easily totaling $1,000 to $1,300 per year. That’s real money ripped from Shasta paychecks and funneled into the very political machine exposed in our previous report.
Yet even after Janus, some California teachers face a deeper fight: forced representation by unions they accuse of promoting antisemitism. In October 2024, seven Jewish Los Angeles public school teachers — with support from the Freedom Foundation — sued the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), a major California teachers union affiliate. Although these educators had already exercised their Janus rights to stop paying dues, state law still forces them to accept UTLA as their exclusive representative. They allege the union has a documented record of antisemitic actions, including spending hundreds of thousands backing candidates tied to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, funding attendance at anti-Israel rallies, endorsing biased “Teach Palestine” curricula that misrepresent Jewish history, and fostering a hostile environment for Jewish educators.
One of the plaintiffs, Barry Blisten, explained in a March 2026 New York Post op-ed why he joined the suit: “The union I left barely resembles the one I joined. At some point, UTLA stopped being about teachers. It became something else — a political movement, an activist organization that has made hatred of Jewish people and Israel a core part of what it does and who it is.” The case is now on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, underscoring that while Janus ended mandatory dues, the battle for full freedom from compelled association continues — especially when a union’s agenda clashes with teachers’ faith, conscience, and personal safety.
For Shasta County teachers, the path is clear:
You can resign your union membership and stop all dues deductions at any time.
Your local CTA chapters (Shasta Secondary Teachers Association, Enterprise Elementary Teachers Association, and others) must accept your decision.
Groups like the Freedom Foundation and OptOutToday.com provide free, step-by-step guidance, templates, and legal protection specifically for California educators.
Teachers who have already opted out report saving over $1,000 a year while still receiving the core workplace protections the union is legally required to provide to everyone in the bargaining unit.
Rhyen Staley and Nicole Neily of Defending Education put it perfectly in the report we covered: the unions’ priority isn’t classrooms or teacher pay — it’s political power. Janus finally gives teachers the constitutional right to say “no” to that agenda — and recent lawsuits show why exercising that right has never been more urgent.
Watch and learn more about your rights:
Shasta teachers: Your paycheck belongs to you and your family — not Sacramento politicians, national super PACs, or ideological causes you may oppose. The Janus decision handed you the power. Use it.
Read the full Defending Education report. Talk to your colleagues. Opt out if that’s what your conscience and your budget demand. In Shasta County, “unfiltered” means giving hardworking educators the freedom the Supreme Court already guaranteed them — and the recent lawsuits prove why that freedom matters now more than ever.
Your move, teachers. The unions had their billion-dollar run. Now it’s time for you to decide where your money really goes.
