Education Policy, Business and Technology

Huge Stakes for Teachers' Unions as Fees Case Reaches High Court

Education Week: In a case with enormous financial implications for teachers' unions, the U.S. Supreme Court once again has agreed to take up a dispute that threatens a 40-year-old precedent giving unions the right to collect fees from nonmembers.

The justices last week granted review in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31, which could affect the treasuries and political might of all public-employee unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and their state and local affiliates.

At risk is the precedent in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the 1977 Supreme Court decision that authorized public-employee unions to charge so-called agency or fair-share fees to employees in the bargaining unit who refuse to join the union. (Twenty-two states allow such arrangements.) Last term, in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the justices deadlocked 4-4 in a case in which a group of nonunion teachers had asked it to overrule Abood.

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