One of the quiet scandals of our time is the routine diversion of teachers from providing instructional time in the classroom to conducting political lobbying in the halls of power on behalf of union executives.

As with many corrupt practices, this one is perfectly legal.  Duty Code 61 is the personnel assignment code for “An individual [teacher or other professional staff] on paid certificated leave from the district other than normal vacation leave or normal paid sick leave.  Includes union representatives.”

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction reports that in the 2016-17 school year 103 teachers and other instructional staff were taken from the classroom and other official duties to spend time on lobbying.  The political agenda they were assigned to promote was set by executives of powerful labor organizations, primarily the Washington Education Association union (WEA).

In the 2017 legislative session nearly $6.4 million in instructional staff time was diverted to union lobbying.  Union agenda items included urging lawmakers to repeal limits on higher property taxes and enacting a state income tax.

Table 7 is the S-275 tabulation of the costs of salary and benefits for the various duty code assignments of district staff.  The line item titled “Duty Code 61” reports total public education resources diverted to the union for the year.  Figures for School Year 2016-17 show that 103 professional staff were re-assigned to Duty Code 61, receiving average salary and benefits of about $102,000.

The definition clarifies that the expense is for time taken away from children to conduct union business, not for paid vacation or sick leave.  This is a net cost to schools because it directly siphons learning resources from the classroom.

Teachers working for the private union often continue to receive public pensions and other benefits, a sweetheart arrangement recently reported by the Wall Street Journal. “Why do taxpayers get the bill for a union president’s pension?” WSJ, 5-31-17.

Many public school teachers report that administrators do not provide the resources needed to teach students.  Teachers say they pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets, help raise private money to buy books for the school library, and provide students with art materials.  Many teachers say they would benefit from having a trained assistant in the classroom, but administrators tell them there is no budget for that.

Now we learn that WEA union executives routinely pull instructors from the classroom to devote time to political lobbying in Olympia. 

Because of Duty Code 61, children are cheated out of their full share of instructional resources in public schools.  In private schools and charter public schools unions are barred from diverting classroom teachers to lobbying, so children there are protected from Duty Code 61.

An honest approach would be to change public policy to end the diversion of public school staff to political lobbying for unions.  District administrators should make supporting teachers in class, not special interest lobbying, their top educational priority.

Kids shouldn’t have to bear the cost of union lobbying.  Repealing Duty Code 61 would make school operations more ethical, and would ensure that administrators give classroom teachers all the support they need and deserve, so that every child learns.