6 September 26 - OctOber 2, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | TROJAN HEARSE? Right-wing think tank aims to abolish the Miami-Dade teachers’ union. BY FRANCISCO ALVARADO O ver the past year, Mi- ami-Dade Public Schools teachers and support staff by the thousands have received a steady torrent of mailers trashing their collective-bargaining unit, United Teachers of Dade (UTD). In a re- cent flurry of six flyers sent in a single week, a group called the Miami-Dade Education Coalition accused the union of lying about its efforts to fight for higher teacher pay. “UTD tried to spin salaries,” one mailer states. “Teachers were not impressed.” An- other features a photo of UTD president Karla Hernandez-Mats under an all-upper- case headline that reads, “UTD Refuses to Fight for You.” The coalition is led by a small group of public school teachers that seeks to unseat UTD as the bargaining unit for the 24,150 employees of Miami-Dade County Public Schools in a mail- in recertification vote scheduled for September 24. The coalition’s slick mailings fail to note that the blitz is bankrolled by the Freedom Foundation, an Olympia, Wash- ington-based think tank that openly aims to dismantle unions representing rank-and-file government employees. The Freedom Foundation doesn’t disclose its donors, but according to media reports, past contributors include billionaire conser- vatives like the Koch brothers and Betsy De- Vos who aim to privatize public education. Shawn Beightol, a teacher at John A. Fer- guson Senior High School in Kendall who formed the Miami-Dade Education Coali- tion (MDEC) confirms that the Freedom Foundation is funding his group’s offensive against UTD. “They are underwriting our entire cam- paign,” Beightol tells New Times. “It is impos- sible to do this kind of campaign without some outside force. So yeah, we allied ourselves with a group that has a common enemy.” Each mailer likely costs between $5,000 to $15,000 to produce and send to 25,000 people, Beightol says. He says he doesn’t know precisely how much the Freedom Foundation has spent but estimates the campaign’s price tag to be in the low seven- figure range. Rusty Brown, the Freedom Foundation’s southern director, also confirms that the think tank paid for mailers, digital and televi- sion ads, canvassers, and legal representation but declined to put a number on the cost or share the identities of its financial backers. “It is not a small amount of money,” Brown says. “But we will spend whatever it takes to get the job done. And we don’t disclose our donors.” A Bull’s-Eye on UTD The Freedom Foundation played a key role in setting up UTD for its potential demise be- fore MDEC came into existence. Rusty Brown and the think tank take credit for a state law enacted last year that bars government agencies across Florida from deducting union dues from public em- ployees’ paychecks. The measure only applies to unions repre- senting public school teachers, nurses at pub- lic hospitals, and other civil employees, such as transit workers. Those employees now must mail a check or a union rep must collect it at their workplace. In addition to teachers, UTD represents teachers’ assistants and other support staff, clerical workers, and se- curity guards. In conjunction with the ban on deduc- tions, the new law mandates that if less than 60 percent of eligible workers pay dues, a union loses its certification as a collective bargaining unit, triggering a new election. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who supported the law’s passage, has referred to the deductions ban as a way to protect public employees’ paychecks. But a political motive is at play. Tellingly, police and firefighter unions (which endorsed DeSantis) are excluded from the ban. Additionally, in its literature and videos, the Freedom Foundation criticizes teachers’ unions for pushing liberal policies such as de- funding the police and advocating for teach- ing critical race theory in classrooms. UTD president Karla Hernandez-Mats says the Freedom Foundation, DeSantis, and Republican state legislators intend to break apart Democratic-leaning, public-sector unions, starting with her organization. Indeed, the GOP set its sights on the Mi- ami-Dade teachers’ union after Hernandez- Mats ran as Charlie Crist’s running mate on the Democratic Party ticket in the 2022 gov- ernor’s race. “We know Freedom Foundation has taken credit for writing the most egregious anti- worker legislation Florida has ever had,” Her- nandez-Mats tells New Times. “This is a political attack from right-wing extremists try- ing to undermine working people in the state.” Brown denies that his group engages in partisan politics. Rather, he says, the think tank is merely holding public-sector unions accountable when they stop representing the interests of their dues-paying members. “If you take a step back and look at it with an unbiased perspective, UTD uses members’ dues to enrich its own officers’ lives and fund political wars that don’t benefit teachers,” he contends, adding, “All the school districts in Florida are unionized and are the worst paid [in the nation].” At any rate, the tedious process of collect- ing dues directly from members has resulted in an exodus of dues-paying teachers in Mi- ami-Dade. When the ban went into effect, the num- ber of teachers paying dues to UTD was 52 percent, triggering the recertification process with Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC). Coalition Mounts Challenge to UTD In July of last year, Shawn Beightol was among dozens of Miami-Dade teachers who attended an all-expenses-paid trip to Denver to attend the Freedom Foundation’s Teacher Freedom Summit, a three-day event spon- sored by conservative groups, including the controversial right-wing organization Moms for Liberty. New Times obtained a copy of the agenda, which indicates that Betsy DeVos appeared via Zoom as a surprise first-day guest speaker. On day two, Beightol introduced Florida Ed- ucation Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., who leads DeSantis’ “anti-woke” policies in Florida’s public schools and universities and who delivered the keynote address at dinner. In addition to introducing Diaz, Beightol says he attended workshops and seminars about supplanting unions currently representing government workers with groups “that are more local and more representative.” Teaming up with the Freedom Foundation was the only way to mount a viable campaign against UTD, adds Beightol, who placed sec- ond with 23 percent of union members’ votes in a UTD presidential election in 2007. “They don’t like UTD because it donates half of its money to political agendas that have nothing to do with teachers,” he explains. “We don’t like them because they sell us out.” He insists that if teachers vote to supplant UTD with MDEC this week, his union will serve its membership as a nonpolitical, non- partisan collective-bargaining agent. Beightol does represent a vocal minority of teachers who believe UTD has failed to se- cure higher pay for teachers, is ineffective in handling employee grievances, and does a poor job at improving working conditions at public schools. Yet in 2023, 91 percent of the union’s 24,000-plus members ratified a UTD- negotiated contract that won raises of 7 to 10 percent for teachers. Prior to that, UTD had successfully campaigned in 2018 and 2022 to raise the county sales tax by a penny to provide millions of dollars for additional teacher raises. In the meantime, the Freedom Foundation was hitting up donors. “The Freedom Foundation is launching our largest single campaign ever and we need your help!” Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe wrote on an October 23, 2023, email United Teachers of Dade president Karla Hernandez-Mats (left) and Shawn Beightol of the Miami-Dade Educators Coalition Shawn Beightol photo Karla Hernandez-Mats photo | METRO | “WE WILL SPEND WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET THE JOB DONE. AND WE DON’T DISCLOSE OUR DONORS.”
