LANSING, Mich. – Taxpayers would no longer have to foot the bill for teachers union bosses who spend all or part of their day on union business instead of teaching, according to MLive.
House Bill 4059 passed in that chamber last year and is now before the Senate Reforms, Reinventing and Restructuring Committee. If signed into law, it would apply to all government unions.
The bill allows for what is commonly referred to as “release time” in schools only if the teachers union reimburses the district for the cost of a substitute teacher, MLive reported.
“Taxpayers should not have to pay for the union to do union business,” Rep. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy, the bill’s sponsor, told MLive.
SOURCE: MLive, “Teachers union leaders would no longer be freed from classroom time under bill before Michigan Senate committee,” May 15, 2012
FURTHER READING: Michigan Capitol Confidential, “Michigan Senate Takes Up Bill to Ban Government Union Stewards Working on Taxpayers’ Dime," May 18, 2012
MichiganVotes.org, “Ban putting union stewards on public payroll”
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