LAS VEGAS – Officials in the Las Vegas school district are blocking emails to teachers with information about how to leave their union, and the Nevada Policy Research Institute isn’t taking the censorship lightly.

NPRI emailed more than 12,000 teachers in the Clark County School District June 2 to inform them of the steps necessary to opt out of union membership, which requires teachers to notify the union between July 1 and July 15 of their intent to drop out, the Elko Daily Free Press reports.

“In previous years, over 2,000 individuals have opened similar emails,” according to the news site, but this year very few received the message.

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“ … When NPRI asked a sampling of teachers in the district if they had received NPRI’s communications, they had not even though NPRI had sent them an email …” the Free Press reports. “Based on NPRI’s internal testing and consultation with an external internet provider, evidence shows that the Clark County School District – which has a history of trying to hinder email communication between NPRI and teachers – has blocked NPRI from communication with its teachers via the public, taxpayer-funded email addresses.”

CCSD officials contend the district’s email spam filter weeded out NPRI’s emails, but didn’t explain why NPRI’s emails are considered spam, while emails from the local teachers union – the Clark County Education Association – are not.

Kirsten Searer, chief of staff for CCSD, said only that the district has “taken action to protect our employees from spammers in order to ensure that our district email system remains an effective communication system for our teachers,” and did not provide further explanation.

It seems far more likely, however, that those in CCSD’s administration are working with the CCEA to stop the bloodletting that has resulted from NPRI’s successful campaign in recent years to empower teachers to make their own decision about union membership.

According to a statement by NPRI President Andy Matthews, “over 1,200 teachers in Clark County have left the CCEA as a result of NPRI’s opt-out campaign, and now CCSD is aggressively preventing teachers from being able to make their own decisions about union membership.”

“The fact that CCSD would intentionally intercept emails intended for its employees should be maddening for its teachers and deeply concerning for the public that pays the district’s bills,” he said.

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NPRI is currently suing the district over its refusal to release teacher emails, which are public record, and has countered the CCSD’s censorship with numerous billboards around Las Vegas to get their message across, the Free Press reports.

“It is outrageous that a government agency would censor communications between teachers and a private group. It also raises First Amendment concerns, because the Clark County Education Association, another private organization, is able to email teachers,” Matthews said.

“It’s wrong for a government agency to use taxpayer dollars to pick and choose who communicates with government employees.”

Unfortunately, in far too many school districts across the nation, local school and teachers union officials treat public schools as their exclusive fiefdom, and routinely conspire to keep educators in the union’s fold.

The Clark County email censorship is simply the latest blatant example of those in the education establishment putting their self-interests ahead of the interests of teachers, taxpayers and students.

Educators have a right to decide whether or not they want to contribute to a union that relies on these types of dirty tactics to preserve its power, and school officials have no right to get in the way.