By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

NASHVILLE – The Sumner County Education Association union, representing teachers near Nashville, successfully wrung another $1 million from local public schools through a lawsuit over the district’s decision to increase employee insurance contributions by 5 percent.

Chancery Court Judge D.J. Alissandratos recently ordered the Sumner County Board of Education to repay teachers nearly $1 million saved by the insurance increase during the 2010-11 fiscal year. The repayment will occur through insurance premium adjustments next school year and lump sum payments to teachers who no longer work for the school system, the Tennessean reports.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Union officials said they feel “vindicated” by the ruling.

“The school board chose to ignore its obligations to its teachers and SCEA, leaving us no other option than to file this lawsuit to stand up and fight for the benefits promised to teachers,” SCEA President Alzenia Walls told the Tennessean.

Apparently, union officials are less concerned about the district’s obligation to students, who will undoubtedly be forced to do with less because of the union’s massive payout. The school district obviously imposed the higher insurance rates to save money for student instruction.

Despite Walls’ comments, the union did have another option; it could have accepted the insurance increase for the good of the district, its students and local taxpayers.

The SCEA’s self-serving attitude is undoubtedly the reason school officials decided to challenge the union’s status under Tennessee’s Education Professionals Negotiations Act, which gave the SCEA authority to negotiate on behalf of all Sumner County teachers.

In an October 2010 meeting, the school board claimed union membership did not meet the threshold of 50 percent of the district’s teachers required to authorize the SCEA as the sole bargaining agent under the law. The school board unilaterally imposed the increase in insurance contributions based on that argument.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

“In his ruling, Alissandratos said the school board failed to substantiate its claim that the SCEA membership was inadequate,” the Tennessean reports. “The judge pointed to testimony by former Sumner County Schools Finance Director Maryanne Durski that 52.4 percent of Sumner teachers were SCEA members as evidence of fact.”

“The judge last year dismissed five of seven counts of the lawsuit after the passage of the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act of 2011 that overturned the Education Professionals Negotiations Act, essentially making it illegal for school boards to negotiate with teachers’ unions.”

In other words, state lawmakers recognized that teachers unions like the SCEA were taking advantage of their collective bargaining privileges, and moved to limit their authority and return power to locally elected officials to make important decisions.

But the Sumner County Education Association managed to slip under the wire and reclaim $1 million for its members. Despite changes in state law, union greed is alive and well in Tennessee.

Thankfully, school officials in Sumner County and throughout the state can now make their own decisions in the best interests of students, without the headache of answering to money-grubbing union bosses.