MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s landmark Act 10 of 2011, which greatly curbed union collective bargaining abuses, has reduced the statewide teachers union to a mere shadow of its former self.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council, once the state’s most powerful special interest, has dwindled from about 90,000 members before Act 10 to roughly 40,000 today, the Wisconsin State Journal reports, and its political spending has bottomed out.

Act 10 freed teachers and other unionized employees in Wisconsin from compulsory union membership as a condition of employment, restricted collective bargaining topics to wages only – tied to the rate of inflation, and gave school officials the ability to better manage their staff without union interference.

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As Walker spokesman Laurel Patrick put it, Act 10 “put the power back in the hand of the people and local governments, saving Wisconsin taxpayers more than $3 (billion) in the process and allowing public employees the freedom to choose if they want to join a union.”

Just a decade ago, WEAC spent about $1.5 million on lobbying state lawmakers, and upped the spending to $2.5 million and $2.3 million in the two legislative sessions leading up to the passage of Act 10, but devoted only $175,540 to lobbying last session, according to the news site.

“That has a big effect on the political landscape,” according to Mike McCabe, former executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “They often were the number one lobbying spending among interest groups and they obviously don’t have the capacity to do that anymore.”

McCabe told the Wisconsin State Journal “I don’t think it will change in the short term.

“I think public employee unions are likely to get smaller before they get bigger,” he said.

Sen. Luther Olsen, a union sympathizer and fixture on the legislature’s education committees, told the news site a lot has changed since democrats controlled the governorship, or either chamber of the legislature. Currently, Republicans control all three.

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“That was when they were really in there pitching what they wanted,” Olsen said of days gone by. “It was a little tougher when Republicans were in control because (unions) made themselves partisan.”

“Honestly, I never see (WEAC officials) at the Capitol anymore,” he said. “I don’t even know who their lobbyist is.”

That’s because WEAC has shifted focus to regaining control over education in the Badger State through local school board races.

“We’re rebuilding our political landscape,” Mark Lindsey, president of WEAC’s Region 6, told the State Journal. “We’re saying, ‘OK. We used to have sway top down and the only way to get back there again is to educate people at the local level.”

Meanwhile, Wisconsin lawmakers are moving forward on legislation typically opposed by WEAC, such as an expansion of the state’s private school voucher and charter school programs.

An alternative teacher association – the Association of American Educators – has also grown significantly since the passage of Act 10. AAE, which bills itself as a nonpartisan alternative to teachers unions, isn’t nearly as political, provides most of the same benefits as WEAC at a fraction of the cost.

“In the wake of Act 10, teachers are now hyper-aware of their options with regard to teacher representation,” AAE Director of Communications and Advocacy Alexandra Schroeck told MacIver News Service. “We hear from teachers across the state that are searching for a nonpartisan choice that promotes positivity, not conflict and strife.”