SB 1625 is the latest in a long series of bills aimed at hurting school employee advocacy at the State Capitol. The bill does so by targeting school employees’ Constitutional right of association.
SB 99, filed last year, aimed to deter school employees from joining any professional organization by instituting senseless bureaucratic red tape. This year, SB 1625 aims to do the same thing, just more directly: outlaw school employees from using payroll deduction for membership dues.
SB 1625 and SB 99 are not just bad bills; they embody a fundamental distortion of the proper balance between the state’s authority and our protected civil liberties. The US Constitution guarantees the freedom of association. All U.S. citizens have the right to associate or not associate with any lawful organization. If the government intentionally hinders this process or unfairly targets specific organizations within a particular profession, it’s an infringement and a violation of our protected civil liberties.
SB 1625 and SB 99 are not just bad bills, they are bad ideas.
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A Closer Look: SB 1625 & SB 99
SB 1625 and SB 99 both seek to alter the same section of law, 70 O.S. § 5-139.
In 2018, POE worked to amend this same statute to ensure every school employee using payroll deduction could freely choose to join or quit any professional organization at any time. The statute now grants individuals complete control of their membership status in a professional organization.
One has the right to join or quit immediately. If the school district fails to comply with one’s membership termination order, the district is required to refund any unsanctioned deductions; if the district fails to reimburse an individual within thirty days, the amount owed to the employee doubles and continues to double every thirty days until the individual is fully compensated.
These 2018 amendments—now law—significantly strengthened the rights of all school employees seeking to quit a professional organization, including POE. We firmly believe it is the individual’s right to associate or not associate with any lawful professional organization. The process of joining or quitting should be straightforward and efficient; the current law guarantees both.
SB 99 complicates this process by adding senseless red tape. SB 1625 does two things: (1) it eliminates the protections outlined above by eliminating payroll deduction, and (2) it unfairly targets school employees’ right to associate.
SB 1625: Part I, Losing Protection
Without the benefit of payroll deduction, membership dues would have to be paid via bank draft, credit card, or another recurring process. From a business standpoint, reoccurring payments are no problem, but each payment agreement would be subject to an individual contract. There would be no blanket protection for those seeking to quit a professional organization.
Imagine, for a second, attempting to cancel your gym membership or cable; you’re probably not imagining an easy process but rather a complicated web of obstacles. These kinds of reports prompted the 2018 payroll deduction law in the first place: now it’s easy to quit a professional organization, and the reimbursement protections could not be stronger. Many POE members still opt to pay via bank draft or credit card, and we ensure members can quit at any time if they so choose. But, if a problem were ever to arise, a member could simply switch their payment to payroll deduction and then—because of the current law—quit immediately.
The truth is payroll deduction is a benefit for all school employees, and the 2018 law grants one full control of his or her membership status. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine how any law could grant school employees more control.
The question is: why would anyone want to curb this benefit and protection for school employees? Especially considering the new bill would potentially open the door to the same issues that were addressed only a few years ago.
The answer is straightforward: SB 1625 is not about protecting school employees; it’s about eliminating a benefit.
SB 1625: Part II, Hindering the Right to Associate
The second objection to SB 1625 is more substantial: the bill expressly targets school employees’ use of payroll deduction for membership dues. Payroll deductions for job-related services are ubiquitous in both the private and public sectors. School employees, doctors, nurses, lawyers, elected officials, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and more all use payroll deduction specifically for job-related services, like insurance and retirement accounts. School employee associations are prime examples of job-related services. For example, POE provides members professional liability insurance, legal representation, and an AD&D policy, to name a few services—all explicitly job-related.
Employers—private and public—provide payroll deduction services to their employees because it’s a convenience, ensures no lapses in coverage, and, in some cases, allows for pre-tax deductions; in short, employers provide it because it’s a benefit. Admittedly, it’s not impossible for one to believe that the entire system should be redesigned and improved somehow, but it is hard to believe that singling out school employees and eliminating their benefit alone is an improvement.
SB 1625 explicitly targets school employee associations, a particular kind of group within a particular profession, and it does so for one simple reason: to hinder school employees from joining professional organizations.
The US Constitution guarantees that all U.S. citizens have the right to associate or not associate with any lawful organization. If the government intentionally hinders this process or unfairly targets certain groups, it’s an infringement and a violation of our protected civil liberties. SB 1625 is an overstep because it does precisely this; it coercively hinders school employees from joining professional organizations.
Elected officials do not have to approve of who we associate with, but they must respect our constitutional rights.
Uniting a Broader Coalition
As previously mentioned, SB 1625 is the latest in a seemingly endless barrage of bills aimed specifically at school employees—a barrage POE members have been speaking out against for several years now. Yet, the rationale behind SB 1625 and other similar bills does not stop with educators, it applies equally well to all public sector employees, including firefighters and law enforcement officers.
The actions of a few in the state legislature have now united a broader coalition of public sector employees and their allies against this kind of government overreach. The message is simple: help us protect our civil liberties and stand against government interference—
Help us stop SB 1625 and SB 99.
