Former union leader promotes School Choice

Rebecca Friedrichs is an unsung hero who should be sung about a whole lot more. She is an Orange County public school teacher with 28 years experience.  In 2016, she found herself facing off against one of the most powerful teacher’s unions in the U.S., the California Teachers Association (CTA) as highlighted recently on TheBlaze.

Amazingly, Friedrichs used to be one of the union leaders.

Friedrichs tried to affect change from within the CTA — who were buying off politicians that restricted competition, and charging teachers absurd membership fees — that caused schools to stagnate. But Friedrichs soon came to realize that only the voters and the courts can break the hold that the union had over the state of California.

Regina Bircham (right) informs a family about education options available, including a proposed Catholic high school at the ChoiceMatters table at a Tulsa education event. ChoiceMatters hosts free School Choice Expos.

“Sadly, parents and educators no longer run our public schools because labor unions control way too much on our campuses today,” Friedrichs told TheBlaze. “I understand why labor unions focus on getting more for their members; that’s their business model, and getting more money and power for themselves is their value. Great teachers and parents don’t share the unions’ values or business model. We believe children should be first in our schools, and we believe educational excellence and safety should reign supreme.”

“Simply put,” she added, “parents know what’s best for their children and their family circumstances. They should be able to choose the schools that fit their lifestyles and their children’s needs.”

And due to her battle, Friedrichs became something of an icon for school choice. This in turned grabbed the attention of the popular conservative site, Prager U which is engaging in their own push to make school choice the norm in the United States, and with other organizations, created SchoolChoiceNow.com, which will release a video every quarter in 2017, discussing why school choice is the best way our children can get a worthwhile education.

Naturally, they chose Friedrichs to star in their first video discussing why good teachers support school choice, and how competition has been proven to work for schools, just like it works well for the free market.

https://youtu.be/PnQu8iRiVYU

Click here for more from TheBlaze.

Click here for more from PragerU.