Brenda Levinski
St. Joseph
I worked as an administrative assistant (aka school secretary) at a local public elementary school for more than 21 years and paid union dues to Education MN/MN Education Association for approximately 20 years. I dropped out of the union when my financial circumstances changed and I realized what I was paying in dues per year roughly equaled at least one month of what I had to pay for rent.
I read an article published on Oct. 8, 2022 by Anthony Gockowski of Alpha News stating Education Minnesota’s Political Action Committee gifted a total of $1.9 MILLION dollars to the Minnesota State DFL House and MN State DFL Senate Caucuses and to the DFL State Central Committee during the months of August and September 2022.
I am appalled by the size of the donation! If this group can afford to give/donate this amount of money does it make any other current or former members of this union wonder if they were paying way too much for union dues? Every year when my school and personal U.S. mailboxes were filled with expensive shiny campaign fliers urging me to vote for specifically one party I questioned how my dues were being used. I mailed letters questioning why such expensive and mostly non-recyclable materials were used. As educators or people who work in education aren’t/weren’t we educated enough to seek out where to find the information we need to make our own educated decisions on who to vote for?
I would like to urge all union members to explore and address what exactly the dues you pay are used for. It is my honest opinion that one specific political party should never receive this large of a donation.
