By ESTHER WICKHAM | THE CENTER SQUARE
April 20, 2026b – Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a measure prohibiting public schools from using taxpayer-funded resources to support teachers’ unions, a move supporters say restores government neutrality while critics argue it limits educators’ ability to organize.
The legislation, House Bill 516, bars school districts from facilitating payroll deductions for union dues and restricts the use of public resources to assist union activities. The law is set to take effect July 1.
Supporters of the measure, including the Freedom Foundation, which prompted the report, argue that allowing payroll deductions amounts to indirect taxpayer support because public employees and systems are used to process payments.
“Government shouldn’t be picking winners and losers in political debates,” Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s director of research and government affairs, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. “It shouldn’t be aiding and providing special privileges or subsidies to particular advocacy groups.”
“By getting school districts out of this business of using taxpayer funds, collect union dues and prop up teachers’ union activity – that’s just restoring neutrality,” Nelsen added.
Nelsen said the main issue is not that union dues themselves are taxpayer money, but that school districts act as billing agents by using public payroll systems and staff time to collect and process those dues.
“They will definitely recruit more people to join the organization if they are allowed to use payroll deduction,” Nelsen said. “Then if they had to go out like any other private membership organization and get people to actually purchase, take the affirmative step of handing their payment information to them, and purchase that membership.”
He added that while administrative costs may be relatively small, the payroll system creates what he described as an “in-kind value” that benefits unions and is not available to other private advocacy groups.
The Idaho Education Association argues that unions are funded entirely by member contributions.
“We are 100% funded by member dues,” Mike Journee, director of communication at the IEA, told The Center Square. “The bill’s sponsors intentionally misrepresented the option of using payroll deduction to pay dues as a talking point to pass deeper restrictions on our members’ ability to organize at their worksite.”
The IEA is now urging members to switch from payroll deduction to IEA AutoPay before the law takes effect and to stay engaged politically ahead of upcoming elections.
Little signed the bill April 10, with a letter stating the Republican governor “strongly supported teachers’ ability to advocate for their profession.”
“However, while local and state teachers’ associations do important work, they remain private organizations that currently receive taxpayer-funded support not extended to other private entities. House Bill 516a addresses that imbalance,” Little wrote.
8 thoughts on “New Idaho law cuts public funds being funneled to teachers’ union”
When will something like this happen in Alaska? Probably never, unfortunately.
I got your biblical answer. Because Alaskans are backward thinking and we got the stupid ruling over the smart people who should be the ones business owners, industry leaders, and voters promote into superior positions instead of the stupid.
It’s from Ecclesiastes 10:5-7
“There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler: Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones.
I have seen slaves on horseback,while princes go on foot like slaves.”
That’s exactly who we got leading over Alaskas government and business. Not all but Majority of Alaskans in management are slow and stupid and easily corrupted because of being stupid and immoral at their hearts.
When the bible uses the word Rich. It’s not talking how we think the word Rich associated with being wealthy with money.
It is talking about individuals who are Rich in character, work ethic, Christ is their Head, morals, integrity, kind and tense hearted, compassion. Intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, work ethic, and they have as a royal conduct and dignity about them where they shine like royalty when you meet one.
*tender hearted
A step in the right direction for Idaho. Won’t happen here as we are now a leftist controlled state, at least not until we can rid ourselves of RCV and cheat by mail. Any union member contributions are essentially taxpayer money. No public employee union should be lobbying. They should be bargaining only and not allowed to play politics. The power the public employee unions wield over our government and schools is wrong.
I’ll take it step forward there should be No unions in Government because it’s not their money they are bargaining for when the employees never labored for it. The private sector business employees are the ones who labored creating products and services selling services that brought a profit to the owners which businesses get taxed and that goes to the government legislature and executive to determine how it gets spent.
What moral is there that government dependents think they have the right to think they are entitled of what they never worked for?
It anything businesses owners of the private sector should be paying their employees more because government takes less from them (if those owners are biblically moral which is why unions were created because of the private sector business owners were not biblical and abused and exploited their employees); while government dependents are making minimum wage as low as 10.00 and as high as 22.00 an hour with little benefits because of their dependency on the taxpayer.
Idahoans are thinking forwardly, they have no choice before they lose their state to the way Washington, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Alaska are going as Idaho is currently getting inundated by liberal Californians seeking greener pastures
A message to all of our legislatures; especially to our Republican legislatures (even to our.. RHINO’s);I plead; Please take a note from this article and I plead with you to attempt to adhere to this message on WHAT/HOW Idaho is doing and create a similar permanent change in our legislative process: “law a measure prohibiting public schools from using taxpayer-funded (ADD: and illegally using our PFD)resources to support teachers’ unions, a move supporters say restores government neutrality while critics argue it limits educators’ ability to organize.