Outrageous! Taxpayers Will Pay Randi Weingarten a Pension Because of Government's Special Deals with Unions

New York taxpayers are on the hook to pay government pension benefits for teachers union boss Randi Weingarten — one of the most powerful political operatives in the country — even though she hasn’t stepped into a classroom to teach for a quarter-century.

The culprit is a corrupt, unconstitutional practice that many taxpayers haven’t even heard about. It’s called union release time — and it benefits the government’s favored special interests at the taxpayers’ expense.

Weingarten is the head of the American Federation of Teachers, a private labor union with annual revenue of $200 million a year. The AFT is one of the most politically active special interests in America, giving tens of millions of dollars to political candidates, parties, and political action committees — more than 98% of which is directed to benefit Democrats, some estimates show.

Read the rest of the op-ed at Fox News.

Jon Riches is the Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute.