Perhaps the most ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars is facing a legal challenge in one California school district that is suing its teachers union to get its money back.

The Vista Unified School District is suing the Vista Teachers Association, the California Teachers Association, and the National Education Association over the wages of its local union president, which is released from teaching responsibilities to work on union business as part of the district’s collective bargaining agreement, the North County Times reports.

In school districts across the nation, local teachers union presidents are “released” from their teaching duties either full or part time to conduct union business. Some contracts also allow for “release time” for rank-and-file teachers to work for the union, or to lobby lawmakers.

The ridiculous practice often costs schools $100,000 or more per year to cover the president’s salary and benefits – in addition to the cost of a substitute teacher – to essentially provide the nation’s multimillion dollar teachers unions with free labor.

In some districts, such as Vista Unified, the union repays a portion of the expense. In many others, it doesn’t.

A lawyer for Vista Unified advised school officials that the arrangement was illegal, and those officials asked the union to repay $128,242 the district has spent on the contract provision over the past three years, the North County Times reports.

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 When you spend day after day examining the self-serving agenda of the nation’s two largest teachers unions, you develop a tendency to think badly of teachers.

That’s a mistake. We have to remember that there are millions of great teachers out there, doing their best to help our children develop on a dialy basis. We have to remember that many teachers do not subscribe to the left-wing political agendas of their unions, or approve of their tactics.

Larry Sand is a great example. This recently-retired educator from Los Angeles was a member of the NEA-affiliated California Teachers Assocation. To his credit, he’s also a major pain in the backside of the CTA.

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