GRANT PROPOSAL RECORD Students Fi rst I nstitute ADDRESS: 28212 Kelly Johnson Pkwy., Suite 105 Valencia, CA 91355 CONTAGT: Mr. Jim Blew AMOUNT REQUESTED: $100,000 STAFF RECOMMENDATION: $100,000 PROJECT TITLE: To support litigation BOARD MEMBERS AFFILIATED WITH REQUEST: STAFF: Mike Hartmann MEETING DATE: 11t10t2015 PROPOSAL ID#: 201 50838 BACKGROUND: The StudentsFirst lnstitute (SFl) in Valencia, Calif., requests a $100,000 grant award in first-time support, for its federal Bain v. California Teachers Association lawsuit. Founded in 2010 by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, SFI researches and conducts public education about two public-policy reforms -- school choice and merit pay for teachers. lt is the (c)(3) affiliate of the (c)(a) StudentsFirst, which supports the same policy goals and is currently pursuing them in 11 particular states where the education-reform infrastructures are in need of bolstering. SFI's and StudentsFirst president is the experienced Jim Blew, who previously led The Walton Family Foundation's school-choice team and advised Walton family members on their own philanthropic and other giving. Before his years at Walton, when it worked very closely with Bradley, Blew worked for two Bradley-supported organizations - the Alliance for School Choice and the Rhee American Education Reform Council. SFI's and Students First boards are chaired by Rhee and include Rev. Floyd H. Flake, CNN's Roland S Martin, and ABC/ESPN announcer and analyst Jalen Rose. Bain v. CIA is a suit brought by teachers who are union members against their unions to stop coercive practices that compel the teachers to support the unions' political activities agarnst their will. The three plaintiffs are all teachers in California. April Bain is a proud union member who doesn't want to be forced to choose between union membership and political causes that aren't connected to the classroom. Bain Her fellow plaintiff and union member Bahrain Bhakti delivered powerful testimony in California's Vergara v. California decision (about which see the Partnership for Educational Justice recommendation in $ 2.4. of these materials), which found several state statutes unconstitutional under the state constitution there because they facilitated the retention of grossly ineffective teachers and thus denied equal protection to students assigned to those teachers. Bhakti described being laid off at the end of almost every school year during her first nine years of teaching. Their fellow plaintiff Clare Sobetski worked on President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, then became a Teach for America corps member, and is her school's union representative. She believes unions should be required to make an argument to their members about the need for and efficacy of any political contributions they all collectively make. Their case was filed last April in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles The plaintiffs are represented by a team led by Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., of Gibson Dunn's Los Angeles office. The defendants in the case are local, state, and nationalteachers' unions, including the California Teachers Association, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers. ln September, the District Court granted the teachers' unions' motion to dismiss the case. The judge seemed to agree with much of the plaintiffs' arguments but then concluded that the unions are not state actors, but rather private entities acting without the blessing of the state, and that they thus cannot violate - free-speech rights. At this writing, the plaintiffs plan to appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Budget information: SFI's 2015-17 budget for the Ealn litigation ambitiously totals $6,493,788. The Friedrichs and Bain Should Bain reach the U.S. Supreme Court, it would do so after anolher important suit from California that could also substantially reduce teachers'-union revenues. Fiedrichs v. California Teachers Association challenges the unions' practices in 25 agency-fee states of charging non-union teachers a mandatory "agency fee" - which the unions call a "fair-share fee" -- to cover the costs of representing non-union members in collective bargaining. Bradley is already supporting the Friedrichs case through grants to the Center for lndividual Rights and the Judicial Education Project. It will be considered by the Supreme Court sometime during the October 2015 Term. lf Fnedrlchs is fully successful, an estimated 100,000 non-union teachers across the country would no longer be required to pay mandatory agency fees. Agency fees typically run about two{hirds of membership dues and roughly range between $500 and $800 per year. Should the unions lose agency fees, they would lose an estimated $60 million annually. (lf given the opportunity to opt out of the union and not pay the agency fee, moreover, many other teachers could be expected to drop their union memberships.) Friedrichs and Baìn apply to two separate groups of teachers: 1. 2. those who do not want to pay the agency fee (Friedrichs); and, those who are willing to pay for membership benefits, but who do not want to be coerced to support the unions' political activity (Barn). While the cases affect different groups of teachers, the combination of both cases could hypothetically be a powerful one-two punch. lf both revenue streams are reduced or dried up, all that would remain to fund the unions' political apparatus would the hard-core teacher members who embrace their leaderships' sfafus quo, anlireform policies and the politics of one party. largest component of this is the capped legal fees either already charged or anticipated for Gibson Dunn ($818,880 in 2015, $974,384 in 2016, and $363,802in2017). The rest is forcommunications and outreach, including conferences and the various normal online presences. It has already secured commitments totaling just more than $1 million toward litigation costs and had "soft commitments" totaling another $400,000 to cover an appeal to the Court of Appeals and $500,000 for any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Each year, teachers' unions in America collect an est¡mated total of more than $2 billion from rank-and-file teachers, at least $500 million of which is used to support overt political activities at all levels of government -- from local school boards to the presidency. lf Bain is ultimately successful, even unionized teachers would no longer be forced to fund their unions' political activities. Teachers who chose not to support and fund the unions' political activity would be allowed to pay for and receive full membership benefits. As a result, the teachers' unions would have to through voluntary contributions. raise political donations the same way as everyone else - Staff thus recommends a $100,000 IRA investment in SFI for its Baln suit. StudentsFirst Grant History Project Title -- NONE -- Grant Amount Approved Fund