BATON ROUGE, La. – There’s no doubt that the presence of organized labor in public schools is an expensive proposition.

School districts pay hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for attorneys to negotiate union contracts, guide them through the long and costly process of firing bad teachers, represent the district in grievance and arbitration hearings, and perform countless other tasks made necessary by the constantly pouting and protesting unions.

The same problem can occur at the state level. A good example comes from Louisiana, where state Department of Education officials are preparing to spend another $750,000 in tax dollars to defend Gov. Bobby Jindal’s private school voucher program, which allows poor kids to use state money to escape miserable public schools.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

The state’s teachers unions challenged the legality of the voucher program in court, and have continued to oppose it through the lengthy and expensive appeals process. Why? Because the voucher program allows students to leave public schools, which employ union teachers. As more students hit the road, fewer teachers are needed, and the union loses more dues revenue every year.

So instead of respecting the will of the voters who elected Gov. Jindal and the state legislature, and allowing them to govern, the unions shamelessly use the courts to challenge any state program that threatens their finances. So what if thousands of families want to use the voucher program to send their kids to private schools? The unions want the students (and the state money attached to them), so they will fight to keep them trapped.

All that legal fighting is starting to add up for the already overburdened taxpayers of the state.

The lawsuits against the voucher program is just part of the problem.

The teachers unions are also continuing a lawsuit challenging Act 1, Jindal’s legislation which, among other things, weakens tenure protections for ineffective teachers and places tougher evaluation standards on teachers.

It’s not known how much that lawsuit is costing the state Department of Education, but the state Attorney General’s office reportedly has a contract with a legal form for up to $410,000 to defend Jindal’s education reforms against various lawsuits, the news report said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Lee Barrios, a retired teacher and critic of the voucher program, said the state’s legal expenses were a “waste of taxpayer money,” according to the news report. Well, the state wouldn’t have to spend that money if the union would stop filing its self-serving lawsuits.

Someone has to defend the public against selfish union wish lists. And things will stay that way, in a lot of states, until more state officials follow the lead of Wisconsin and greatly reduce the power and influence of public sector unions, particularly teachers unions.