SPEARVILLE, Kan. – In the latest development in what’s being called “a statewide trend,” teachers in the Spearville school district recently voted to cut ties with the Kansas National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

Spearville teachers’ decertification vote marks the fifth time over the past year that a group of Kansas teachers have decided to walk away from the labor group, CJOnline.comreports

As the news site explains, “Decertifying means the teachers no longer negotiate their annual contracts through a KNEA local. Instead, they may create a bargaining unit that is unaffiliated with state or national unions, for example.”

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Observers expect teachers in more Kansas school districts will follow suit.

That’s because a 2013 law allows various “external professional groups” – such as the non-union Kansas Association of American Educators – to communicate with teachers by granting them access to educators’ email addresses, mailboxes, and meetings, where representatives can introduce their organization in person, the news site notes.

Garry Sigle, executive director of the Kansas Association of American Educators, said he hasn’t been poaching in KNEA-affiliated districts, even though it would be perfectly acceptable to do so.

Sigle’s message is getting out because the new law allows educators to invite him into their buildings to share how his group offers many of the same benefits as the KNEA – with the exception of collective bargaining – and often at a much lower cost.

Sigle, who is a former educator himself, tells teachers “it’s a myth” that they need to be affiliated with a union to get a fair labor contract.

Another major selling point for Kansas educators is that the non-union group is focused on helping teachers, rather than pushing a political agenda.

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Alix Freeze, communications director the Association of American Educators – the parent group of Sigle’s organization – said teachers are dropping KNEA because they’re frustrated with the union’s left-leaning political activities.

“A lot of these local educators aren’t finding value with the state and national unions,” Freeze told the news site, adding that they’re part of a “statewide trend.”

While the trend is encouraging to those who don’t believe Big Labor belongs in schools, the overall effect on the KNEA is still relatively small. CJOnline notes the five school districts that have decertified over the past year employ a total of 145 teachers.

The Kansas teachers union still has 25,000 members, while the Kansas Association of American Educators has about 1, 300.