The following article is from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation’s bi-monthly Foundation Action Newsletter, March/April 2026 edition. To view other editions of Foundation Action or to sign up for a free subscription, click here.
Majority-backed effort to oust union may shift labor landscape for California charter teachers
After enduring years of bad “representation” and divisive behavior, Beth Simonton (center) and a majority of educators at St. HOPE charter schools in Sacramento are ready to vote the SCTA union out.
SACRAMENTO, CA – A majority of educators for charter school operator St. HOPE Public Schools are supporting a legal effort that may not only free them from the control of Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) union officials, but may soon free charter school teachers across the state from the onerous California labor bureaucracy.
With free assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, St. HOPE educator Beth Simonton filed a union decertification petition in January seeking a vote among her colleagues to oust the SCTA union. SCTA is an affiliate of the California Teachers Association (CTA) union and the National Education Association (NEA) union — the latter of which is headed by the radical Becky Pringle.
Simonton filed her petition at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency tasked with enforcing federal labor law for most private sector employees. That task includes administering votes to install (or “certify”) and remove (or “decertify”) unions.
The work unit covered by the petition includes over 50 teachers from PS7 Elementary School, PS7 Middle School, and Sacramento Charter High School. Because a majority of teachers in the unit signed the petition, the NLRB should promptly approve and schedule a decertification election.
“SCTA union officials have been extremely divisive and have not had a positive impact on teachers, students, or the St. HOPE community as a whole,” commented Simonton.
“They’ve spent much more time trying to demonize school leadership than simply standing up for our interests. I’m proud to represent the majority of educators at St. HOPE who are standing up and saying ‘enough is enough.’”
SCTA Union Bosses Cause Discord in Sacramento Schools
The SCTA first gained monopoly bargaining power over the charter system in 2018 in a process overseen by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). That agency foisted the union on educators through a mandatory “card check” process that bypassed any secret ballot vote. The PERB is notorious, even compared to the NLRB, for its bias in favor of union bosses and against the rights of employees opposed to union affiliation. By 2021, St. HOPE teachers banded together and petitioned for a union decertification vote, but SCTA union officials filed misconduct charges and got the PERB to block the vote under the PERB’s extreme “blocking charge” regulations.
These mandate that any union boss allegations be assumed true, even if there is no evidence to support them. As a result, the teachers were never allowed to cast votes on whether to remove the union.
Petition: Charter School Not Properly Under Authority of CA Labor Bureau
This time, with National Right to Work Foundation legal assistance, the teachers filed their decertification petition with the NLRB instead of the extremely biased California PERB. Foundation staff attorneys believe, contrary to the wishes of the SCTA union officials, that California charter school employees fall under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act.
This would allow the decertification to take place under NLRB rules. While far from perfect, they are not as rigged as the PERB’s kangaroo courts. Not only does U.S. Supreme Court precedent support the argument that the NLRB is the proper venue for this petition, but in recent years Foundation attorneys have successfully filed multiple decertification petitions at the NLRB for public charter school employees in other states.
Statewide Impact Possible
“St. HOPE educators serve some of Sacramento’s most underprivileged young people, and they deserve to have their voices in the workplace heard,” commented Mark Mix, National Right to Work Foundation president. “California’s legislature and administrative state are deep in the pockets of CTA teacher union bosses, who overwhelmingly seek to further their own interests and power over the rights of educators themselves.
“We at the Foundation hope that Ms. Simonton and her colleagues’ effort to break free of both CTA union officials and the onerous California labor bureaucracy is just the first step in achieving greater freedom for charter school educators across the Golden State,” commented Mix.
