Teacher Union News
The Daily Signal provides coverage of how unions shape education policy, funding, and classroom priorities nationwide.
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- Opinion
Teachers Unions Are Keeping Kids Out of the Classroom. School Choice Can Ensure They Learn Anyway.
National School Choice Week has taken on renewed importance this year, as too many families are approaching the one-year mark of crisis online learning provided by their public school district. Last March, the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools nationwide, forcing teachers, parents, and students to transition to virtual classrooms and grapple with the various effects of…Jude Schwalbach -
- Opinion
Teachers Unions Fail Science
Is your child’s school open now? Probably not — because teachers unions say that reopening would “put their health and safety at risk.” They keep schools closed by lobbying and protesting. “If I die from catching COVID-19 from being forced back into Pinellas County Schools, you can drop my dead body right here!” shouts one…John Stossel -
- Opinion
Teachers Unions Try to Thwart Education Access at a Most Inopportune Time
With millions of students at home as the result of coronavirus district closures, and families finding themselves thrown into “unexpected homeschooling,” Americans rightly expect that teachers, administrators, and principals at all types of schools would be embracing an “all hands on deck” approach to this challenging situation. But while instances of cooperation between public and…Lindsey Burke -
- News
Teacher Takes Union to Court for Ignoring Supreme Court Ruling on Dues
Pennsylvania’s largest public employee union needs to stop evading a landmark Supreme Court ruling, an art teacher argues in a lawsuit that could undo key provisions of state labor laws. The Pennsylvania State Education Association continues to negotiate provisions to give it “fair share fees” in collective bargaining agreements, despite the fact that the highest…Kevin Mooney -
- Opinion
California Teachers Union Wants Kids to Pursue Gender Transition Without Parental Consent
Even in California, you have to be 18 to get a tattoo, 16 to drive a car, 21 to buy a gun, alcohol, or pot. But if you want to change your gender? Well, then, you just have to be 12. And your public school will be more than happy to help. Need an abortion?…Tony Perkins -
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Teachers Union Demands Kids Share Bathrooms With Transgender Educators
MADISON, Wis.—As the Madison Metropolitan School District faces a lawsuit over its policy on student gender identity, it is being accused of discriminating against transgender teachers in the bathroom. On Madison Teachers Inc. fired out a press release last Tuesday asserting it supports equal restroom access for the school district’s students and staff. The union doesn’t like…M.D. Kittle -
- News
Teachers Go to Court to Fight Union Over Choice of Charities
Teachers who object to paying union fees on religious grounds are too political, some union leaders in Pennsylvania argue in a new twist on long-standing complaints about organized labor’s involvement in elective politics. But at least two of those teachers, who just had their day in court to put state labor laws under scrutiny, see…Kevin Mooney -
- Opinion
Memo to Teachers Unions: Charter Schools Clearly Benefit Students
When Morgan Waldrop started high school, academics weren’t much of a priority. “It wasn’t even a goal of mine to be at the top of my class,” Waldrop says. But when she became pregnant, her goals changed. “Focusing on my schoolwork was focusing on my son so that I could provide a future for him,” she says. Starting in…Jonathan Butcher -
- Opinion
How Teachers Unions Are Holding Children With Special Needs Hostage
Teacher unions are now using strikes as a form of extortion. For the second time this year, a state’s teachers union and its members have closed schools and are refusing to work until lawmakers stop considering proposals to give students with special needs more learning opportunities. In recent days, the Kentucky teachers union, and administrators…Jonathan Butcher -
- News
Teachers Who Support Gun Rights Forced to Finance Activism of Unions That Don’t
Public school teachers who support the Second Amendment are being required to finance political activism they oppose, such as this weekend’s March for Our Lives calling for more gun controls, federal court filings say. The California Teachers Association, the largest affiliate of the National Education Association with about 325,000 members, issued a statement expressing opposition…Kevin Mooney -
- Opinion
Podcast: Teachers Could Make More Without Unions’ Interference
As the West Virginia teachers strike continues, Mary Clare Amselem joins us to explain how teachers could make significantly higher salaries if the unions would stop preventing performance pay. Plus: We discuss the unsurprising fact that left-wing groups are getting involved with the Parkland students, and Sen. Marco Rubio’s new proposal on school safety.Katrina Trinko -
- Opinion
Memo to West Virginia Teachers Striking: Union Policies to Blame for Lower Pay for Good Teachers
If you see thousands of children in West Virginia out of school this week, rest assured they are not playing hooky. In fact, it’s their teachers who are. Last week, a massive strike of almost 20,000 teachers occurred in the state, leading to widespread school closures. On Tuesday, every single public school in West Virginia…Mary Clare Amselem -
- News
President of National Teachers’ Union Cites Holocaust in Comments on Trump
The president of one of the nation’s largest teachers’ union cited the Holocaust in comments she made about President-elect Donald Trump while speaking at an LGBT event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. “After what happened in the 1930s and ’40s, we used to have a saying called ‘never again,’” Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation…Kelsey Bolar -
- Opinion
Justice Scalia’s Vote Likely Would Have Determined Teachers Union Case
It is the end of the road for Rebecca Friedrichs’ challenge to the requirement that teachers who opt out of union membership must nevertheless pay fees to the local union for a “fair share” of the costs of collective bargaining. In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the Supreme Court announced in a one-sentence opinion that…Elizabeth Slattery -
- News
After Scalia’s Death, Lawyer for Teacher Challenging Public Unions Wants Supreme Court to Rehear Case
California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs had her day before the Supreme Court to challenge public-sector unions once. Now, following the unexpected passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, her lawyers are pushing for the elementary school teacher to have her day before the high court again. Oral arguments in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association took place…Melissa Quinn -
- Opinion
The Dirty Little Secret of How Teachers Unions Stay in Business
Less than 1 percent of Pennsylvania public school teachers have formally approved of the unions representing them, and teachers unions from Erie to Philadelphia have not been elected by their members for more than four decades. That should change, according to a blistering policy brief published by the Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market think tank that’s…Evan Grossman -
- Opinion
Christmas Comes Early for Teachers Unions and Obama Administration With No Child Left Behind Rewrite
“It’s like Christmas Day,” exclaimed Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union. García was referring to passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which was signed into law by President Barack Obama—who similarly referred to the new law as a “Christmas miracle”—earlier Thursday. On Wednesday, the U.S….Lindsey Burke -
- News
Should Teachers Be Allowed to Ditch Their Classrooms to Work For the Union? Two Lawmakers Want to Stop Practice.
PHILADELPHIA—City schools are struggling to find teachers, but the district and local teachers union have an agreement that permits dozens of them to abandon their classrooms to go work for the union every year. As part of the contract between the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, up to 63 teachers…Evan Grossman -
- News
Teacher Unions Fight to Keep Their Clout in Right-to-Work States
Proposals to stop state and local governments from deducting union dues from their employees’ paychecks are likely to gain traction in coming months, those on both sides of the issue say. Such “payroll protection” measures arise as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide next year on a free speech challenge to rules compelling…Kevin Mooney -
- News
Teachers Union Significantly Ups Spending on Political Activities, Boosts Liberals
The 2015 American Federation of Teachers annual report shows a left-wing political machine humming on all cylinders—with teachers buying the gas. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the union reported $37.6 million in political activity and lobbying expenditures, a $12.7-million increase from the previous year. Even more political spending was tucked away elsewhere in AFT’s annual U.S. Department of Labor…Jason Hart