Posts tagged education
Opinion This Labor Day, Respect the Right to Join (or Not) a Union
September 8, 2026 // In that scenario, regulators should consider holding a new vote on whether current workers want a union. While it would be legal for the earlier group’s vote to bind the new hires, it may not be fair because the new workers may have a different opinion. This needs to be resolved before the union is established. Federal law has long been stacked against workers who seek to decertify unions that don’t represent their interests because that decertification has to be done through the union itself. Unsurprisingly, many unions will oppose their own members in these situations. If the workers are truly united in favor of a union, they will get one eventually. And if they aren’t united in favor of one, that wish should be respected, too. It should be the workers’ choice, after all.
NJEA Appears to Concede Some Recent Use of Teacher Dues Was Political, Says NJ Policy Center
September 7, 2026 // “Our client’s IRS complaint appears to have forced the NJEA to finally report its most recent contributions to Garden State Forward as political activity. That is a major step toward the transparency that our client seeks for New Jersey teachers and taxpayers,” said Nathan McGrath, President and General Counsel at the Fairness Center. “But the shift also makes it harder for union officials to explain to their members and the IRS why they failed to report tens of millions of dollars in past contributions as political activity over the previous decade. Our client welcomes this news but insists that the NJEA must come clean about its prior reporting, too.”
Teachers unions lose another fight against school choice
August 26, 2026 // Why are teachers unions so hostile to school choice? Because it threatens the system from which they derive their power, in which all but the wealthiest parents are trapped, and prey to an unresponsive monopoly, while union leaders collect dues regardless of educational outcomes. School choice gives families a way out and, more importantly, introduces competition into a system unions have spent decades trying to control. Parents and children need elected officials willing to resist unions, and they need institutions such as the Goldwater Institute willing to fight when unions turn to courts and ballot campaigns to take choice away. Arizona’s victory should be a model.
Dallas teachers union takes strike authorization vote
August 25, 2026 // A Dallas Education Association labor representative said a strike was not imminent, with the union having “no intention of setting a strike date at this time."
Florida Teachers Are Walking Away From Their Union. New AFFT Report Shows Where the Money Goes
August 21, 2026 // AFFT’s latest “Where Do Your Dues Go?” project examines FY 2025 financial filings from five union organizations with Florida operations: the Florida Education Association, AFSCME Florida, SEIU Florida State Council, United Teachers of Dade and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.
Socialists Push ‘Rank-and-File’ Plan to Steer US Labor Unions
August 18, 2026 // From 2018 to 2021, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, DSA's campus wing, adopted what it calls the "rank-and-file strategy" as a national priority, urging members to take jobs in what YDSA called strategic sectors: education, healthcare, and logistics. The Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, DSA's internal labor arm, published a pamphlet describing the approach as a way to rebuild "a militant, left-wing, and democratic labor movement."
Louisiana Teachers Head Back to School With a Right They Didn’t Have Last Year
August 11, 2026 // Act 756 took effect August 1. It gives teachers and other school employees a clear, enforceable path to stop union dues from being deducted from their wages — and puts the burden on the union, not the employee, to prove that path was ever explained. Act 756 doesn’t ban union dues. It doesn’t ban unions. It doesn’t stop a single teacher from joining one. What it does is make sure the decision to pay — or to stop paying — genuinely belongs to the employee.
They cleaned N.J. schools during COVID and got extra pay. The court just took it away.
August 11, 2026 // The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the East Orange Board of Education did not have to pay the custodians more than double their regular salary for working while schools were closed to students.
Possible Duval school bus strike could disrupt start of school for Southside, Mandarin students
August 10, 2026 // Duval County Public Schools said Friday the potential impact would be limited to schools served by Durham School Services in the Southside and Mandarin areas. The district is asking families to check Focus to see if their child’s transportation provider is listed as “Durham Southside.” The district said negotiations are continuing and it will provide additional updates as more information becomes available. Duval County relies on about 860 school buses operated by Durham School Services and Student Transportation of America to transport nearly 48,000 students each year
Op-ed:Will Swaim: California schools turn to child sacrifice
August 7, 2026 // This was no accident. Sacrificing their younger union members in order to boost the pay of the older members is a key part of the union playbook – and the predictable outcome of state law commonly known as “LIFO,” or “last in, first out.” It’s buried in California Education Code section 44955, a single phrase that lays out the order of layoffs in any financial crisis: “employees shall be terminated in the inverse of the order in which they were employed.” Many younger teachers say they did not know about LIFO. “We’re pretty shocked,” said a two-year Los Angeles teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity. She said the general feeling among young teachers is “betrayal.” “We supported the bargaining team throughout this process – stood out in the rain to protest and rallied online support for the new contract,” she said. “No one, not even once, told me this could happen.”