Posts tagged public education
Largest U.S. teachers union encourages resistance to Trump
July 10, 2025 // “NEA pledges to defend democracy against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions," according to the union's resolution. "NEA will use existing media channels to oppose any move to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as an illegal, anti-democratic, and racist attempt to destroy public education and privatize it in the interests of the billionaires.” The NEA changed the language of deporting illegal immigrants to “kidnapping” and expressed its support for students protesting against ICE raids. “NEA opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement kidnapping student leaders and supports students’ right to organize against ICE raids and deportations," read another resolution. The NEA stated it will no longer endorse or publicize material from the Anti-Defamation League, an organization founded to combat antisemitism.
Teachers at The Met School vote to unionize with NEARI
June 21, 2025 // “Now, we’ve organized to ensure that The Met continues to thrive, with smaller class sizes, greater transparency, and a real voice in shaping the future of our school.”
John Fetterman Completely Loses It in Meeting With Union Leaders
May 12, 2025 // The Pennsylvania senator was in a meeting with members of a teachers union when he began to lash out. The Inquirer spoke to several former Fetterman staffers anonymously who said that Fetterman wasn’t living up to his duties as a senator. His sharp, zero-sum advocacy for Israel and antipathy toward Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Gaza has alienated staff and constituents. He frequently misses meetings and votes, avoids colleagues, and spends many hours on Capitol Hill alone in his office. “It’s pretty impossible to overstate how disengaged he is,” said one former Fetterman staffer. “He doesn’t read memos, he’s taking very few meetings.… The job is just a platform for him to run for president; that’s all he cares about.”
Opinion: Unions’ victories shake Utah politics
April 25, 2025 // Legislators will not go quietly into the night, allowing an activist judge to dismantle Utah’s school choice program. Expect legislation to shore up the program, and judges to once again be recipients of legislative ire. Pignanelli: Unless resolved soon, the role of public employee associations will be a feature in political party conventions and swing legislative districts. The Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling on the scholarship program could foster another constitutional ballot proposition.
Study shows how Missouri taxpayers are subsidizing teachers’ unions
March 13, 2025 // While it may not sound controversial, Straka explains the reality is that “union participation in NEOs [new employee orientations] is designed to pressure employees into joining the union, contributing to union political funds, and inculcating pro-union sentiment among employees.” “All of these meetings take place during work hours at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continues. “Missouri lawmakers should ensure that no teacher or public school employee is required by their employer to attend union events, listen to a union sales pitch, or otherwise interact with a union against their will.
The Freedom Foundation creates teachers’ union alternative
March 10, 2025 // “Public employees are leaving their unions in record numbers, frustrated by the funding of radical agendas driven by union bosses,” Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe said in a news release. “The Teacher Freedom Alliance offers an alternative for pro-America educators who seek to restore traditional values in the classroom and provide students with the high-quality education they deserve– free from political influence and union control.”
Commentary: Biden Values Public Unions Above Public Service
December 12, 2024 // “It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people,” he said. “The vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.” Yet it never happened. The White House issued various directives, and every political appointee I know was routinely in the office . But despite this widespread discontent among his own appointees, Biden never got the workers back. One reason is that civil servants overwhelmingly view the return-to-office push as a bad-faith political stunt designed to assuage critics in Congress or provide economic benefits to cities. The belief that regular presence in an office is beneficial, expressed by many managers in the private sector, doesn’t have much traction.
Union leaders come together for Harris
October 21, 2024 // Some of the nation's largest unions are launching a new get-out-the-vote effort to support Vice President Harris. AFCME President Lee Saunders and AFT President Randi Weingarten join The Weekend to discuss their efforts to win in key states.
Op-Ed: Greszler: Harris, Walz policy records undermine pro-worker rhetoric
August 23, 2024 // the Biden-Harris Administration is also picking winners and losers among blue-collar workers. Its regulations governing wages and labor agreements on government contracts are disastrous. They almost exclude non-union workers from federal contract jobs, including 89% of construction workers who aren’t unionized; force many workers who perform federal contract jobs into unions, including requiring them to pay into union pensions they’ll never receive. Not only that, but despite the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to empower and unionize more workers, the unionization rate hit a new record low of 10% in 2023 (6% among the private sector), and the gap between union and non-union wages also hit a record low. That’s because union wages increased 6.4 percentage points less than non-union wages between 2019 and 2023. For Walz’s part, he’s signed a slew of labor laws ostensibly aimed at helping workers, but by driving up the costs and legal liabilities of employing people in Minnesota, they have instead hamstrung job growth in the state.
VIRGINIA: Fairfax County’s teachers unions fail students. Commentary
January 19, 2024 // But all hope is not lost, even in the face of chronic absenteeism and declining standards in public education. In 2023, 20 states expanded K-12 educational choice options for America’s children and families. If public funds followed children instead of failing institutions during the pandemic, families with fewer resources also could have homeschooled or taken their children to one of the many private schools that didn’t shut their doors on the orders of teachers unions. Just as they are across much of the nation, here in Fairfax County, teachers unions are a substantial obstacle to quality public education — and school choice is the solution.