Posts tagged public school
California Teachers Association president denies organization ordered coordinated strikes | California Politics 360
March 17, 2026 // "CTA doesn't line up contracts," said CTA President David Goldberg, stating local unions coordinated the effort that was then supported by the statewide group, not mandated. "It's the result of the conditions in which educators are working under decades of disinvestment." Goldberg noted that teachers statewide are asking for better pay and more resources for students. He said school districts in the Sacramento area, such as Twin Rivers and Natomas, are "hoarding millions." But school districts are not cash cows or revenue generators. Several school districts impacted are struggling financially, and they rely on state tax dollars. California has been grappling with back-to-back-to-back state budget deficits that are expected to persist over the next several years.
Debate grows as states consider teacher strike bans
March 9, 2026 // Many states are considering new policies affecting teachers’ ability to strike or participate in protests, and education officials and labor advocates continue to debate the legality of teacher strikes. The strikes are banned or heavily restricted in roughly 38 states and Washington, D.C.
Lawmakers join Chicago Teachers Union to push for more school funding
February 12, 2026 // State lawmakers have introduced legislation backed by the Chicago Teachers Union to immediately increase evidence-based funding and additional public school services. Republicans say Illinois' taxes already are too high. State Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, is a former CTU organizer.
Teachers Union Anti-Trump Lawfare Cases Have Little Connection to K-12 Public School Education
December 4, 2025 // The AFT began as exclusively a teachers union but has six separate divisions that also represent other public school employees, such as teacher aides, custodians, and bus drivers, as well as health care workers and higher education faculty. The union’s website says it also represents public employees, including federal and state employees. “The AFT’s lawsuit spree against the Trump administration reveals what we’ve long known: these organizations have strayed far from their mission of representing teachers,” Aaron Withe, president of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, a conservative education group, told The Daily Signal. “This is exactly why so many teachers are choosing to opt out—they want representation focused on their profession, not a political action committee.”
Top teachers union invites pro-violence activists to shape public school curricula
October 23, 2025 // Many of the Rethinking Schools and Zinn Education Project materials promoted by the NEA explicitly target younger children. The NEA, for instance, on its official Instagram page, highlighted the work of Zinn Education Project fellow and third-grade teacher Sundjata Sekou, who hosts “racial literacy circles” where his fellow elementary educators discuss “cultivating genius in black and brown children.” Additionally, the Zinn Education Project has published reams of educational material aimed at teaching elementary school students about climate change, racism in America’s founding, and feminism, among other topics.
Educator urges Illinois teachers to reject union pressure, politics and coercion
August 7, 2025 // Sarah Fletcher, a former charter school educator and now the Head of School at White Horse Academy, a private school, said her own teaching career trajectory was shaped by a desire to avoid union involvement altogether. “When we moved here to Illinois from Arizona, I had very little interest in teaching at the public school,” Fletcher said. “Part of that was because I didn’t want to be pressured into or have to be mandated to pay dues. The IEA and IFT, which are part of larger organizations like the NEA, use the majority of their funds not to represent teachers, but for political advocacy.”
Analysis: 93% of Idaho teachers union political spending benefited Democrats in 2024
February 19, 2025 // In short, the IEA may endorse GOP candidates that it finds ideologically compatible if those candidates are going to win anyway but, in competitive races where its support might make a difference, the IEA consistently backs Democrats while simultaneously throwing moral support behind the Democrat candidate in any race involving a Republican it doesn’t think it can work with.
CA requires public school unionization lessons, bans mandatory anti-union work meetings
January 2, 2025 // Two new laws — AB 800, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, and now SB 399, signed into law by Newsom this year, are set to help maintain or even increase union membership in the state. AB 800, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023, requires California high school juniors and seniors to be taught about their workplace rights, the achievements of organized labor, and students’ right to join a union. Education site Chalkboard News used public records requests to discover what exactly this new law is having teachers cover.
Commentary: Brandon Johnson Makes Sure the Fix Is In for the Chicago Teachers Union
October 10, 2024 // Among the terms the CTU is demanding — and which Mayor Brandon Johnson is supporting — is that the city, already wildly overburdened with unmeetable pension obligations, assume $175 million more of the responsibility for the pensions of non-teachers in the CPS system. How to pay for it? The idea was to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to take out a high-interest $300 million loan to fund it for a year and then just pray for Governor J. B. Pritzker to toss the city some money next time around because “now they have to.”
This Week’s Teachers Union Report Card: NEA-Alaska Sues to Kill Correspondence Study Program
May 7, 2024 // Anchorage Superior Court judge Adolf Zeman ruled in April that the state-funded correspondence programs used by over 22,000 students are unconstitutional. Unless the Alaska legislature drafts a new correspondence study program law, students will lose access to the popular educational option. The union is celebrating shutting down opportunities for thousands of students. Union president Tom Klaameyer described the lawsuit’s outcome as “a big win.” When filing the complaint last year, the NEA-Alaska leader declared, “We want to make sure all of the public money that is rightfully allocated to the public school system stays within the public school system.”