Posts tagged teachers union
Commentary: Even socialist NYC mayor Mamdani can’t satisfy the teachers union
April 13, 2026 // Mulgrew has already threatened to try to kill the entire state budget unless it includes revisions to the Tier VI pension rules enacted in 2012, demanding a rollback that would allow teachers to retire earlier without massive penalties. He declared, “If we don’t have the significant fixes in Tier VI, then vote the budget down.” The changes would cost local governments, including New York City, hundreds of millions of dollars a year in higher pension contributions.
John Coyne: The teachers challenging their unions’ political agenda in court
April 8, 2026 // Wolf won that gubernatorial election and later appointed PSEA President Jerry Oleksiak as his labor secretary. Oleksiak himself embodied another way teachers’ unions advanced their agenda in schools — through “ghost teachers.” Typically in urban school districts, teachers’ unions arranged for certain teachers to leave the classroom and work full-time for the union. The problem? These ghost teachers stayed on district payroll, receiving a taxpayer-backed teachers’ salary, pension, and health benefits. Oleksiak, a former special education teacher, was a ghost teacher for ten years leading up to his appointment by Wolf.
Opinion: Teacher’s union lies to extort billions from taxpayers
April 7, 2026 // The unions insist that the state needs to “fix” the pension rules because, they say, reforms enacted for future employees in 2009 and 2012 (the latter commonly called “Tier 6”) have made it harder to attract and keep good employees. This is a remarkable claim that crumbles under inspection. New York state government set a record for the most employees hired in 2023, only to smash it in 2024. So much for that recruitment problem.
America’s Largest Teachers’ Union Prizes Activism Over Education
April 2, 2026 // Members of America’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), were back in training in February, this time for a confidential webinar entitled “Advocacy and Free Speech Rights for K-12 Educators.” The leaked slide deck, posted by the watchdog group Defending Education, reveals that the NEA is less focused on American students’ stagnant test scores than on training its members to become activists, while using misinterpretations of the First Amendment as a shield.
Commentary: $45 Million, No Answers: NJEA Leadership Still Owes Teachers the Truth
March 11, 2026 // How would you feel if you joined a union and paid $1,400 in dues each and every year, and the union’s president decided to run for governor and used $47 million of your and your fellow teachers’ dues without asking you? And then came in fifth place in the primary? Well, that’s what the NJEA’s president, Sean Spiller, did. How would you feel if $10 million of the $47 million was sent to a little-known firm, AP Consulting, for canvassing operations? No one spends that kind of money on canvassing in a primary. It raises legitimate questions about who authorized those payments, what services were provided, and why such an extraordinary sum was routed through a firm with limited publicly known political field experience.
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
March 7, 2026 // Mayor Daniel Lurie was already in a tough spot with San Francisco labor unions Monday when his administration delivered a sobering message: City Hall needs to eliminate hundreds of jobs. At least 500 positions are on the chopping block as the city seeks to reduce its spending on salary and benefits by $100 million, according to Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler. She told departments in an email that San Francisco “cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs” as it works to eliminate the recurring deficits that have plagued the city since the pandemic.
Op-ed: ‘The issue is the revolution’: Who is running your city’s teachers union?
March 4, 2026 // Under the banner of “social justice unionism,” teachers’ unions are increasingly treating classrooms, teachers, and even students as instruments in a wider ideological project — one organized, replicated, and funded across the nation. This shift helps explain why contemporary political controversies are now being filtered into elementary, middle and high schools. As one activist leader put it during the NEA Educators for Palestine webinar, the anti-ICE movement is “the spark that could ignite the fire under Labor.” As the saying goes, “The issue is never the issue — the issue is the revolution.”
Teacher’s union letter alleges ‘complaints and concerns’ regarding ousted commissioner
January 27, 2026 // Through a Freedom of Information request, CNY Central obtained a letter from the teacher’s union to the school board alleging multiple “complaints and concerns” over many years about Billue’s “abuse of power and lack of respect for district policies." The letter is authored by the head of the Syracuse Teachers’ Association, Nicole Capsello, on Oct. 8, 2025. She stated the union informed two past superintendents about problems with Billue showing up in a teacher’s room without going through proper procedures.
Teachers union distorts record on education spending
January 22, 2026 // Michigan spent $6,391 per pupil in 2000, according to Michael Van Beek, director of research at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. That is $12,271 per student in today’s dollars. Per pupil funding was $14,911 in 2025, or 22% more than the inflation-adjusted amount for 2000.
MINNESOTA: Anoka-Hennepin district and union come to a tentative agreement just 1 day before strike date
January 7, 2026 // The school district includes 50 schools and learning centers and is staffed by 3,200 teachers, counselors, social workers and nurses. In the press release Wednesday, Anoka-Hennepin Schools stated that 82% of the district's operating budget goes to personnel costs.