Posts tagged teachers
Editorial Board: Unions held Massachusetts schools hostage. Now the bill has come due.
June 3, 2026 // Sometimes even an override isn’t enough. In Brookline, which had a one-day teacher strike in 2022 that ended with a pay raise, voters overwhelmingly approved a tax increase last month that will bring in an extra $23 million, including $18 million for the schools. The vote helped stave off hundreds of teacher layoffs and cuts to the fire department. Even still, the district will still be forced to cut some school jobs. “Not only did these unlawful strikes add to the already historic student learning loss after the pandemic,” said Jim Stergios, the executive director of the Pioneer Institute, “but over the long term jeopardized the jobs of rank-and-file teachers and local municipal budgets.”
NYC hotel maids now make more than rookie cops, firefighters, teachers — as union averts strike following new salary agreement
May 27, 2026 // Hotel maids in NYC already out-earn rookie cops, firefighters and even teachers with master’s degrees — and they just got a raise. The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing 22,000 city hotel workers, ratified the new contract Thursday that will bring housekeepers to $77,113 on July 1 with $110,000 in salary alone in the sixth year. The agreement made last weekend with the hotel owners averted a strike that was already throwing a wrench into the city’s America 250 celebrations and the FIFA World Cup as visitors said they were afraid to make reservations if a strike was at hand.
ILLINOIS: Local school district accused of corruption amid contract negotiations
May 26, 2026 // A local teachers union is accusing its school district of corruption amid ongoing contract negotiations. And now, the Cahokia Federation of Teachers says it has the documentation to back up those allegations.
Op-ed: Unions are acting as a toll booth on the road to unaccountable single-party power
May 8, 2026 // Unions do not write personal checks. They collect dues from membership — teachers, construction workers, public employees — then steer voluntary PAC contributions through ActBlue, the Democrats’ preferred fundraising apparatus. The tilt is so extreme it would embarrass a slot machine. The National Education Association’s PAC raised nearly $27 million in the 2024 election cycle, virtually every dollar aimed at electing Democrats. The four largest government unions — the NEA, the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, and the Service Employees International Union — spent more than $700 million on election-related activity in the 2021–22 cycle alone, with 96 percent flowing to Democratic candidates and organizations. That is not grassroots democracy — it is a toll booth on the road to single-party rule.
Unions Leverage Retirement Funds for Political Agendas
May 5, 2026 // The new report “Unions and ESG: From Worker Representation to Shareholder Activism,” explains how organized labor backs Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing principles. Under ESG principles, fund managers no longer make investment decisions based solely on financial returns for their clients, instead considering unrelated environmental and social issues such as climate policies and corporate diversity efforts.
Opinion: NC teacher walkout is sacrificing students for left-wing politics
April 27, 2026 // The N.C. Association of Educators has scheduled a mass walkout for May 1, urging teachers to leave school and rally in downtown Raleigh. School districts are already beginning to close in response, keeping children out of the classroom at a critical point before the end of the school year. Durham Public Schools shifted May 1 to a teacher workday after more than 600 teachers, about a quarter of its educators, requested leave. Asheville City Schools said it could not provide “adequate supervision of students” because so many staff planned to be out. Guilford, Chatham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro have made similar moves.
A California school district is having its first teachers strike in 150 years
April 17, 2026 // Vasquez said that in the last few years the district has spent more than the revenue it had received, and used reserve funds to continue to subsidize benefits and students services.
LLINOIS: 15,600 IFT members don’t exist, according to a union filing
April 16, 2026 // In a required annual report, the union’s own words reveal that: It has 15,600 fewer members than it claims on its website. Less than 28% of its spending is on representing teachers — what should be its main focus. The union spent over $1 million on politics in 2025. Nearly half of the IFT’s officers and employees made over $100,000 last year.
Teachers earn whopping pay raise as under-fire LAUSD folds to avert strike
April 13, 2026 // The pay hike comes even as the district’s roughly 390,000 students perform below both state and federal literacy averages. The agreement, expected to cost at least $650 million, also includes a plan to hire 450 additional support staff, including counselors, psychologists and social workers. The deal follows months of tense negotiations after the union’s contract expired last June, and is aimed at heading off a strike planned for Tuesday. But the threat of walkouts has not been fully eliminated. Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents custodians, cafeteria workers and other service staff, has yet to reach a deal with the district.
Commentary: A teacher strike would hurt kids, but LAUSD can’t afford to give in to the union’s demands
April 13, 2026 // The bottom line is that LAUSD can’t afford the union’s demands. A lengthy teachers’ strike would harm students, but giving in to UTLA risks weakening the district’s ability to serve those students for years to come. For their part, teachers and other union employees could come to regret whatever concessions UTLA manages to squeeze out of the district. LAUSD has already approved a plan to lay off 3,200 employees, and they’ll need to cut more if UTLA gets its way.