Posts tagged teachers
SLPS employee unions demand a seat at the table regarding school consolidations
July 11, 2025 // “The No. 1 cause of injuries to the people 420 represents is breaking up fights,” Cummings said. “This is a safety issue … and I can't stand for my members to be put in that situation.” Cummings cited Article I, Section 29 of the Missouri Constitution, which states employees have a right to bargain collectively with their employer through a union representative of their choosing. Jane McWilliams-Sykes, a registered nurse who works at Dewey Elementary School, said nurses and medical staff within schools are critical for students’ safety and well-being. The end of next month will mark 40 years that she has worked as a nurse in the district, she said.
Illinois General Assembly passes 3 bills boosting government union power
June 24, 2025 // Illinois law already requires school districts to provide their local unions the personal information of all teachers and other education employees represented by those unions. That includes the employee’s name, worksite location, home address, home telephone number, mobile numbers and personal email address. Currently, that information must be turned over to the local union, even if the employee is not a union member. HB 3309 takes it farther.
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.”
Philadelphia teachers have voted to authorize a strike. Here’s what to know
June 20, 2025 // Ten percent of the district’s budget comes from federal dollars, and the Trump administration has threatened various cuts to those funding streams. The district is also facing a fiscal shortfall of more than $300 million for 2026. Superintendent Tony Watlington and other officials decided to extract 40% of the district’s rainy day fund to cover the difference and stave off budget and programming cuts for one more year, but the deficit is set to keep ballooning in size. The district in March blamed inflation, employee salaries and benefits, and charter school payments for the growing expenses. The union has stood staunchly in opposition to charter expansion, with President Steinberg harshly criticizing the Board of Education for approving a new charter school in recent weeks.
Nearly 1 in 3 Illinois school contracts mislead teachers about fees they owe
June 18, 2025 // Seven years after they were freed from being forced to pay unions, at least 267 of Illinois’ 866 school districts still have “fair share” language in their teachers union contracts. Those contracts are wrong and should be fixed so teachers get the truth about their pay.
Faculty at School of Visual Arts in New York Unionize
June 1, 2025 // Adjunct faculty make up most of SVA’s teaching corps. According to labor organizers who spoke with Hyperallergic, which first reported the news, the adjunct model has eroded both financial security and morale. SVA has cited stagnant wages, heavier course loads and the loss of retirement contributions and paid sabbaticals, as reasons for unionizing.
SeeThroughNY Updated With 1,000+ Latest Union Contracts
May 18, 2025 // New York’s most comprehensive online database of state and local government union contracts has been updated with the latest collective bargaining agreements for local teachers, police, firefighters, libraries, and public authorities. Among the 1,006 new local government and school district public employee union and employment contracts on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website, are 126 public school teacher association contracts, 124 Superintendent contracts, 95 police contracts, and 18 firefighter contracts.
ISBA distances itself from Idaho teachers union’s anti-GOP campaign—sort of
May 15, 2025 // According to the IEA, the “central focus” of its so-called “May Matters” campaign will be “[m]obilizing IEA members to turn out voters in the May 2026 primary elections and return a pro-public education majority to the Idaho Legislature.” Part of the union’s strategy involves getting Democratic and independent teachers to make some “pragmatic political calculations” and “re-register” as Republicans “in strategic districts” so they can vote for the most liberal candidates running under false colors in the GOP primary. Such rhetorical fire-breathing and political scheming is par for the course when it comes to teachers unions. More notable, however, was the IEA’s claim that “allies” like the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA) “will join” the union’s May Matters effort.
Fringe benefits boost average Kentucky teacher’s compensation to nearly $100,000
May 7, 2025 // Though teacher compensation has grown, the much-larger increase in school funding indicates that a great deal of funding is going elsewhere. Moreover, student academic performance hasn’t come close to keeping pace with increases in either funding or teachers’ compensation. “Public education should be about preparing students for future success, not propping up an overfunded mediocre system,” said Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters. "Large increases in school funding – including nearly $2 billion in fringe-benefit payments for teachers – have not translated into better student outcomes.”
Oakland Teachers OK a May Day Strike Amid District’s Budget Cuts
April 28, 2025 // The potential strike would be the fourth by OUSD teachers since 2019. Tensions have mounted between top district officials and the teachers union since a union-backed school board majority voted on Wednesday to remove Oakland’s longtime superintendent, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, two years before the end of her contract. At the same meeting, the union representing Oakland school administrators alleged that its members had been threatened by teachers union leadership. Cary Kaufman, president of the United Administrators of Oakland Schools, said a teachers union leader told a district principal: “We control the board. We got [Johnson-Trammell] fired, we can get you fired.”