Posts tagged teachers

    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.”

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backs a new bill targeting unions; those who support him won’t be affected

    March 3, 2026 // In 2023, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 256, a measure designed to attack public sector unions by making it harder for them to collect dues, while simultaneously forcing them to show that at least 60% of their members were paying their dues. Any union that failed to meet that 60% threshold faced a decertification vote.

    National Labor Relations Board Schedules Vote for St. HOPE Charter School Teachers Seeking to Remove SCTA Union

    March 2, 2026 // Despite union’s legal attempt to block vote, NLRB schedules election for March 11 in response to majority-backed petition from teachers to decertify union

    Oakland Schools, Teachers Union Reach Deal, Avert Strike

    March 1, 2026 // Last summer, it just regained local control after 20 years in state receivership. Without factoring in the price of the new deal, OUSD is eyeing $102 million in cuts by June. Interim Superintendent Denise Saddler told the school board this week that without those reductions, “we won’t be able to pay all the people on our payroll in the fall. We don’t have the money in the budget for next year.” On Wednesday, OUSD approved cutting nearly 400 staff positions, including 180 filled by OEA members, through early retirement buyouts, elimination of vacant positions, and layoffs. Altogether, that is estimated to save about $11 million annually

    Twin Rivers United labor union plans to go on strike, the first time in school district’s history

    February 25, 2026 // The union represents about 1,500 teachers, psychologists, speech therapists, counselors, nurses, librarians, student learning coaches, student support teachers, visual and performing arts educators, teachers on special assignment, social workers and program specialists.

    SFUSD to issue layoff notices a week after $183 million deal to end teachers strike

    February 23, 2026 // Prior to the teacher contract negotiations, the district faced an ongoing deficit even after cutting $114 million from the $1.4 billion budget last year.

    Teachers strike ends after union, district reach tentative deal

    February 16, 2026 // • An 8.5% raise over two years for classified employees such as paraeducators, and a 5% raise over two years for teachers and certificated employees. • Local property-tax revenue will fund health care at Kaiser Permanente rates for union members’ families starting July 1, and health care for unionized employees starting Jan. 1, 2027. • Relief for special educators that include raising overage pay and reduced caseloads for certain programs.

    Va. leaders sound alarm on collective bargaining bill: ‘It will bankrupt local government’

    February 13, 2026 // “This new bill wants to mandate collective bargaining and mandate what's called binding arbitration, which forces districts to pay a salary based on some unelected person who's an arbitrator who tells us what we have to do,” said School Board Chairman Babur Lateef. “And we don't agree with that. We don't believe that should be done for any school division in the state or any locality. We believe local governments should have the right to choose whether they want to collectively bargain or not, and it shouldn't be mandated. The current bill, as it stands, doesn't fund the mandate, so the state wants to mandate it, but they don't want to pay for it. If this bill passes, it will be the single largest tax increase in Virginia history, because all of the responsibility for these payments and salaries will be on the localities, local taxpayers, property taxes, and everyone in communities, and it will bankrupt local governments and bankrupt school divisions.”

    Opinion: As strike looms, LA schools need reform — not more spending

    February 8, 2026 // Rather, only three reforms have any hope of improving performance in LA Unified: breaking up the district; parental choice; and Mississippi-style rigor. Remember that this is the teachers union that delayed school reopenings after the Covid lockdown and attached extraneous political demands to the reopening process. What the union is now demanding will leave the district unable to pay its bills within three years.

    As Arizona faces education retention crisis, Tucson charter school teachers fight to unionize

    January 25, 2026 // Teachers at the CITY schools, which include three campuses in downtown Tucson, filed a petition to unionize in December. Their school board rejected it and hired a high-profile law firm to challenge the effort. Fourteen percent of Arizona teachers left their jobs last year, with higher numbers for charter schools, according to state data. Research shows unions generally raise salaries and make teachers more likely to stay in the classroom.