Public support for raising teacher pay is climbing, reports the 2018 Education Next survey. Support for increasing teacher pay was strongest in states that experienced teacher strikes or walkouts this year, such as Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Not surprisingly, there’s a sharp split in opinion about the Janus case: While 65 percent of teachers who are union members support agency fee rules, only 16 percent of non-union teachers say

Teachers’ unions should adopt a kid-centric policy in response to the Janus decision, writes Paul Reville in Ed Week. Leaders will need to project a future vision for the work of the union.” One vision could be rear-guard: combative, defensive, and reactionary. Organize to resist the forces that have brought the nation Janus, President Donald Trump, and all manner of assaults on unionism. A corollary of this approach, one already much in evidence in some unions, would be to r

After the Janus ruling —  public employees can’t be required to pay “agency fees” to unions — some thought that “unions might temper their left-wing politics” to keep members from quitting,  write Rick Hess and Grant Addison on National Review. That’s not happening. “We’re becoming more political, not less political,”  American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten declared at the union’s annual convention, which featured speeches by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sa

As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that public-employee unions, including teachers’ unions, can’t force non-members to pay “agency fees.” The fees are supposed to cover collective-bargaining costs, preventing “free riders,” not political advocacy. But public-employee unions bargain for public policy choices, Justice Alito wrote in the majority opinion, notes Kevin Mahnken on The 74. Given the unique influence of teachers unions in the public sector, Alito obser

Collective bargaining doesn’t improve teacher pay, according to a new study, reports Madeline Will on Ed Week. Thirty-three states passed mandatory collective bargaining laws since the 1960s. Those states do typically have higher teacher salaries and higher per-pupil education spending, but they already did so “well before the emergence of collective bargaining rights or modern teacher unions,” the study found. States offered collective-bargaining rights to weaken public-sect

The statewide teacher strike in West Virginia was just the beginning, predicts Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times. Oklahoma teachers, who earn even less than West Virginia teachers, could be the next to walk out. The U.S. Supreme Court “is expected to rule that requiring government employees to pay union fees violates their First Amendment rights,” notes Greenhouse, referring to the Janus case. If public-sector unions lose members, money and clout, “then teachers and oth