The San Francisco teacher strike was a harbinger. As school budgets tighten, the gap between union demands and what districts can responsibly afford is widening. How leaders respond in moments like this matters — not just for their districts’ long-term fiscal health, but for children they serve today, and for years to come.

As in San Francisco, unions will make demands that benefit their members. District leaders, wanting to avoid a high-profile labor conflict, will fold. 

The consequences come later.

To balance the budget, districts will issue pink slips, cut some electives, Advanced Placement classes and sports, eliminate supports for high-needs children, freeze hiring and close schools. 

Some families will leave. Enrollment will drop. Revenues will fall. The districts will begin a downward financial spiral. 

High-poverty schools will suffer the most. With more junior staff, they’ll be first on the list for pink slips. And with higher turnover rates, a hiring freeze could leave a senior French teacher teaching math (earning $140,000 after a raise that delivered double the cash to veteran educators).  

With so much of their budgets tied up in union negotiated agreements, districts won’t be able to compete with charter schools. Even more families will leave. The cycle will continue.

It’s a dire forecast. And completely foreseeable.

The problem isn’t so much with unions — they’re doing exactly what they are supposed to do: advocate aggressively for the interests of their voting members. 

Rather, districts need to learn to play their corresponding part — aggressively pursue what’s best for students amid constrained dollars. 

Those. Are. Different. Roles. 

Many district leaders, including those in San Francisco, appear uncomfortable with the head-to-head conflict that comes with labor negotiations, especially when unions align with their political sensibilities. That’s understandable. But discomfort is not an excuse for abdicating the district’s responsibility in labor conflicts.’

San Francisco board commissioner Matt Alexander misunderstood his role entirely when he praised the strike, saying he was “proud of these educators for standing up for what is right.”

When districts, like , offer the public little rationale for their proposals during a strike, they cede the narrative to unions that frame their demands as being “.” Unions, in contrast, work hard to win over parents and media, knowing that the strike works only as long as the public stays on the union’s side.

But with more strikes likely on the horizon, district leaders need to ensure that the public hears the other side. What does that look like? What should leaders do?

First, be clear about who controls revenues. It’s not the districts. Want more money in the system? Unions should take that up with their state legislature or with local voters. 

Explain tradeoffs. In West Contra Costa, California, a December strike resulted in $105 million in new costs and a massive budget gap. With some 80% to 90% of district spending on labor, the district will have no choice but to . San Francisco faces the same pressures — adding is the equivalent of reducing jobs for about 800 employees. That’s just the math. It means that schools could lose electives, AP classes and added .

Be crisp with numbers. San Francisco teacher salaries range from about $67,000 to $131,000, depending on experience and credits. The union’s ask was another $12,000 for senior teachers — and $6,000 for junior ones. Where the , district leaders can and should say so.  

Keep students at the center. Demands for would require whose families those same benefits. And it means more employees could be let go. The district’s job is to teach kids to read and do math, and in places like San Francisco, only about half of students are at grade level in math. If leaders believe that investments in counselors, social workers and specialists matter, means trading away these children’s future.

Expose gaps in union narratives: Unions claim larger raises would retain early-career teachers of color. But the resulting costs could trigger reductions in force — and under California’s , it is those same educators who would be laid off first.

Address long-running contract terms that don’t serve students. District leaders often lament that their hands are tied by decades-old provisions. But those contracts didn’t materialize on their own; districts signed them. If they are no longer serving students, or are actively constraining districts’ ability to do so, leaders have an obligation to address them.

Some district leaders mistakenly think federal labor law prevents them from being blunt with the public, and it is true that the California Public Employment Relations Board prohibits bargaining directly with employees outside negotiations. But it does not bar districts from publicly making their case or challenging union claims.

None of this is to suggest that district leaders should be mean, rude or dismissive, even when union rhetoric goes there. They can be firm and professional, remembering that families need to trust them to do what’s best for their children.

District leadership is not about avoiding hard conversations. It’s about having them — clearly, publicly and with an unapologetic focus on students. 

Correction: An earlier version of this op-ed misidentified the organization overseeing the labor negotiations in San Francisco. It was the California Public Employment Relations Board that governed the talks.

Some 3,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, office staff and cafeteria workers in Richmond, California, reported to a picket line instead of their schools Thursday in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. 

Members of the United Teachers of Richmond and Teamsters demanded the district of 26,000 students hike wages to address increasing staff vacancies, but West Contra Costa has said a steep budget deficit made that impossible. At least seven other California teachers unions are at an impasse with their districts during contract negotiations. On Wednesday, United Teachers Los Angeles announced an impasse, while United Educators of San Francisco completed the first of two scheduled strike votes. 

West Contra Costa Unified, located in the San Francisco Bay area, has been since February. The district initially proposed no raises for teachers, while the union requested a 5% annual pay hike for the next two school years. Following an impasse in August, the district recently , but the proposal was rejected.

The district’s Teamsters union, which represents paraprofessionals along with office, cafeteria, maintenance and security workers, on Tuesday. Its members joined the teachers on the picket line Thursday.

United Teachers of Richmond said in a that 70 classrooms are currently without permanent, credentialed teachers and 1,500 educators have left the district in the past five years. 

“These vacancies also mean that our students receiving special education services do so from outside contractors, some over Zoom,” the union said in the statement. “Inability to staff our schools also results in overcrowded classrooms, overworked teachers and diminished learning environments.”

Superintendent Cheryl Cotton, who was hired six months ago, said in a that the district already needs significant budget cuts. In a November fact-finding , an arbitrator said West Contra Costa has a deficit of $16.9 million, but the union claimed the budget projections are incorrect and leave out millions in revenue.

“I heard the real frustration of our educators regarding pay increases, health benefits, special education, fully staffed schools and several other key issues,” Cotton said. “Compensation increases only increase the size of the financial reductions our board must make this year.”

Classrooms remained open Thursday as the strike began. On Tuesday, the Richmond City Council approved $50,000 in to expand community center hours and provide programming for children during the strike. 

The union completed a , with 90% of members casting ballots in favor. That pressure caused West Contra Costa Unified to offer a 14.5% raise over two years, and the strike was avoided.

School districts across the nation are struggling to afford teacher contracts amid financial strains caused by loss of state and federal funding, underenrollment and other issues. 

Several California teachers unions have recently declared an impasse during negotiations, including Los Angeles, Berkeley, Madera, Twin Rivers, Natomas, Oakland and San Francisco. The next step in the bargaining process is often hiring a third-party mediator, but a strike can occur if an agreement isn’t reached. 

More than 99% of United Educators of San Francisco members Wednesday after nine months of bargaining with San Francisco Unified. It’s the first step in a two-vote process before the union can finalize a strike date.

The union, which has 6,500 members, has for a 14% pay increase for support staff and 9% for teachers over two years, along with improvements to health care coverage, special education teacher workloads and family housing. 

After initially offering no raises, the district a 2% increase in September. The union rejected the offer, and both parties declared an impasse and entered mediation in October. 

A in 2023 resulted in a $9,000 salary increase and an additional 5% raise last year.

The district of 50,000 students has a for the next school year. In 2024, it went through several reductions in expenses and jobs and still has . Just like in Richmond, the union the district of mismanaging the budget and failing to present accurate financial figures. 

“The superintendent’s perspective [is] that there is no money and that more cuts will stabilize the school district budget,” the union said in a . “Every year, we have been in negotiations with the district, they have claimed the same thing. This is despite the facts … year after year, San Francisco Unified closes its books with millions in surplus cash, they send out pink slips but start the next year with empty classrooms, they put families on a long waitlist to enroll their students while forcing underenrollment at schools.”

San Francisco Unified that it’s committed to securing an agreement with the union, but it’s also dealing with fiscal oversight by the state and is in the process of making millions of dollars in budget reductions.

“Here’s the punchline: We have to tax the rich,” Davis Gates said at an Oct. 29 in Springfield, Illinois. “It is not because we just think that they’re not doing enough, it’s because we do our fair share and then some, and we need a little more help. It’s fair.”

The state’s education funding formula was with an infusion of money designed to ensure districts reach at least 90% of adequate funding levels by 2027. A recent found that while this change improved some school budgets, districts won’t reach full funding until at least 2038, “leaving an entire generation of students without access to an adequately funded education.”

“We need our Illinois lawmakers to deliver — they have already promised us those funds but they have not delivered,” said Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, the statewide union’s executive vice president. “Over one-third of Illinois school districts are funded at 76% or less. The only way we are going to fix this is to have a new revenue structure.”

The Illinois Federation of Teachers — which has 103,000 members and more than 200 chapters including the Chicago Teachers Union — in a statement that the lack of adequate resources has caused districts to struggle with meeting legal requirements for special education, keeping class sizes manageable and recruiting and retaining staff.

While there are no policy proposals for taxing the wealthy on the table in Illinois, the union argues that the state could pursue something like Massachusetts’ to help fund schools. The law requires an additional 4% levy paid by anyone earning more than $1 million annually. Massachusetts accrued almost $3 billion from the tax this past fiscal year.

Davis Gates, who was previously vice president of the statewide union, replaced Dan Montgomery in October after his resignation. School funding has been a main focus for her in Chicago. The district currently receives and has experienced tumultuous budget deficits, including a in state dollars. 

In November, the Chicago Teachers Union to pass Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget, which earmarked $552 million for Chicago Public Schools from the city’s unused tax increment financing revenue.

Davis Gates and other union leaders said in a that Chicago’s budget is “what we need our Governor and Illinois General Assembly to mirror at the state level.”

“Chicago can only do so much while Illinois’ tax system is upside down,” the union said. “We need our state government to fight Trump cuts with ending tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and to protect Illinois with the promised but undelivered resources to our schools, transit and public institutions.”

Teresa Brady, who spent 24 years as president of Duval Teachers United in Jacksonville, pleaded guilty in federal court Oct. 9 to multiple counts. Co-defendant Ruby George, who was the union’s vice president for 24 years, pleaded guilty in August.

The pair were accused of swindling roughly $1.3 million each by selling supposedly unused vacation days back to the union and approving each other’s paperwork to avoid scrutiny.

Brady faces a maximum of 70 years in prison when sentenced. George faces up to 60 years.��Lawyers for Brady and George did not respond to requests for comment.

Duval County Public Schools declined to comment. The union didn’t return multiple requests for comment but in January that said, “this will never happen again.”

“Duval Teachers United will pursue all legal channels to recoup lost funds and hold those responsible accountable,” the union said. “We want to be clear: Members and current leadership of Duval Teachers United and affiliated unions do not tolerate the undermining of our members or the misuse of valuable membership dollars.”

The union collects $5 million annually in dues from its 6,500 members. Roughly half is forwarded to state and national affiliates.

Federal agents raided the headquarters of Duval Teachers United in September 2023 to investigate potential misappropriation of funds. Brady and George resigned soon after. 

Duval County Public Schools employees accrue 42 vacation days per year, and the time can be rolled over, according to Brady’s . There’s no limit to how much accrued leave employees can sell back to the union at a rate equivalent to their hourly pay. 

From 2013 to late 2022, Brady and George concealed their actual leave totals from the union and its auditor, and falsely stated the amount of accumulated leave they said they needed to sell back “to avoid the leave being a liability to Duval Teachers United,” the indictment said. 

They would sign each other’s leave buyback checks so the union’s treasurer wouldn’t see them. The checks were deposited into their personal bank accounts, many in the amounts of $10,000 to more than $30,000, according to court documents. They would also request reimbursement for expenses that weren’t related to the union and pay each other bonuses without the authorization of the union board.

The leave payouts were hidden in general budget line items for salaries and payroll taxes in the union’s financial statements, the indictment said. Brady and George defrauded the union out of around $2.6 million over almost 10 years. Both were ordered to pay back the amount they stole, but because the money was already spent, the federal government will be seeking other assets, according to court documents.

Public records show that pay for both union leaders fluctuated wildly. Brady’s salary ranged from $160,000 in 2006-07 to more than $326,000 in 2019-20. She received $251,868 in 2021-22. George received $134,000 in 2018-19 and almost $327,000 the following year.

“I accept full responsibility for my actions and their consequences,” Brady . “I am truly sorry for my wrongdoing and the harm I caused to Duval Teachers United and its members. Understanding the seriousness of my offenses, I accept the outcome with humility and sincere remorse while deeply regretting breaching the trust placed in me by [Duval Teachers United], my community and my family.”

In the union’s January press release, it said several steps had been taken to protect membership dues. The organization hired an independent outside bookkeeper and now requires reimbursements to be approved by several union leaders and an outside accountant before payments are processed. The selling of vacation time also has to be approved by the union’s board of directors. 

“The board of directors has received training to empower it in their role as the governing body of Duval Teachers United,” the union said. “Board members have formed specialty committees that oversee the critical functions of Duval Teachers United operations, so transparency and accountability are always a part of our culture moving forward.”

In late August, Philadelphia Public Schools and its teachers union narrowly avoided a strike with an agreement that included 3% annual raises. But weeks later, the district had to seek permission to borrow up to $1.5 billion to help cover the cost of the contract and other expenses.

Districts in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Baltimore County had to renegotiate teacher contracts this summer after budget shortfalls left them without enough funding for promised raises. And Chicago Public Schools approved raises in a four-year union contract in April while staring down a $734 million deficit, before closing the gap as the school year began.  

Debt has grown steadily for U.S. public schools, from $415 billion in 2013 to more than $586 billion in 2023, according to the latest available. Philadelphia and Chicago were among the nation’s reporting debts exceeding revenues in 2023.

In March, the Philadelphia district adopted a $4.6 billion budget that reflects a slated to reach $466 million in 2027 and $774 million in 2030. Its three-year contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which represents 14,000 educators, counselors and paraprofessionals, depended on from the state. But more than two months after the deadline for passing a budget, state lawmakers are at an , delaying funding to pay for the contract and other operating expenses. Michael Herbstman, Philadelphia’s chief financial officer, said the $1.5 billion in borrowing will help the cash flow problem.

“The one caveat on that is this does cost us a significant amount,” he said. “The state budget impasse is adding about $15 million to what we will incur in interest costs to borrow — that’s where it hits our budget.”

Experts say declining enrollment, coupled with the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds, have taken a toll on school budgets across the nation. The Philadelphia school district lost from the 2014-15 school year to 2024-25.

Chicago Public Schools is in the same boat. The third-largest school district had more than in 2000. This year’s reported sits at 316,224. The was delayed this year by efforts to close the $734 million deficit, which included a $175 million payment the city expects for a pension fund reimbursement. For months, district officials and school board members debated whether to address the gap by paying the city or taking out a short-term loan.

During that time, the district considered delaying raises included in a $1.5 billion Chicago Teachers Union contract that was approved in April —  until union President Stacy Davis Gates threatened legal action.

“Contracts are not optional documents,” Davis Gates in a letter to the school board. “They are covenants that provide security to the district’s employees, promises to the district’s students and labor peace for the city as a whole.”

Chicago Public Schools approved a $10.25 billion budget in August that included a and other refinancing to close the budget gap. The district decided against a short-term loan and will move forward with the only if it receives extra revenue.

The district told ����Ӱ�� that it balanced the budget to ensure it could “fully meet its obligations related to wages, staffing and programming, as outlined in its labor agreements.”

In Baltimore County, the school district had to go back to the bargaining table with its teachers union this summer after it ran out of money for raises. 

In 2023, the district had approved annual pay boosts for 9,000 members of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County , according to reporting from . Educators received a 3% raise the first year, but when federal COVID relief funds decreased and the the district’s request for more money, officials rescinded the 5% bump that had been scheduled for July 1.

In May, teachers rallied before and after school, demanding “promises made should be promises kept.” The district offered a 1.5% raise but the union rejected it, leading to an impasse before the two parties in July on 3.05%. Part of the increase took effect in September, while the rest will start in January.

“We know the impact of high-quality educators on student success,” the union said in a June 6 . “When we fight for what we’ve been promised, we do so to keep our veteran educators, to keep our early and mid-career educators, and to continue to compete for new educators to come here.”

In Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools from its board of supervisors in January to cover raises that were promised in a union contract, but it received less than half of the amount.

The Fairfax Education Unions’ collective bargaining agreement approved in January was its first in nearly 50 years. It included a for its 27,500 members starting July 1. The county budget shortfall prompted the district to for this school year. Future pay increases will be subject to local government funding.

“The board of supervisors’ refusal to address existing issues and triangulating political interests enables persistent underfunding of [Fairfax County],” the union said in a . “[The board] ignored our input and decided teachers, bus drivers, custodians and educational staff deserve remarkably lower compensation than all other public employees.”

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers declined to comment for this story. Unions in Chicago, Fairfax County and Baltimore County did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Philadelphia teachers union and school district reached a tentative contract agreement late Sunday night, potentially avoiding a citywide teachers’ strike hours before students and teachers return to the classroom.

District and union leaders announced they had reached a three-year contract agreement, but they did not disclose any details about the contents of the agreement as of Monday.

“The PFT is thrilled that we have been able to reach a tentative agreement with the School District of Philadelphia on a three-year pact ensuring that school will open on time, as well as three years of labor peace,” said Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg in a joint statement with Superintendent Tony Watlington.

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Watlington said in the statement that the agreement “both honors the hard work of our educators and maintains our record of strong financial stewardship.”

Watlington, Steinberg, and Mayor Cherelle Parker appeared side by side to praise the agreement, at the district’s back-to-school welcome event at Edward Steel Elementary School on Monday,

“You don’t prove that you value public education by simply pumping your fist in the air symbolically,” Parker said. “We’re going to keep moving forward, and we’re going to keep working together.”

Union leaders had been preparing their members for a strike in the leadup to the school year. The PFT, which represents some 14,000 educators and school staff, was negotiating for salary increases, amending the district’s controversial sick leave policy that union members say punishes teachers for using sick days, and adding paid parental leave.

The state budget impasse made negotiations more fraught, Steinberg said Monday. District officials have been operating off of a financial plan that assumed major funding increases under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget, but Republican legislators have resisted approving those increases.

Steinberg said they came to a decision to rely on the budget figures Shapiro has proposed, and that “we’ll adjust on the fly if we have to.”

Parker said she believes teachers “should be paid what they’re worth.” She vowed that “every chance we get to generate more revenue to help them, we will,” but that under the deal announced Sunday, the district and union “did the best they could with what they had.”

Though neither Steinberg nor district spokespeople would comment on the details of the negotiation process earlier this month, Steinberg previously told Chalkbeat the district’s proposals “weren’t as irksome as they usually are” and that during negotiations “nothing that set a bad tone, as it has in the past.”

On Monday, Steinberg said while the collective bargaining process was “adversarial” at times, it “did not stray off into contentiousness very often.” He said Sunday morning both parties “sat down and had a frank conversation,” made progress, and then reached an agreement by late Sunday evening.

The three-year agreement will be put to PFT members for a ratification vote and if approved, it will also go to the Board of Education for a vote.

This story has been updated with additional comments from Mayor Cherelle Parker and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg.

The Philadelphia teachers union and school district reached a tentative contract agreement late Sunday night, potentially avoiding a citywide teachers’ strike hours before students and teachers return to the classroom.

District and union leaders announced they had reached a three-year contract agreement, but they did not disclose any details about the contents of the agreement as of Monday.

“The PFT is thrilled that we have been able to reach a tentative agreement with the School District of Philadelphia on a three-year pact ensuring that school will open on time, as well as three years of labor peace,” said Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg in a joint statement with Superintendent Tony Watlington.

Watlington said in the statement that the agreement “both honors the hard work of our educators and maintains our record of strong financial stewardship.”

Watlington, Steinberg, and Mayor Cherelle Parker appeared side by side to praise the agreement, at the district’s back-to-school welcome event at Edward Steel Elementary School on Monday,

“You don’t prove that you value public education by simply pumping your fist in the air symbolically,” Parker said. “We’re going to keep moving forward, and we’re going to keep working together.”

Union leaders had been in the leadup to the school year. The PFT, which represents some 14,000 educators and school staff, was negotiating for salary increases, amending the that union members say punishes teachers for using sick days, and adding paid parental leave.

The state budget impasse made negotiations more fraught, Steinberg said Monday. District officials have been operating off of a financial plan that assumed major funding increases under Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget, but Republican legislators have resisted approving those increases.

Steinberg said they came to a decision to rely on the budget figures Shapiro has proposed, and that “we’ll adjust on the fly if we have to.”

Parker said she believes teachers “should be paid what they’re worth.” She vowed that “every chance we get to generate more revenue to help them, we will,” but that under the deal announced Sunday, the district and union “did the best they could with what they had.”

Though neither Steinberg nor district spokespeople would comment on the details of the negotiation process earlier this month, Steinberg previously told Chalkbeat the district’s proposals “weren’t as irksome as they usually are” and that during negotiations “nothing that set a bad tone, as it has in the past.”

On Monday, Steinberg said while the collective bargaining process was “adversarial” at times, it “did not stray off into contentiousness very often.” He said Sunday morning both parties “sat down and had a frank conversation,” made progress, and then reached an agreement by late Sunday evening.

The three-year agreement will be put to PFT members for a ratification vote and if approved, it will also go to the Board of Education for a vote.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Since 2022, when the Supreme Court allowed Maine private schools to receive public funds, at least five lawsuits have been filed by teachers unions, in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Missouri and South Carolina. Additional legal challenges have been mounted by advocacy groups and parent organizations.

The Supreme Court’s Carson v. Makin ruling, combined with growing interest among parents in post-COVID, has fueled the rise of voucher programs and led to a tug-of-war in state courts between public educators and school choice advocates. 

Heading into the 2025 legislative session, at least 33 states had some form of private school choice, according to the Georgetown University think tank . Most union lawsuits have focused on , in which public dollars pay for children to attend private schools —  including religious schools — and cover other education-related expenses such as homeschooling.

In Wyoming and Utah, judges ruled in favor of the unions — at least for now. In South Carolina, the program was retooled after a court declared its previous version unconstitutional.

The Wyoming Education Association, which represents roughly 6,000 public school teachers, landed a win in July after District Court Judge Peter Froelicher granted against the state’s universal voucher program. The union and nine parents had sued the state in June on grounds that the is unconstitutional because it violates a state regulation that it must provide a “uniform system of public instruction.” 

The union decided to sue after lawmakers made the voucher program universal this spring. It was originally created with a family income cap of 250% of the federal poverty level.

“No income guidelines, in essence, means that you could be someone in Jackson who owns an $18 million property, and the state’s giving you money,” said union President Kim Amen. “Our constitution clearly says that we cannot give public money to private entities, so that’s why we challenged that.”

The injunction temporarily stops the distribution of — which are funded from a state appropriation of $30 million — until the court determines the program’s constitutionality. The state has since filed an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

“I am disheartened at the court’s written order granting the WEA’s injunction. As one of nearly 4,000 Wyoming families, you have had your lives unnecessarily upended through no fault of your own,” Megan Degenfelder, state superintendent of public instruction, wrote in to parents. 

The case is similar to the one in Utah, where a judge ruled a $100 million voucher program unconstitutional in April, following a lawsuit by the state teachers union.

The Utah Education Association last year, arguing the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program violates the state constitution by diverting tax money to private schools that aren’t free, open to all students and supervised by the state board of education. The Utah Supreme Court is set to later this year.

Lawsuits in other states are still working their way through the courts.

In July, the Montana Federation of Public Employees, which represents the state’s public school teachers, challenging the constitutionality of the statewide voucher program that funds private education expenses for special education students. 

“Even voucher programs like [this one] that are targeted to students with disabilities deprive them of crucial legal protections and educational resources,” the plaintiffs said in a .

In Missouri, the state teachers union is over the , which started as a tax credit scholarship in 2021. It currently relies on nonprofits to collect donations that are turned into scholarships. Donors can receive a tax credit amounting to 100% of their contribution, but it can’t exceed more than half of their state tax liability. 

This year, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe dedicated $50 million in taxpayer dollars for the scholarships and $1 million for program marketing, according to the suit. The Missouri National Education Association, which has 28,000 members, sued in June in an effort to block the appropriation.

“The General Assembly has far overstepped its authority and violated five provisions of the Missouri Constitution by using an appropriations bill to construct out of whole cloth a scheme to divert general revenues to what are essentially vouchers for the payment of private school tuition for elementary and secondary school students,” wrote Loretta Haggard, the union’s attorney, in the suit.

On July 30, — part of a national nonprofit that advocates for school choice — filed a motion to join the suit as defendants. Thomas Fisher, litigation director, said in a that the program helps Missouri families afford an education that fits their children’s needs. 

“The recent expansion of the program is constitutional and will expand education freedom for low-income families and students with learning differences,” he said.

In South Carolina, the ruled in 2024 that its Education Trust Fund Scholarship Program was unconstitutional following a lawsuit from the state teachers union, parents and the NAACP. The program resumed this year after to funnel money from the lottery system instead of the general fund. 

Unions have also been involved in school choice lawsuits in and . In 2023, National Education Association Alaska over a state system that sent cash payments to the parents of homeschool students. That same year, Wisconsin’s largest teachers union asked the state Supreme Court to hear its case challenging the constitutionality of the statewide voucher program, but the .

At the time, Castro’s salary was less than $20,000. Two decades later, after earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and urban studies and working as a special education and a language paraprofessional, she is earning $55,000 – still far below what most people would need to earn to afford to live in New York. To help her make ends meet, Castro lived with her parents early on in her career. 

But the main reason she has stuck with it? The impact she has had on the kids.  

“We are there with the students every period, so we see the challenges the students go through and their success,” Castro said. “To me, it’s amazing to see, especially when I’m [working with] an autistic child who, for the first time, is learning how to read and learning how to write their name.”

Castro now advocates for other classroom support staff as the president of the paraprofessional chapter of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. The city is currently struggling with a shortage of more than 1,550 paraprofessionals. Hoping to attract and retain more people to the profession, the union is stepping outside of its traditional collective bargaining practices to that would of at least $10,000 for the city’s paraprofessionals.

Paraprofessionals are usually hourly workers who assist students and teachers with classroom work, supervision and instructing small groups. Roughly 75% of paras don’t have a bachelor’s degree, according to a . Average pay for paraprofessionals in 2024 was $35,240, according to the .  

Across the U.S., unions are seeking to boost paraprofessional pay, which remains so low that workers are struggling to get by in many states, according to an from the National Education Association.

A found that more than half of paraprofessionals worked other jobs on weekdays after classes ended and 75% said they had a problem making a living wage.

The NEA said that while paraprofessional pay has improved, “there is still a lot of work to be done.”

In April, paraprofessionals in Boston landed raises ranging from 23% to 31% over three years Most will see a pay increase of nearly $8,000 by the end of the , according to the Boston Teachers Union. 

Allentown School District in Pennsylvania accepted a contract last fall that will give its paraprofessionals . Pittsburgh Public Schools awarded its paras in December.

In addition, California lawmakers are that would increase pay for both teachers and staffers, including paraprofessionals, by 50% over the next 10 years. 

“I’ve received strong support from teachers and [other school] employees who are struggling to live in the communities that they work in,” said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who authored the bill.

Dannel Montesano is one of them. She left her paraprofessional job earlier this year to become an office clerk at Liberty Ranch High School in Galt, California. The new job paid just $1 more per hour. It was the only way she could get a raise.

“Our starting paraprofessional pay is $18.63 an hour. This school year, we’ve had a hard time filling all of the positions because when you can go work at McDonald’s for over $20 an hour — and not have as much responsibility working one-on-one with students —- the draw isn’t there,” she said.

In New York City, paraprofessionals earn between $31,787 to $52,847 a year, according to the UFT. The city’s current system of collective bargaining ensures all job titles receive the same percentage wage increase. But those increases have a varying impact depending on an employee’s base pay. The union said in a that a 3% pay raise could mean roughly a $900 increase for a paraprofessional but a $6,000 bump for a principal. 

More than 1,600 union members rallied in front of City Hall in April to advocate for the paraprofessional pay bill, which would create a separate “” that would exist outside of collective bargaining. Each year, the city’s general fund would provide full-time paraprofessionals with a check of at least $10,000.

“We have paraprofessionals who are struggling,” Castro said. “I received an email from a paraprofessional who’s living in a shelter with a child. It broke my heart to receive this email. We have to make a difference. We have to ensure that the bill is passed in City Hall, because it would change so many lives.”

The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights that the district’s Black Student Success Plan violates federal law because it discriminates against students on the basis of race.��

The , released in February, outlines strategies over the next five years to improve Black student’s daily learning experiences and life outcomes. 

Stacy Davis Gates, Chicago Teachers Union president, said in a Tuesday that the plan was developed to address the “man-made educational achievement gap” for Black students caused by inequitable policies such as redlining.

“We expect CPS to stand up against this baseless investigation — and we call on our city and state leaders to take real action to protect our students and schools,” Davis Gates said.

An Illinois law signed in 2023 required the Chicago Board of Education to create a and develop a plan to “bring about academic parity between Black children and their peers.” 

The plan was based on the , which include providing comprehensive resources for Black students’ academic and social-emotional needs and partnering with historically Black colleges and universities to create a teacher pipeline. 

The plan’s main goals include doubling the number of Black male educators, reducing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for Black students by 40% and increasing Black history and culture in classrooms.

The investigation into the plan is based on a by conservative Virginia-based advocate Defending Education, which targeted a similar program last year in the Los Angeles Unified School District called the Black Student Achievement Plan. A district spokesperson said Thursday that Los Angeles Unified resolved the complaint by opening the plan’s services to all students.

The Education Department said in a press release Tuesday that the Chicago plan violates federal law by focusing “on remedial measures only for Black students, despite acknowledging that Chicago students of all races struggle academically.” It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to eliminate school diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a that the administration won’t allow federal funds to be used “in this pernicious and unlawful manner.”

The department previously said government funds were at risk for states and school districts that didn’t to end DEI programs. Last month, federal judges blocked the department from withholding federal funds because of DEI.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said Thursday that the district will not comment on pending or ongoing investigations.

Education Minnesota, the state’s largest union representing more than 86,000 members, elected its first Black president on Saturday.

Monica Byron ran unopposed to replace Denise Specht, who led the union since 2013. Byron started her career as a homeschool liaison for the Richfield Public Schools in 1995 before earning her teaching license. She taught elementary school in Richfield for 24 years, most recently as a math coach. In 2022, she left her teaching job when she was elected vice president of Education Minnesota.

Bryon takes over one of the state’s most influential unions at a critical juncture for public schools. More than 8 in 10 schools report having a shortage of teachers, and the union wants to increase pay to fill the ranks. But a looming budget deficit is tying the hands of state lawmakers who might otherwise support robust increases in school funding. At the federal level, the Trump administration has threatened to eliminate the Department of Education while also attacking unions.

This conversation was edited for length and clarity. 

Why did you run for president of the union?

I ran for president because I believe in the power of our union and to protect and strengthen things that matter most, like professional pay, secure pensions, affordable health care and respect for all of our educators.

You are the first Black president of Education Minnesota. What does that mean for your union and also organized labor in Minnesota?

I am really proud and honored to be the first Black president of Education Minnesota. I believe that I’m able to bring a unique and fresh perspective and voice to not only Education Minnesota but to the labor movement. I’ll be able to advocate not only for educators, but for our students and our community. And I’ll be able to ensure that all educators, but especially our educators of color, will have a voice.

The Trump administration has vowed to close the Department of Education and has threatened to withhold funding from schools with diversity programs, which was recently blocked by judges. What do you see as Education Minnesota’s role in responding to the Trump administration?

Education Minnesota has been publicly defending against the attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion and the other attacks from Washington, D.C. We are going to ensure that we have freedom to read. We’re going to make sure our history isn’t whitewashed. We’re just going to make sure that our students and our educators are able to teach and do all the things that they need to do.

What do you see as the biggest threats facing teachers and the union at this moment?

Right now, I think it’s just been the chaos and the executive orders coming. We have great partners though, from our national allies and our other labor allies. I think it’s just the unknown and the threats to the unions as a whole. But we are positioned well to be able to respond.

In 2024, just 28% of 8th graders rated proficient at reading, which is the lowest on record for the nationwide benchmark. In math, students’ abilities seem to be just as dire. I’m curious why you think teachers aren’t able to equip students with these basic skills of reading and math.

For me, the question is what resources and what other things our educators need. I believe that we need to ensure that all educators are equipped with those resources. They have the time to be able to teach and that we ensure that when it comes to class sizes, those teachers are able to reach each of those students.

Gov. Tim Walz, former teacher and union member, ran on being an education governor. Could you give him a grade on his tenure?

Education Minnesota has worked closely with Gov. Walz. President Specht is in charge when it comes to working with Gov. Walz. So as vice president, I’ve been able to watch and follow her lead. So I don’t have a grade at this time.

What are Education Minnesota’s top priorities at the Legislature this year?

Right now, our top priorities have been around professional pay, which includes a starting pay for our entry educators and $25 per hour for our ESPs. We have a pension bill, which would ensure that we have a career rule for our teachers. And we also have a bill around health insurance, so that our educators have quality health insurance. It would start a health insurance pool for our educators across the state. And we also are looking to protect on education that we won last year.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

The Utah Education Association , arguing the Utah Fits All Scholarship Program violated the constitution by diverting tax money to private schools that aren’t free, open to all students and supervised by the state board of education.

The $100 million voucher program was created in 2023 by the Utah Legislature. It provided up to $8,000 in state income tax funds to eligible students through scholarship accounts to pay for private schools. 

District Court Judge Laura Scott said that the program not only allows schools to deny students admission because of religion, politics and location, but it provides benefits to private and homeschooled children that might not be available to those in public school, like funds for computers, test prep courses and tutoring.

“Because the program is a legislatively created, publicly funded education program aimed at elementary and secondary education, it must satisfy the constitutional requirements applicable to the ‘public education system’ set forth in the Utah Constitution,” she said. “And because there is no genuine dispute that the program fails to meet these ‘open to all children’ and ‘free’ requirements, it is unconstitutional.”

The ruling comes amid a nationwide push for school choice expansion. On Thursday, the Texas House gave initial approval to a bill that would create a $1 billion private school voucher program. School voucher bills have also advanced this year in Wyoming and Tennessee. 

Utah officials previously argued that the program’s share of tax revenue was less than 1% of the amount allocated for the state’s public schools, according to court documents. Robyn Bagley, executive director of — one of the main organizations that advocated for the program — said in a statement Friday that Scott’s decision was a “temporary setback” and there will be an appeal.

“We knew such a judgment at this level was a possibility, and we remain extremely confident the program will ultimately be ruled constitutional by the Utah Supreme Court,” Bagley said. “Many families are eagerly awaiting the thousands of new scholarships that have just been funded by the Utah Legislature.”

The program paid for the vouchers of 10,000 students — 80% of them homeschooled, according to the . After a waitlist reached 17,000 names, the legislature reduced scholarship amounts for homeschooled students earlier this year.

The Utah Education Association, which represents 18,000 members, said in a statement Friday that lawmakers had overstepped their authority and the union held them accountable.

“This decision protects the integrity of public education, ensuring critical funding remains in schools that serve 90% of Utah’s children and prioritize equitable, inclusive opportunities for every student to succeed,” the union said.

The union has also been advocating against a bill, passed in February, that bans collective bargaining, which some opponents say was created to retaliate against the school voucher lawsuit. Utah union organizations for a referendum to overturn the bill.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates voted to approve a tentative contract Wednesday, the first time the union has negotiated an agreement without a strike vote in more than 15 years.

The deal will be sent for ratification next week to 30,000 union educators. If the rank-and-file members approve the contract, final vote from the Chicago Board of Education will still be needed.

In-person paper ballot voting will take place April 10 and 11, with results expected to be announced April 14.

“This document gives our educators, our paraprofessionals, our clinicians, an opportunity to be co-producers of a better school day in Chicago, a better staff day in Chicago,” Union President Stacy Davis Gates said at a press conference Tuesday. “That is for the impact of our students.”

The grants teachers a 4% retroactive raise for the current school year and4% to 5% salary increases for each of the next three years. Other provisions smaller class sizes for all grade levels, hundreds of more positions like librarians and social workers, increased teacher preparation time and raises for veteran educators.

Elementary school teachers would get 70 minutes of daily preparation time, up from an hour. Veteran teachers with more than 14 years of experience , adding up to a $30 million price tag.

If the agreement is approved, Chicago teachers will be , with an average $110,000 salary by the end of the contract. The base pay for new teachers would start at $64,470 for the 2024-25 school year and increase to $72,520 by 2027-28.

The deal is less expensive than the union’s original list of demands, such as minimum 9% annual raises, but the current version will cost up to $1.5 billion over the life of the four-year contract. While the district has said it can cover the first year, questions remain about how it will afford payments in future years amid a half-billion-dollar budget deficit.

Last year, district CEO Pedro Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson clashed over how to pay for the upcoming agreement as federal COVID aid was about to expire. The conflict led to the October resignation of the entire school board, which had been appointed by Johnson, and the firing of Martinez in December.

Davis Gates said Tuesday that district leaders confirmed they can afford the contract. She said the city council and the mayor’s office believe that should go to the district to help fund the deal.

“We think that we have a good coalition of partners that will help us win the necessary funding. This has really been an interesting negotiation where we don’t have people screaming that they cannot pay for it,” Davis Gates said.

When asked how the district plans to pay for the deal, Johnson told , “We’ll do it. Just like I came in and I had a half-billion-dollar deficit in my first budget, had a $1 billion deficit in the second budget. We rectified that. We are leading in this moment.”

Teachers and parents at Tuesday’s press conference pointed to contract changes beyond the pay hike as major wins. 

The agreement would double the number of libraries, librarians and bilingual support staff in the district. It would create 215 more special education case manager positions and increase the number of social workers and nurses.

Emmy Ayala, a Chicago Public Schools parent, said her child’s elementary school has a library but no librarian. 

“Because of the agreement, this will allow more children to develop a love for reading, a love for learning, and [there will be] a third space in their communities to learn and engage and be safe again,” she said.

Union officials said academic freedom, including teaching Black history, would also be protected for the first time. 

“This tentative agreement makes sure that not only do we provide an education to students that is culturally relevant, but that we also embrace their language, their culture, their identities and everything about them,” said Diane Castro, a preschool teacher and bargaining team member. “We will not reduce them.”

“We want our mayor to actually have an understanding of what the school is trying to accomplish every day and what the challenges are,” union President Michael Mulgrew said. “That is the best way for them to make decisions.”

in the nation’s largest school district would have to spend at least seven periods in a school assisting teachers with lessons and classroom management. Mulgrew said candidates will also visit classrooms with special education students and English learners.

The union has invited mayoral candidates to classrooms before, but this is the first time it has been mandatory.

Invitations were sent out March 7. City Comptroller Brad Lander, former Assembly Member Michael Blake, Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, Teach for America founder Whitney Tilson and Curtis Sliwa told ����Ӱ�� they are willing to participate. All are Democrats except for Sliwa, who is running as a Republican. Democratic City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams will also participate, according to .

Mayor Eric Adams, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, and Independent Jim Walden did not respond to a request for comment. 

UFT represents nearly 200,000 members, including teachers, paraprofessionals and counselors. In previous elections its endorsement has been , partly due to the union’s size and because a large percentage of members vote, Mulgrew said. 

A spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, which used a in the 2020 presidential election, said it is not aware of any other local union requiring candidates to spend a full day in a school. An online search found no large city union making this an endorsement requirement.

Several candidates have public school ties. Myrie is the son of a special education teacher and UFT member. Lander is the son of a guidance counselor. 

The union will work with the New York State Education Department to schedule school visits in April.

Less than a year into her role as president of the , the former community schools administrator in December with the . 

Nichols said the move was aimed at strengthening the AALA’s bargaining power ahead of its contract negotiations with LAUSD this spring. 

AALA is the official bargaining unit for middle-level administrators in LAUSD, including the district’s elementary and secondary principals. 

Nichols said each day her members face rising workloads, budget cuts, and threats to their safety. As a four-decade veteran of LAUSD, she knows those issues firsthand. 

“For me, it’s about changing a system,” Nichols said of working with the district. “Because the people are not the problem.”

Perhaps it’s respect for the system that’s led Nichols to join the AALA with the Teamsters. She said the district has already made concessions to the AALA since the change. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

Can you tell me more about the issues facing principals and administrators’ workload in LAUSD?

We represent the ability to bargain the effects of district action, whether it is positive or negative for the membership.

We’re now in the third year of superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s strategic plan, and many initiatives have been pushed out, especially at the school site or with directors and operations coordinators who supervise school sites. 

However, now, when a new initiative is introduced, the district has the responsibility to meet and bargain with us. In previous cases, that was not the case.

For example, the district required five classroom observations and formal visits per week with written feedback for every administrator at each school site. 

If you had a principal, an assistant principal, or an assistant principal for special education—and in the bigger high schools, two or three principals—everybody had to participate in five classroom observations and then input their informal observations.

When you add 40 minutes times five, that’s an additional 200 minutes to your workload.

It wasn’t until we affiliated with Teamsters in December and submitted a demand-to-bargain letter that we basically agreed that the intent wasn’t about quotas, and that there was a lack of cohesion in implementation. Therefore, the quotas have been lifted, which is a huge win for us right now.

Why Teamsters, and why now?

When I first took on the role, I proceeded to run on three pillars.

One of them being a transformational leader. I was very aware of the conditions out there because I was in the field. I proceeded to try to build communication systems and collaborative structures with our district. But two months in, I was getting nowhere with the district.

So, in early September,  I shared my concerns and urgency with my staff because this year is a negotiating year for us. We have an urgency to try to get the best contract, and I knew that the language of the contract mattered.

I brought up the possibility of meeting with other unions to see if we could affiliate and become bigger. I knew that unions were about solidarity and power, and power means numbers and strength. Teamsters came, and they brought their whole team. All of a sudden, we had this team that could support our work, especially the legal part. We continue to have the AALA model, which is one vision and one voice together, but since affiliating, we’ve begun to bring immediate relief at the hands of our brothers and sisters.

How has budgeting played out as an issue for members of your union?

Budget development is happening right now. For example, I’m hearing from my members that they are reporting getting less psychiatric social work time, less school psychology time, less allocation for assistant principals–positions that support programs and special education. Last year, the district did away with 400 assistant principal positions. That was another area that really created urgency, that the district was doing this to us. That could have also been an area to bargain because the effects of not having an assistant principal could have been bargained. 

If the positions are being cut in half or more, that’s a great concern. In LAUSD, we rely on human capital to do the human work, and those positions right now are being slashed in addition to having less money.

Campus safety is a crucial responsibility for principals, particularly in collaboration with law enforcement partners. How does that play into the upcoming bargaining period?

Since 2020, school police have almost been completely taken out of the district, leaving very few coming back from COVID. Crimes have increased tremendously, including physical fights, guns at schools, etcetera. Safety is a huge concern.

The district talks a lot about keeping students safe, keeping employees safe, but the resources that we currently have are limited. The district implements a positive behavior support system. The district implements it for students’ progressive discipline, which is good, but for the more difficult cases, the district has these diversion tickets that kids get, and they don’t have any weight or teeth.

We want to be mindful of the students we serve and the populations and demographics they belong to, but the current systems are not enough.

This article is part of a collaboration between ����Ӱ�� and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Washington, D.C.

On Monday, a federal district court judge in Maryland granted a barring the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management from disclosing personally identifiable information to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, filed a federal lawsuit with a coalition of labor unions Feb. 12 alleging that the department illegally gave DOGE access to millions of private and sensitive records.

The court ruled that the AFT would likely succeed in its lawsuit and agreed that the two agencies “likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent.” The restraining order will expire March 10. 

“This is a significant decision that puts a firewall between actors whom we believe lack the legitimacy and authority to access Americans’ personal data and are using it inappropriately, without any safeguards,” union President Randi Weingarten said in a press release.

In other action, the union announced on Feb. 19 that as part of a recently launched campaign called . 

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, organized a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 12 to protest the nomination of Linda McMahon as secretary of education.

In response to administration efforts to downsize federal agencies, the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit to stop a resignation program that prompted thousands of workers to leave their jobs. The nation’s largest federal employee union — which represents U.S. Department of Education staff — argued that the program was unlawful, .

California

Members of unions in 32 California school districts have banded together to negotiate a shared set of contract demands: improved wages and benefits, smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools and more resources for students.

The locals united as part of the California Teachers Association’s , which launched Feb. 4. The districts employ a total of 77,000 educators and teach 1 million students, and include some of the largest in the state: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento. 

Many of the unions’ contracts are set to expire this summer. California Teachers Association President David Goldberg said in a Feb. 4 webinar that the campaign is intended to build pressure statewide, .

At one charter school in the San Fernando Valley, teachers staged a four-day after working without a contract since July 1. Educators at El Camino Real Charter High School, who are represented by United Teachers Los Angeles, walked out from Feb. 10 to 14 before reaching an agreement that includes a 19% salary increase over three years, .

The nation’s first charter school strike occurred in 2018, a four-day work stoppage at Acero, one of Chicago’s largest charter school networks. The vast majority of charter schools are not unionized.

Idaho

A bill that would ban taxpayer funds from going toward teachers union operations advanced out of committee to the full House on Feb. 12. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Judy Boyle, said is intended to cut down on what she called “under-the-table” dealings between school districts and unions, according to the .

HB98 would apply only to teachers unions, not to other public-sector unions that represent occupations like first responders, according to the Idaho Education Association. It would require teachers to use personal leave to do union work, eliminate payroll deductions for dues and ban distribution of union materials on school property. Violators could be fined up to $2,500.

“This wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but we’re not done fighting this bad bill yet,” Chris Parri, the union’s political director, said . “We’ll need all hands on deck to kill it for good in the [state] Senate when the time comes.” 

Illinois

The Chicago Teachers Union rejected a recommendation Feb. 4 from a neutral arbitrator that negotiators return to the bargaining table and reach agreement with Chicago Public Schools on a that includes higher pay for veteran teachers and more librarians. In a letter to the district, the union that the mediator “rightly notes that [Chicago Public Schools] consistently signs … labor contracts despite claiming it lacks the funds to afford them.”

Once the recommendation is rejected, the union has to wait 30 days before it can give the district a 10-day strike notice. The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike during contract negotiations for seven days in 2012, one day in 2016 and 11 days in 2019.

Massachusetts

Lawmakers questioned the state’s largest teachers union at a special hearing Feb. 10 over learning materials that some members believe were antisemitic. 

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which represents more than 117,000 educators, was about the Israel-Hamas conflict. President Max Page said that the documents were created by request from the union’s board and published in a members-only area of the union website.

Examples included a poster on the Israel-Hamas war reading, “what was taken by force can only be returned by force” and a book about a Palestinian girl who says, “a group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people,” according to .

“The notion that our union is trying to ‘indoctrinate’ our young people is simply not true, and accusations to that effect have led to death threats to me and my staff, and to other attacks on our union,” Page said. “Posting resources does not imply agreement with each and every document. Nor would we ever expect that our members would look at these resources with an uncritical eye.”

An by the Israeli-American Civic Action Network that asks lawmakers and state agencies to halt collaboration with the union on legislation has received more than 17,000 signatures.

Utah

One of the first bills Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law this year bars teachers unions from bargaining collectively and conducting operations on school property.

The governor on Feb. 14, marking the end of a weeks-long debate about how public-sector unions should operate. Lawmakers who favored the bill said it will ensure transparency in unions and protect taxpayer resources, but educators said it will only make a job that’s already full of challenges more difficult.

While it doesn’t prevent employees from joining a union, the law prohibits public agencies — which employ teachers, firefighters, police officers and county workers, among others — from “recognizing a labor organization as a bargaining agent” and “entering into collective bargaining contracts.” 

The Utah Education Association said HB267 will also weaken advocacy because it cuts off access to schools by barring unions from using public property for free. Some opponents of the bill charged it was created to retaliate against the Utah Education Association, which is The association is the state’s largest teachers union, with 18,000 members.

Six individuals joined the suit, filed by the nation’s second-largest teacher’s union, alongside a coalition of labor unions representing over 2 million workers. Those impacted include teachers, who relied on federal student loans to pay for their college tuition, and high school students, who recently filed their federal financial aid forms with the department.

“When I filled out the FAFSA, I gave my Social Security number and my parent’s income information as well as their investment information,” Maryland high school student Sara Porcari said at an AFT Wednesday. “I thought that information would be private and secure. Now I’m not sure what’s happening.”

“I’m only 17 years old,” she continued, “and I don’t know who has access to my personal information or how this data breach will affect my future in college and in general.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten questioned why Musk, a billionaire given free rein by the president to remake the federal government, and DOGE want access to that information, expressing doubts about their stated purpose of improving government efficiency. 

 An AFT press release Tuesday called for “Elon Musk and his minions to be immediately evicted from the U.S. Department of Education,” alleging they were feeding the data from millions of people’s private student loan accounts “into artificial intelligence in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history.”

Ernesh Stewart, a Washington, D.C., school counselor and mom, echoed those concerns Wednesday, “Why do you need to access my daughter’s scholarship information? Why do you even need my home address? I can’t help but wonder if there is a hidden agenda. If one of the country’s wealthiest men, who also happens to be deeply invested in AI, has access to all this information, whatever it is, I feel like it’s a gross violation of privacy.”

The Education Department, which oversees the private information of 43 million student borrowers who hold $1.6 trillion in student debt, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A DOGE representative did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Weingarten and other panelists at the conference expressed their hope that President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, would join them in condemning this “data breach,” during her Thursday confirmation hearing.

“I would hope that what she would do is protect students and protect families from this kind of financial intrusion and invasion and … say to the millions of people that have been affected the steps she’s taking to stop it,” Weingarten said.

While the lawsuit contends government agencies have valid purposes for maintaining these record systems, the makes clear they can only provide access to them in very specific situations. Here, though, the filing argues, DOGE representatives have accessed the data to shut down payments “and in the case of the Education Department, the agency itself.”

After gaining access to the systems last week, Musk, who is not an elected official, turned to X, the social media platform he owns, to boast that the Department of Education no longer exists. 

What is this “Department of Education” you keep talking about?

I just checked and it doesn’t exist.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

In another DOGE-led effort, the Trump administration moved Monday to gut the Institute of Education Sciences, temporarily disabling an essential source of data on a host of basic information, ranging from high school graduation rates to school safety. 

DOGE was created by a Trump executive order in January. Supporters argue Musk is working to cut federal bloat and streamline systems. But critics say Musk, whose companies, including SpaceX, receive billions in government contracts, lacks transparency and has immense conflicts of interest.  

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Maryland, also alleges that the U.S. Department of Education, along with the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Treasury, has exposed millions of Americans to “the risk of identity theft, harassment, intimidation, and embarrassment” by improperly disclosing their sensitive records to DOGE employees who lack appropriate security clearances. The staff includes a 19-year-old who has previously leaked proprietary information, according to the suit.

WIRED magazine broke the story earlier this month that at the center of DOGE’s effort to take over various federal departments and agencies are six male engineers, with ties to Musk.

In particular, plaintiffs claim that the Department of Education and its acting head, Denise Carter, have released data from the National Student Loan Data System, a financial aid-related database housed within the Education Department that contains information on almost 34 million borrowers and their families. It includes a plethora of sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, bank records, home addresses and immigration status. 

About 20 people with DOGE have begun working inside the education department, looking to cut According to reporting from some of these representatives have fed sensitive and personally identifiable data from across the department into artificial intelligence software to look into the agency’s programs and spending.

Plaintiffs are asking the court to end the data disclosure immediately by restoring Privacy Act protections and are demanding that any data currently in DOGE’s possession be deleted and destroyed. The act, put in place in the wake of the Watergate scandal, regulates the circumstances in which agency records about individuals can be shared; disclosing anything beyond this is illegal.��

On Tuesday, a federal judge in a against the Education Department blocked Musk’s team from accessing several systems that store sensitive data including student loans, but only temporarily. In a hearing for that case, Musk said he did not see how DOGE’s access to student loan data caused harm.

While it has previously been reported that DOGE representatives are political appointees, it now appears that some have received official government credentials, including email addresses, at multiple agencies, including at the Department of Education, leading to confusion about who actually employs them.

The latest report, filed in December, includes data from the 2023-24 school year. It shows that the nation’s largest teachers union had 2,839,808 total members, including educators, student teachers, retirees, NEA staff and other miscellaneous categories. That’s down from 2,857,703 the year before.

The number of working members — such as active teachers and support staff — was 2,471,782, a decline of 12,558. This drop was similar to the decline seen from 2022 to 2023, but there was a more significant decrease of 40,107 working members at the end of the 2021-22 school year. The union had lost 82,000 working members the year before that.

These declining numbers follow a relatively stable membership count. A decade ago, the union had 2.6 million working members and peaked at 2.63 million in 2018. 

This trend is reflected in individual categories. Active professionals — which include employees like teachers, counselors and librarians — hovered around 2.1 million from 2014 to 2020. In 2021, the number of professional members dropped to 2.06 million, and then to 2.02 million in 2024. 

Active support staff — employees such as bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers — fluctuated between 450,000 and 467,000 from 2014 to 2020. In 2021, support staff membership dropped to 435,507 before plummeting to 415,142 in 2023. Numbers shifted slightly to 415,992 in 2024.

Recent years have been rocky for the NEA and its members, from COVID-19 wreaking havoc on student learning and teaching environments to a strike last year that saw the organization lock out its own staff employees over contract disagreements. 

Union membership has also declined across the country since 2018, since the Supreme Court’s ruling made collecting fees from “nonconsenting” public sector employees unconstitutional.

Even with shrinking membership, the NEA’s dues income has increased over the years. In 2024, the organization received the most dues it had collected in at least a decade — $381.4 million, up from $374.2 million in 2023. 

NEA President Becky Pringle’s compensation in salary and taxable allowances increased to $449,305 in 2024 from $435,342 in 2023.

The measure, which does not eliminate the administration of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam, but rather its role as a graduation requirement, passed with of voters in support and 41% opposed, with 96% of votes reported as of Wednesday afternoon. The “yes” vote was particularly strong in western Massachusetts, while towns and cities in the greater Boston area were more likely to vote against it, according to reporting from . In Weston, one of the state’s wealthiest communities, 2 in 3 voters cast ballots in opposition, according to the Globe. 

Students still must meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined measures, set by the some 300 school districts. 

When asked about next steps at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Maura Healey, who was a of the measure, said “The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be out with guidance shortly on that … But the voters spoke on that question. And I don’t know what will come as of just yet.”

In response to a question about her willingness to entertain bills that would overturn the measure, Healey said, “I’ll review anything that comes to my desk, but I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals.” 

Those who wanted to keep the requirement and see the ballot measure defeated — including Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler and the National Parents Union — argued that the MCAS is a high-quality assessment that is necessary to hold schools accountable, communicate progress with students and their parents, and establish consistent academic expectations statewide.

Those in favor of the ballot measure — backed by the statewide — argued that the testing requirement narrowed curriculum, forcing teachers to “teach to the test.” Each year, more than 700 students — including many English language learners and students with disabilities — are unable to graduate because they didn’t pass the MCAS or because they didn’t meet local district requirements.

Historically, approximately 70,000 10th graders sat for at least one of the three MCAS exams each year. Based on state policies, students had to earn a passing score on all three exams to earn a diploma. Those who didn’t could try again at least four times and some students were able to participate in an appeal process or an alternative pathway. Ultimately, the vast majority of students — about 99% — met the requirements.

“With this election victory, voters have welcomed a new era in our public schools,” said Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy in a following the announcement that voters approved Question 2. “This is the beginning of more holistic and thorough assessments of student work.” 

Leading the charge on the ballot measure, the union poured $7.7 million into its campaign as of Oct. 1 and opponents spent $1.2 million, according to reporting from the .

John Schneider, the chair of , a coalition opposed to the ballot measure, said in a statement that, “Eliminating the graduation requirement without a replacement is reckless. The passage of Question 2 opens the door to greater inequity; our coalition intends to ensure that door does not stay open.”

This point was echoed by the president of the , Keri Rodrigues, in an interview with ����Ӱ�� Wednesday afternoon.

“I think it’s a strong signal about what we’ve been warning about: that we’re going to watch the inequities in Massachusetts kind of just go wider and wider and wider” as more affluent districts largely maintain high standards and others lower theirs.

Rodrigues said she and other advocates will immediately begin calling for legislation that implements new statewide graduation requirements based on , a state-recommended program of study, which includes the successful completion of four credits of English, math and a lab-based science, along with a number of other requirements.

James Peyser, former state education secretary, is similarly concerned about the new lack of regulation. “We had [a graduation standard],” he told ����Ӱ��. “I think it was working well, and I’m disappointed that the ballot question passed because it replaces something — something that’s working — with nothing. But we need to fill that void as quickly as possible.”

The union’s political action committee began the 2024 cycle with $4 million in cash on hand, raised $12 million and has spent $13 million – leaving it with roughly $2 million to dole out before Election Day, according to the latest data from , the non-partisan organization that tracks money in politics.

The vast majority of its spending this election cycle – roughly $9 million – was donated to super PACs supporting Democrats and to local, state and federal candidates and parties. Among the top receivers: $3 million to the Senate Majority PAC, $1.6 to House Majority PAC, $445,000 to the Harris Victory Fund ($300,000 of which was originally donated to the Biden Victory Fund before the president stepped aside), and $420,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.  

The AFT is traditionally one of the biggest supporters of Democrats, lending both the power of its PAC’s purse for advertising and mailings, and its strength in numbers for boots-on-the-ground get-out-the-vote operations.

Among the top 20 PACs based on contributions to Democratic candidates, total fundraising, total spent, and total spent in independent expenditures and communication costs, the AFT’s PACs place 8th. It’s donated $1.5 million to democratic congressional candidates, including to 196 House Democrats and 19 Senate Democrats.

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believe in the promise of America and will spend their time solving problems, not sowing fear, so every American can partake in that promise,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a . “But it’s not just what we can gain, it’s also what we will lose with Trump and Vance: our democracy, our freedoms, our public schools, our right to have a union, a vote and a voice. Extending the ladder of opportunity or destroying it.” 

“Union members get this,” she said. “And that’s why we will fight every hour of every day for the next fortnight to get out the vote to elect candidates who proudly stand for freedom, democracy and opportunity.”

Earlier this month, the AFT teamed up with the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – the nation’s largest public service unions – in a coordinated, multi-state voter outreach initiative across battleground states.

“This joint action represents a significant escalation of labor’s political engagement, with the unions pooling resources and mobilizing their combined membership of several million workers and includes people of all backgrounds working across the public service – as nurses, child care providers, sanitation workers, first responders, teachers, education support professionals and higher education workers, among others,” the of the effort reads.

Notably, labor unions play an outsized role in many of the election’s most crucial swing states: 21% of votes cast in Michigan in the 2020 presidential election were from union households, representing approximately one-fifth of the electorate, according to the union. The same is true for Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where union households accounted for 18% and 13% of votes cast, respectively.

(Correction appended November 7, 2024)

Massachusetts mom Shelley Scruggs says she’s spent the last decade thinking and worrying about standardized testing — specifically the three exams her son would need to pass in order to earn a high school diploma.

A junior at a technical high school in Lexington, her son, who has ADD and an Individualized Education Program, has always found greater success with interactive, hands-on learning and is now studying plumbing.

Last spring, he took the English, science and math exams. While she believes it’s important to assess how kids are doing in school, a frustrated Scruggs sees the exam requirement as forcing teachers to teach to a test, narrowing curriculum, putting undue stress on students and making the most vulnerable feel bad about themselves.

Her son is one of the approximately 70,000 10th graders who sit for at least one of the three Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams each year. Based on state policies, students must earn a passing score on all three exams to earn a diploma. Those who don’t can try again at least four times and some students are able to participate in an appeal process or an alternative pathway. Ultimately, the vast majority of students — about 99% — meet the requirements.

Scruggs said her son’s experiences motivated her to try and repeal the state’s graduation requirement. She drafted a ballot initiative last year and began collecting signatures, ultimately joining efforts with the Massachusetts Teachers Association. After collecting 170,000 signatures, the union got the question officially certified on the Nov 6 ballot, where it will appear as Question 2.

Lexington parent Shelley Scruggs, who initiated the ballot question to end the MCAS grad requirement, told legislators: This test “penalizes students like my son who are just not good test-takers.”

— Massachusetts Teachers Association (@massteacher)

The measure does not propose eliminating the administration of the MCAS exam, but rather its role as a statewide graduation requirement. If it passes, students in Massachusetts would still need to meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined requirements set by the roughly 300 school districts.

Scruggs recently got a call from her son’s guidance counselor: He passed his math and science MCAS exams, but failed the English exam by one point. Describing it “as the best phone call I ever got in my life,” she remains staunchly opposed to the graduation requirement and is campaigning alongside the union in favor of Question 2.��

The statewide teachers association has spent more than on the effort.  MTA President Max Page told  , “We’ve long  believed that this fixation on this one test does not help us understand how a student or school is doing.” 

Page, and other union representatives, did not respond to ����Ӱ��’s multiple requests for comment. 

Those who want to keep the requirement and see the ballot measure defeated — including Gov. Maura Healey, Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler and The National Parents Union  — argue that the MCAS is a high-quality assessment that is necessary to hold schools accountable, communicate progress with students and their parents and establish consistent academic expectations statewide.

According to the conducted between Oct. 2-6 by Suffolk University and the Globe, 58% of the 500 Massachusetts residents surveyed plan to vote “yes,” on Question 2, eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement, and 37% plan to vote “no.”

The state education department recently released the which predictably dropped in the pandemic’s wake and following the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s decision — implemented for the first time this spring —  to for what’s considered a passing score.

Statewide, 10th graders exceeded or met expectations on the English exam, 48% on the math exam, and 49% on the science one.  Historically, only of students — around 700 total — ultimately miss the requirement, the majority of whom are English language learners or have a disability.

Massachusetts resident Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union and the parent of five kids, one of whom receives special education services, believes that getting rid of the requirement in the name of kids with disabilities is “really offensive.”

“[My son] absolutely took and passed the MCAS … Kids like Matthew are capable not only of proficiency,” she said, “but excellence.”

Rodrigues argued that the data collected from MCAS scores actually contribute to equity, rather than detracting from it.

“The idea that we would just toss away data and call it social justice,” she said, “is just — it’s wild to me… we need more data and information on our kids so that we can be better equipped to help them and figure out what the challenges are.”

Massachusetts as a bellwether

The MCAS graduation requirement goes back to the 1993 Education Reform Act; it’s been used since 2003 as part of the graduation standard. Before that, the only state requirements were a U.S. history course credit and gym classes.

And what happens in Massachusetts, ranked the top state for public education nationally, matters greatly, said James Peyser, former state education secretary.

“I think Massachusetts in many ways is a bellwether for what goes on around the country… If a question like this succeeds here, I think it’ll send a signal to policymakers and to union leaders and educators … around the country that maybe it’s time to abandon the whole exercise,” he said.

As election day nears and the debate intensifies, neither side wants to focus on the high passing rate, according to Evan Horowitz, the executive director of at Tufts University who authored on the ballot measure. He found that those who don’t pass the MCAS typically don’t meet district requirements for graduation either.

Those in favor of the exam insist it’s a rigorous standard and those opposed insist it’s an unfair hurdle, “so there’s sort of no constituency to the argument that actually this test might be too easy to really matter, certainly too easy to have a big, statewide fight over,” he said. 

John Papay, director of the at Brown University and lead author of on the MCAS exam, said both test scores and course grades predict longer-term student outcomes and test scores can tell us something beyond grades about how well high schoolers are prepared for college and career. 

He remains concerned about how well vulnerable student groups are being served overall. 

“The question about the exit exam is a little bit of a red herring around this bigger, critically important question about, ‘How are we ensuring that English learners [and] students with disabilities, are getting the skills that they need out of the Massachusetts public education system?’”

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the reach of the ballot proposition. The measure proposes the elimination of the MCAS��exam as a statewide graduation requirement. If it passes, students in Massachusetts would still need to meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined measures, set by the roughly 300 school districts.��

Once a fast-growing experiment in education reform, LA Unified’s decades-old charter school sector has never seen challenges like those it faces today, with falling enrollment, tough new policies, and a hostile school board that has throttled charters’ access to public school space.

But the school board part of that equation could shift, if LAUSD teacher and charter-supporting rabble rouser Dan Chang can take LA Unified’s seat for school board District 3 in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, from teachers’ union-backed incumbent Scott Schmerelson.

Chang and Schmerelson share many of the same priorities for board policies, but Chang said he sought to address and in LA Unified, while Schmerelson said he’d seek to ensure traditional district-run public schools aren’t constrained by the presence of charters in public school buildings. 

With the teachers’ union struggling to defend its 4-3 majority on the board, Chang and Schmerelson’s race will decide whether the board tips in favor of charters and school reforms, versus more orthodox approaches to improving schools favored by the union.   

Chang, a math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood, whose first education job was at a charter school management organization, said in an interview that if he is elected he’d juice the city’s charter sector by moving to repeal the controversial policy established this year that limits where charters may operate.  

“LA Unified needs a new voice,” said Chang, who also previously led the boards of in the San Fernando Valley. “It’s critical to have someone with my experience on the board.”

The contest in District 3 is the most expensive school board race this year in LA, a city known for the, with more than $4 million raised or spent on behalf of the campaigns of Chang and Schmerelson.

Schmerelson, a former teacher and principal who’s held the seat at District 3 since 2014, is on the board, beat Chang in the March primaries, winning nearly 45% of the vote, compared to 29% for Chang.   

It wasn’t enough to prevent the race from going to a runoff at the general election next month, but Schmerelson, who is viewed as the favorite in the race, is sanguine. He has some reason to be confident, having broad support in his district and a track record of winning.

“I accept that I was elected by my constituents in board District 3, and I make sure that my schools get the attention that they need, everything that they need,” said Schmerelson. 

In 2020 Schmerelson in the general election, despite more than $6 million spent on Koziatek’s behalf by groups including those backing charter schools.

“The race is Scott’s to lose,” said David Tokofsky, former LAUSD board member and district gadfly.  

Tokofsky, who has worked on LAUSD board races for decades, estimated Chang’s campaign would have to outspend Schmerelson by four to one in order to capture the seat.

The show Chang’s campaign hasn’t quite reached the magic 4:1 ratio, yet. Chang’s campaign and its backers have raised or spent more than $3.6 million so far in the race, compared to nearly $1.4 million for Schmerelson’s campaign.

But with nearly a month left in the race, that could still change, Tokofsky said.

Los Angeles Unified is the largest district in the country controlled by a school board. LAUSD board members are relatively well-compensated compared to those of many other districts, with yearly salaries of $125,000. 

LAUSD school board members are also given a staff. Board members choose the district’s superintendent, help set district policy and control LA Unified’s $18.8 billion budget. 

LAUSD board elections in 2017 set a record for the most expensive school board races in U.S. history, with around $15 million spent that year on races that moved the board in the direction of pro-charter education reformers.

The outsize campaign spending in Los Angeles is unique, because the city has an organized opposition in the charter community to the teachers’ union, setting up arms races in campaign spending to control the board.

That’s compared to other cities, where unions often dominate board elections and their candidates often coast to victory. In places like New York and Chicago, the mayor appoints the school board, so unions concentrate their money on mayoral races.

With nearly 20% of the district’s enrollment, including LAUSD-affiliated charters, the charter sector in Los Angeles is the nation’s largest, with well-organized operations in advocacy and campaign finance.

The statewide California Charter School Association Advocates has endorsed Chang and helped fund efforts to get him elected, including television and radio advertisements targeted at LAUSD families who will vote in next month’s election.

CCASA Advocates Executive Director Gregory McGinity said his group is confident that Chang will fight to improve educational options and boost academic outcomes for all LAUSD students and not just those in charter schools.

“His commitment to expanding access to high-quality public schools—both traditional and charter public schools—aligns with our mission to empower families,” McGinity said. “We are confident in his ability to represent all voices and champion educational equity for all students.”

, which endorsed Schmerelson and helped fund efforts to keep his seat in this year’s race, didn’t respond to requests for comment on the race this year.

But in a statement on the union web site, UTLA lists the qualifications of Schmerelson, a former Spanish teacher, saying that he has ensured funding for schools in his district and pushed for changes in LA Unified to make schools cleaner and safer, reduce class sizes and boost students’ test scores.

“Schmerelson will make sure students feel safe and can meet their full potential,” states the UTLA’s endorsement.

UTLA has a track record of, and after charter advocates gained control of the board in.

Both Chang and Schmerelson said ensuring a post-pandemic academic recovery for all LAUSD students, increasing campus safety and addressing enrollment declines are among their top priorities for new policies in the coming years.

Where they differ is how to achieve those aims, with Schmerelson favoring magnet programs, high-impact tutoring and investments in traditional public schools as a means for academic improvement, compared to Chang’s emphasis on high-performing charters.

Both men favor the presence of police on LAUSD campuses as a means of improving school safety. The winner of the pivotal race will help shape the direction of the district as it contends with challenges including a shrinking budget and increasing school violence.

 “The weird thing is, if you listen to the candidates, it’s very hard to tell them apart. They all say more-or-less the same things on the issues,” said Pedro Noguera, dean of University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

“So you can’t really distinguish the candidates based on what they’re saying or what they’re putting out in campaign materials,” he added. “You really do have to follow the money.”

Polling released this week by the Democratic Governors Association shows Braun just three points in front of McCormick, 44% to 41%. That’s a dropoff from the Sept. 17 results of an that had Braun with roughly 45% of the vote and McCormick with 34. Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater also picked up more support but less dramatically so, going from 5.8% to 8%.

Indiana has not elected since 2000 and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a comfortable 14 percentage point lead, 57% to 43%, over Democrat Kamala Harris, according to an

If elected to succeed Gov. , Braun and his running mate, pastor, podcaster and far-right , have pledged universal school choice for every Indiana family while focusing on parental rights and school safety. 

McCormick, a career educator, was the last person elected to the superintendent of public instruction’s office before it became an appointed position in 2021. She seeks to expand affordable child care, fight what she believes is excessive state-mandated testing and call for an equitable school funding formula.��

She also wants to place limits on the state’s private school voucher initiative: The grew to encompass more than , a 31% increase from the year before. The state allocated $439 million in tuition grants to private parochial or non-religious schools last year — up from nearly $312 million the year before.

McCormick said the program, which might have been intended for lower-income children, is often utilized by white suburban families and is too expensive. 

“We can’t afford it,” she told ����Ӱ��, “and it is sucking the resources out of our traditional schools.” 

Braun, 70, wants to expand school choice by annual family income cap from the voucher program, known as the Choice Scholarship Program, and allocated to the state’s Education Scholarship Account Program. The program, which has also in participation, gives special education students and their siblings funds for tuition and support services. 

Braun did not make himself available for an interview and attempts to reach various supporters were not successful.

“School choice programs put parents in the driver’s seat, allowing them to choose schools that prioritize their children’s needs,” he states in his education plan. “Providing universal school choice will ensure every Hoosier family has the same freedom to choose their best-fit education.”

A former school board member, Braun also wants to create an Indiana Office of School Safety to streamline the efforts of several departments, including the state police — and implement age-appropriate cyber training for students regarding online safety. He said, too, that the state should limit cellphone use on campus. 

Braun wants to increase Indiana’s public teacher base salary — and financially reward educators whose students perform well. 

Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said his group , 54, because of her commitment to funding traditional public schools. 

He noted she did not have the group’s endorsement when she initially ran for the state superintendent’s office as a Republican. But, Gambill said, after filling the role and understanding the state’s educational needs, and her values more closely aligned with the union’s. 

“She really stood up to members of — at that time — her own party in working toward what was best for our schools,” he said, speaking of her time in office. “And, of course, as soon as they were challenged, they didn’t like that. She realized that if she was going to make a difference in public education, she would have to move in a different direction.”

McCormick aims to secure a minimum base salary of $60,000 for pre-K-12 educators, and adjust veteran teacher salaries to reflect their non-educator peers. She wants to increase academic freedom, safeguard university tenure and protect the ability of teachers unions to collectively bargain for wages and benefits. 

Her running mate, , a former state representative, was a teacher, assistant principal and public school superintendent at Crothersville Community Schools.

Braun, in his education plan, said he wants schools to notify parents about their child’s request to change their name or use different pronouns on campus. He has for minors and opposes . Braun has the backing of Americans for Prosperity and CPAC — and maintains high ratings from the NRA. 

Braun was endorsed in 2023 and won his party’s nomination for governor in May after beating out a crowded field of GOP contenders. He acknowledged last month, that Harrris’s presence at the top of the presidential ticket has complicated down-ballot races, including his own.

“I think that’s had an impact,” he said, “but I’m going to plow through that because this is a lot about kitchen table issues once you’re starting to run for governor.”

While she could take 12 weeks off through the federal , this only guaranteed her job security — not pay — and her family couldn’t afford to miss out on months of her salary.

“Obviously if I didn’t have those paychecks, I wouldn’t have been able to pay my mortgage or pay for groceries or anything like that. Put gas in my car to go to doctors’ appointments,” the music teacher said on a recent phone call, baby Margot cooing and spilling Cheerios in the background.

Teachers in her district can get paid for those 12 weeks if they’ve accrued enough sick days, but as a career changer, Papa only had four weeks banked. Even before her unexpected C-section and health complications related to an autoimmune disorder, she knew that wouldn’t be enough time.

There was one workaround, though: In Papa’s district, teachers are allowed to donate up to five of their sick days to colleagues in need. A teacher at her school distributed a link — much like a GoFundMe page — and was ultimately able to raise the remaining 30-or-so days. 

Without clear confirmation from HR on just how many paid days she had, she gave birth trusting that her colleagues’ donated ones would come through.

Papa is one of many public school teachers forced to scrimp and save sick days, pay for their own substitute teachers, go without pay or perfectly time their pregnancies to align with summer break in order to care for their babies and recover. Many end up returning to the classroom , sometimes as early as after giving birth. 

While it is difficult to pin down an exact figure, as of 2022, 18% of the largest school districts in the country provided paid parental leave beyond sick days to public school teachers, according to a National Council on Teacher Quality For those that do, the amount of leave offered varies widely, ranging from one day to five months, with most districts offering less than 31 days— all at varying levels of pay and with differing eligibility.

Most teachers receive an average of 10-14 sick days a year, according to NCTQ, and many districts require that they exhaust all their accumulated sick time before they can access paid leave. And some go even further: seven of the districts subtract the cost of a substitute from the teachers’ paychecks during their time on leave, effectively getting them to pay for their own coverage.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the share of state and local government workers that have access to paid family leave is 28% — significantly higher than NCTQ’s figure — though this includes all school-based occupations, including superintendents and principals. An internal 2019 survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers of about 50 district contracts found that only about 10% offered dedicated paid parental leave. Most districts relied on a sick day accrual system that disadvantages younger teachers, who likely have the least banked time and the greatest need for parental leave, according to an AFT spokesperson. 

“Teachers, for the most part, are women and mothers,” said Ashley Jochim, a freelance education researcher and consulting principal at Arizona State University’s Center on Reinventing Public Education. “And so the fact that there is sort of an inattention to these issues around parent leave is startling.”

In the 2020-21 school year, there were full- and part-time public school teachers, 77% of whom were women and a majority of whom were of childbearing age. About half — 48% — of all public school teachers have children living at home, according to an analysis of data spanning 2012-16 by the Brookings Institution’s Michael Hansen and Diana Quintero. 

The National Council on Teacher Quality analyzed in the U.S., including the 100 largest as well as the largest in each state, and found that 18% offered paid parental leave beyond sick days. Though a few of these districts fall in states that offer paid leave, the organization said it’s not confident that schools are necessarily following state policy. 

Of the analyzed districts, 27 offer paid leave for a birthing parent and 18 offer some amount to fathers or non-birthing parents. Eleven districts offer all days at full pay, while 15 offer partial pay. Thirteen districts provide some leave for adoption. 

Teachers across the country, like Papa, know the struggles associated with these patchwork policies. But those outside the classroom are often surprised to learn the lengths to which teachers must go, according to various experts. There’s a general understanding that though teacher pay may lag, the fringe benefits are often much more robust than what you’d see in the private sector, leading to a misperception that paid parental leave is included, said Jochim. 

“Parental leave shouldn’t feel like a miracle,”wrote AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement to ����Ӱ��. “It should be a basic benefit that school districts and states offer to all employees.”

This system exists against the backdrop of a , particularly stark for mothers of color and worsened by the pandemic. Amid record high , a shortage of   and for paid parental leave policies nationally, experts note that family leave could be an important recruitment and retention tool— especially for female teachers of color, who are underrepresented in the field. About 79% of public school teachers are white, 9% are Hispanic and 7% are Black, according to the most recent

There’s a clear cost to school communities— particularly students — anytime a teacher is gone for an extended period, said NCTQ President Heather Peske, but “I also think that we can’t ask teachers to sacrifice having children of their own in order to teach ours. It’s just not right and not fair.” And often teachers are asked to return to the classroom far earlier than the ’s 18-week recommendation. 

In August 2023, Papa, the music teacher, returned to work, grateful her coworkers’ donated time had allowed her to take a paid maternity leave, but anxious that she was beginning a new school year with a 6-month-old baby and a completely drained bank of sick days. 

She tried to schedule her baby’s doctor appointments before or after the school day, but that wasn’t always possible. She said she felt guilty anytime she had to leave early or take time away for her kid, putting more work on her colleagues in the throes of staffing shortages. On days she was sick or exhausted from being up all night with a newborn, she forced herself to push through, not wanting to burden others and not able to afford the unpaid time, a common refrain heard among teachers who are also parents. 

Because of the fragile nature of schools, it’s treated as shameful when a teacher needs to be absent, even when it’s to care for a sick child, said Jochim, the researcher who works with CRPE. But, she added, “Nobody’s really asking themselves … ‘Why did we design the system in a way that can’t be resilient in the face of caregiving responsibilities that women bear most of the burden of?’”

One day, Papa’s daughter had an allergic reaction and was rushed to the emergency room. Papa said she found herself sitting there, thinking, “‘Oh my God, am I not able to go to work tomorrow?’ And it’s so awful to think that. Here I am, rushing my child, my baby to the ER. She’s got hives on her face … and my thought is, ‘What am I going to do about work tomorrow if I can’t go in?’”

Not just teachers

The United States is the only country that does not mandate any paid leave for new parents, among the almost 40 nations included in The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development , according to compiled by the organization. The smallest amount of paid leave required in any of the other nations, including the United Kingdom and Canada, is about two months, marking the United States as a major outlier.

Despite of workers reporting that it’s either extremely or very important for them to have a job that offers paid parental, family or medical leave, currently only 13 states and Washington, D.C. mandate paid parental leave, according to the An additional eight have voluntary systems that rely on private insurance. But not all of these include public employees, such as teachers. For example, in the early 2000s, California became the first state to pass a paid family leave policy, but as state employees, teachers were not automatically included.

According to the on average teachers fare about the same as all civilian workers, 27% of whom have access to paid family leave. That number rapidly climbs, though, for public and private workers in management, professional, and related occupations — of whom receive the benefit — and private industry workers in finance and insurance — of whom do. Generally, there’s an inverse relationship between income and access to paid leave: among the only 6% had access.

The economic argument that paid parental leave is to fund — either through the government or private industry — doesn’t properly account for what it costs not to offer it, said Peske. “Given how much time it takes to recruit and hire a new teacher and inject that new teacher into the school, you really want to consider parental leave policies and figure out how you can afford [them],” she said. “Because it’s so much more costly to lose a really strong, good teacher than it would be to pay for the parental leave.”

Katherine Bishop, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said educators in their family-building years are frequently in their first five years of teaching — when most leave the profession.

Oklahoma is one of at least — including Tennessee and South Carolina — to enact paid parental leave policies for teachers over the last year, along with the nation’s fourth-largest school system, Chicago Public Schools. In 2018, New York City, the country’s largest district, rolled out six weeks of paid leave at full salary for mothers, fathers, and foster parents after a petition garnered 85,000  

“In an era where our educators are feeling so disrespected, it is bills like this that give our worth and dignity back and that we are seen as the professionals that we are,” said Bishop, whose state whittled the initially proposed 12-week paid leave down to six. “I think that is so important for people to understand.”

‘There’s no one to help me out’

By the time Jeremy Hight and his wife had their first child in 2019, he had been teaching at a small, rural public school in Nevada for over a decade and had accrued 110 sick days — the equivalent of 22 months. 

Yet, when his wife gave birth, his district would only allow him to take four weeks off paid, he said. At the time, regardless of how many sick days a teacher had banked, only 20 could be used for paternity leave. He could take an additional two months through FMLA, but they would be unpaid, which Hight’s family couldn’t afford.

So, four weeks after his wife’s emergency C-section he returned to the classroom. 

“It was painful for her,” he said. “For me it was emotionally painful just to not be able to be there and help out my wife. She did have some family nearby but not anybody who could get there and help her to stand up, help her to move around as easily as she could. Or just to put the baby down in a crib very easily. She couldn’t bend over to put the baby down very well. Having to leave after a month — four weeks — was just heartbreaking.”

Despite the challenges, he recognized he was lucky to even have those 20 days set aside in the first place. He said for an early career teacher, that kind of time with their family would be out of reach.

While some may conceive of parental leave policies as relevant only to the person who gives birth, Ruth Martin, senior vice president of advocacy group , said it’s important for policies to incorporate men and non-birthing parents. When dads are able to access paid time away from work they feel more bonded to their child, she said, and are more likely to play a larger role in the household labor that is unpaid, time-consuming and typically left for women.

Since then Hight’s district has updated its contract, allowing fathers to take six weeks off paid and mothers to take eight — but only if they have the sick days banked. 

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has 45 days to draft a policy that makes co-location — as the arrangement is called — off limits at schools that serve low-performing, minority and poor students.

Charter school advocates lobbied hard against the plan, arguing that it unnecessarily pits the two sectors against each other and violates a state law requiring school systems to provide classrooms for both charter and district students. 

The state’s charter school association is threatening legal action. 

“We will not back down from protecting the rights of students,” said Keith Dell’Aquila, an advocate for the California Charter Schools Association in the greater Los Angeles area. “The board is bringing forward this notion that charter school students only deserve the leftovers. That’s not what the law says.”

While conflict over co-location has flared up in , the tug-of-war over facilities has been most intense in Los Angeles, which is home to almost a quarter of the state’s 1,285 charters. The arrangement has offered some benefits to districts. When voters passed in 2000, the measure made it easier to pass local school construction bonds by lowering the percentage of yes votes needed from two-thirds to 55%. That compromise seems less relevant now to board members and district staff who argue that charters squeeze district students out of space they need for everything from special education therapy rooms to clothing closets.

“There should be a sensible and reasonable way of looking at co-locations that makes it much less likely that schools that are struggling to raise student achievement will be interfered with,” board president Jackie Goldberg, who wrote the resolution with board member Rocio Rivas, said during Tuesday’s meeting. The resolution has support from United Teachers Los Angeles, and Rivas — a union-backed board member — promised to address the facility-sharing issue last year during her campaign.

Rivas and Goldberg want Carvalho to write a policy preventing co-location at schools that fall into three school improvement categories — the , which provides extra staff and emphasizes culturally relevant curriculum; the 100 low-performing “priority” schools, and community schools, which offer services for families like food pantries and counseling services. These schools “have enough on their plate,” said Goldberg, who argues that co-location hurts enrollment because charters lure families away from district schools.

, a special education teacher running to replace Goldberg, who is retiring from the board, said co-location requires schools to relinquish classrooms often used for meetings with parents or restorative justice programs. 

“This resolution protects all of the investments that the district has made in bringing innovative programs to our schools,” she told the board.

Board Member George McKenna, is also retiring from the board, which means the charter-district conflict would likely carry over into next year’s election.

‘Detrimental to families’

Those who oppose the resolution say it could actually lead to more shared facilities. If a charter school has to vacate its space, it might have to split its grades up across multiple sites. That’s what worries David Garner, the principal of Magnolia Science Academy-2, a charter.

“We believe that this resolution is detrimental to families — most importantly, high-need families,” he told ����Ӱ��. Parents who depend on public transportation, he said, might not be able to send their children to his school if it has to relocate.

Magnolia Science Academy-2, part of the Magnolia Public Schools network, is currently one of seven schools — four district schools and three charters — on the same property in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County. Despite limited use of athletic facilities and other common areas, he said he has good relationships with administrators of the other schools. One of his daughters even attended Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, a district facility on the same campus.

“I’ve been on both sides of the district and charter space,” he said. “I don’t care about the politics; I just care about what the kids and the families want.” 

Goldberg said the vote won’t disrupt the 52 current co-location sites. But Dell’Aquila isn’t convinced, and said it will depend on how Carvalho writes the policy. The association wants the district to offer co-located charters long-term facility agreements to create more stability for staff and families.

The meeting underscored long-standing confusion over which spaces are available to charters. Goldberg said she’s always understood the law to say that charters could take over any empty classroom not assigned to a certified teacher with a roster of students. That interpretation would favor charter schools because it would make more rooms used for a variety of purposes, including the arts, STEM or discipline programs, up for grabs.

But José Cole-Gutiérrez, who runs the district’s charter school division, said that was a district practice and not written into state law. McKenna added that no one challenged it while charter-friendly board members were in the majority.

Rivas called the revelation an “injustice” that has disadvantaged district schools for years.

Carvalho, meanwhile, said ambiguity over the issue has only contributed to the conflict.

The superintendent’s challenge is to write a policy that protects the district from litigation. The charter association has sued the district three times over facility arrangements and in a Tuesday letter, accused the district of having a “sordid history of undermining and not complying” with the law. 

The resolution has been unpopular, not just with charter supporters, but also among organizations that work closely with the district. 

Ana Teresa Dahan, managing director of GPSN, a nonprofit advocacy group that opposed the resolution along with 25 other organizations, said she understands the challenges on both sides. It’s difficult for district schools to plan for growth because they don’t know which classrooms they might have to give up. Charters, meanwhile, have to frequently relocate and struggle to find “normal” office and cafeteria space. 

“Clearly, there’s a need for a better policy,” she said. But she called Tuesday’s resolution a “failure-to-launch effort” because it still favors district schools. Ultimately, she said, it will be difficult to implement anything that completely resolves the dispute.

“There’s no uniform way that all of these campuses use their space. Every school prioritizes their space differently,” she said. “I don’t know how a school board can make these decisions.”

The “” that have resulted in one-day closures at eight Clark County School District schools over seven instructional days constitute an illegal strike, a district court ruled Wednesday.

District Judge Crystal Eller granted CCSD a preliminary injunction against the Clark County Education Association meant to end the rolling sickouts, which have come amid an impasse on contract negotiations between the fifth largest school district in the country and the union representing its 18,000 licensed educators and professionals.

“The court finds that a strike has occurred,” said Eller from the bench.

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The judge added that while the evidence of a strike is circumstantial, it is “an overwhelming amount that cannot be ignored.” She referenced a map created by Fox5 News showing that the four schools affected on Tuesday were of the Las Vegas Valley.

“Four schools as far apart in the city as you can get. It is more likely an indicator that there is a concerted effort to do exactly what has been threatened,” said Eller, referring to comments made by CCEA leaders earlier this summer that targeted sickouts might occur if contract negotiations were to drag out.

Attorney Bradley Schrager, who is representing CCEA, said the union will immediately appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

In brief comments after the hearing, CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita said the union “respectfully disagrees” with the decision. He reiterated that the union’s position remains that they are not responsible for the sickouts.

“We think that the underlying issue here is what’s going on in these schools and how these teachers feel they’re being treated,” he said. “Unfortunately, the script today in front of the court was … the story that the union engaged in an illegal strike, and we didn’t do that.”

He added, “I think there’s going to be some acknowledgement at some point that teachers are very angry in this school district.”

CCSD, in a statement issued after the hearing, praised the issuance of the preliminary injunction: “This action protects the children of the Clark County School District so they can receive the education they are entitled to.”

The district in its request for an injunction sought to compel CCEA to direct its members to stop illegally striking and communicate the possible consequences of continuing to illegally strike.

Eller said she would not force such communication as it would be a violation of the First Amendment, but she issued her own directive to teachers.

“You guys are out on the frontlines, like the military, like first responders, and there are too many people counting on you, their children counting on you. There are families — that need to go to work to feed their families and put roofs over their heads — that are counting on you guys to show up and follow the law and abide by the law and do your job. The way you address your concerns are at the bargaining table. It cannot work like this. That’s why there’s a law against this.”

Eller also encouraged the district to negotiate in good faith, saying that “obviously there are a lot of people who feel like the district is not coming to the bargaining table with possible good faith.”

‘You can’t lead a horse to water’

The injunction sets up the possibility of punishments if the sickouts continue.

CCEA, as the employee labor organization, could face fines of up to $50,000 for each day of continued violation. Individual officers of the union could face fines up to $1,000 per day. Individual employees who participate could be dismissed or suspended by the district.

Hours after the hearing, CCEA sent an email to members stating that it “has not encouraged, engaged in or coordinated any concerted sick-outs in the past and will not do so in the future. You are reminded that, under current state law and the collective bargaining agreement, strikes by public school teachers are prohibited and should not be undertaken.”

Schrager in court said the union doesn’t dispute that teachers are using their sick days but argued the union and the three leaders named in the lawsuit are not part of any concerted effort. He noted that half of the teachers participating in sickouts aren’t due-paying members of the union.

“Are we saying CCEA is concocting plots among teachers who can’t even be bothered to join the union?”

CCSD countered that individual teachers’ status in regards to dues or union activity is irrelevant since CCEA is the collective bargaining unit for all teachers, and they are all set to benefit from a new contract influenced by an illegal strike.

Among the materials submitted for the hearing was an email the district said it received early Tuesday from someone who identified themselves only as “CCSD Whistleblower.” The email singled out one Southwest Career and Technical Academy teacher as the leader of the strike efforts at that school.

The whistleblower shared screenshots of emails the SWCTA teacher sent to other teachers encouraging them to call out sick on Sept. 12 and Sept. 15.

The teacher’s name was redacted by CCSD.

SWCTA was one of four schools that canceled classes on Tuesday.

Another piece of evidence submitted by the district was by longtime CCSD educator Kelly Edgar under the username OneFedUpTeacher. In the video, Edgar says, “I have it on good authority that (teachers) are taking matters into their own hands.”

Edgar began that same video by referencing the closure of Gibson Elementary School on Sept. 6 due to unexpected absences and said the call out “was not endorsed” or “supported” by the teachers union.

CCSD also submitted a photo of what appears to be CCEA members watching a presentation with a slide that says “rolling school outs.” Judge Eller denied allowing the photo as evidence because the district could not verify where or when the photo was taken or any context around it, though the district indicated it believed it was taken at a members-only meeting in July.

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