Why strong teachers unions are death on public education

In the latest sign that powerful teachers unions make for weak schools, a study out of the left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute shows that states where the American Federation of Teachers or National Education Association wield great power overwhelmingly score worse in student literacy than ones where the unions have less sway.

The reason’s obvious: Unions prioritize their own political power and their members’ privileges, not the children’s needs; that’s not their job.

And when government-employee unions have too much power, the public suffers.

Thus eight of the 10 states with the worst student literacy scores are blue ones with strong teachers’ unions.

Yes, other factors matter, too: Five Republican states and one swing state have relatively poor literacy scores; four Democratic states are among the 23 top-performing.

But the union factor is huge.

Rachel Canter is PPI’s director of Education Policy and an architect of the Mississippi Miracle that’s seen that state make huge gains in literacy instruction by paying close heed to the science of reading; she sums up the study: “We found a strong, negative correlation between the two — the more powerful the unions, the fewer literacy-policy principles the state had adopted.”

Reform requires teachers to do things differently; unions insist on charging a high price for any change — and hate any standards that might expose some teachers as not up to the job.

New York — home to the powerful United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers — ranks among the least literate, with over half of 3rd- through 5th-graders failing reading proficiency exams.

Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to work with the unions to help the kids; it was a fiasco: She paid NYSUT millions to design a “science of reading” curriculum, only for it to produce garbage.

No wonder New York fourth-graders now lag their Mississippi peers in reading.

And pity poor Los Angeles, whose teachers union is an affiliate of both the AFT and NEA.

Every year, the unions pour tens of millions of dollars into electing Democrats (and some obedient Republicans) who’ll keep spending more on public schools while requiring less of public-school teachers.

Nationally, the jig is increasingly up: Too many parents saw strong teachers unions keep school doors locked long past any point of reason after COVID hit, with AFT President Randi Weingarten working the Biden administration to support the madness; parents also saw what a joke the “remote learning” was, and got a taste of the pathetic curricula favored by blue-area public schools.

That makes a difference everywhere: Indeed, deep-blue Massachusetts has managed to pass strong “science of reading” reforms over union opposition — in part because some heroic teachers stood up to call out the labor leaders’ lies.

We believe in public education — but it has to mean schools that deliver for the kids, or every parent who can will find a different answer.

Too bad Randi Weingarten & Co. have forgotten about that.