A new analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) finds that states with stronger, more politically influential teachers’ unions tend to post weaker student reading performance—and tend to adopt fewer of the policies known to improve literacy.
According to PPI’s data, blue states averaged just 9 of 18 key early-literacy reforms, compared with 13.5 among red and purple states. Among the ten states with the lowest reading scores nationally, eight had strong teachers’ unions.
Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Indiana—all Republican-led states with comparatively weak teachers’ unions—posted some of the best student reading scores in the country. By contrast, Maine, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington, and Rhode Island had some of the weakest reading scores alongside some of the most influential teachers’ unions.
The pattern isn’t universal. Maryland has strong teachers’ unions but also strong reading scores, while South Dakota has weaker unions and lower test scores than the correlation would predict.
Mississippi’s Turnaround
Rachel Canter, PPI’s Director of Education Policy, has spent nearly two decades pushing literacy reforms in Mississippi, where reading scores have climbed from among the nation’s lowest to among its highest. She said the reception from lawmakers in union-heavy states differs sharply from what she hears in Mississippi.
“Democrats, however, don’t often ask me how to replicate Mississippi’s success. They ask if it’s possible at all, given the power of teachers’ unions in their home states.”
Canter said union influence in blue states extends beyond bargaining tables into how policy gets implemented in classrooms, which she said can slow those states’ willingness to adopt new or improved teaching methods.
“States dominated by Democrats have been slower to embrace similar reforms (like those in Mississippi). Organized labor might explain some of this gap.”
What Unions Are Bargaining Over
A look at the Chicago Teachers’ Union’s collective bargaining proposal from May 2024 shows a list of demands that went well beyond wages and classroom conditions, even as roughly 40 percent of Chicago Public Schools students read at grade level and about 25 percent are proficient in math.
In New York, more than half of students in third through fifth grade failed reading proficiency exams, according to the report.
The findings arrive as the Trump administration has pushed to dismantle the federal Department of Education and shift authority over schools back to states, localities, and parents—a move proponents argue could also loosen the grip of powerful teachers’ unions on how children are taught to read.
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