Chapter 3: How do Teachers’ Unions Affect Education Outcomes?: Reviewing the Latest Research on the Rent-Seeking Debate

Teachers’ unions have taken a central role in education policy—both in process and debate. This has perhaps never been more clear than in recent years, during which time legislators and courts in nearly every state have made changes to laws regarding collective bargaining or to the policies for which teachers’ unions have long advocated (e.g., Marianno, 2015). Even the Supreme Court has weighed in, ruling on the long-held right of teachers’ unions to collect dues from teachers in represented districts by deciding in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 that public sector unions could not require teachers to pay “agency fees” if they chose not to join the union. That ruling has the potential to dramatically reduce the power of teachers’ unions in both membership numbers and revenues (Marianno & Strunk, 2018a). Most recently teachers across the country in states ranging from Kansas to Colorado and in cities spanning Los Angeles to Chicago have exercised their rights to strike, calling on their district bargaining partners to not only increase salaries and lower class sizes, but also to hire more nonteaching staff, such as counselors, nurses, social workers, and librarians (Richards, 2019).