School Choice Is Empowering Students and Teachers — And Devastating Unions – The American

On Jul 6, 2023

Most states provide at least some support for parents who choose to send their child to a private school, such as tax credits, education savings accounts, or vouchers. Historically, this has not been a partisan issue. Among the states that spend the highest percentage of their education funding on choice programs, Florida and Indiana are strongly Republican, Vermont and Maine are strongly Democratic, and Arizona and Wisconsin are split.

In many states, however, choice programs are limited in the types of students they can serve and in how much public money parents can spend on the school of their choice. As a result, only a minuscule amount of government education funding is expended on any program outside of the traditional neighborhood public school. (READ MORE: The Biden Administration’s Title IX Revisions Provoke Backlash From Left and Right)

But that’s changing.

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West Virginia, Arizona, Iowa, Utah, and Arkansas have all recently passed universal school choice bills that offer programs to all students. According to school choice advocate Corey A. DeAngelis, similar bills are moving, or likely to move, in Oklahoma, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. (A majority of lawmakers in Wyoming have also signed on to full school choice, but it is currently being blocked by the Republican House speaker.)

School choice is popular. Even in Democratic-controlled states, lawmakers have not — yet, at least — rolled back private school programs. In Michigan, where private-school choice programs are unconstitutional, about a quarter of students still want choice, attending public schools other than the one assigned to them based on their home address — either a charter school or one in a nearby district. The state’s new Democratic legislature, the first in forty years, has not signaled an interest in restricting these choices.

School choice is also effective: EdChoice, an education-reform nonprofit, found that the vast majority of studies on educational vouchers and tax credits show that choice results in significant learning gains for students, as well as such benefits as increased parental satisfaction and less bullying of students.

There are two main obstacles to expanding school choice: one is the traditional public school establishment, and the other is teachers unions. But the latter’s power and influence are gradually being gutted across the nation.

Why? Because of union choice.

Janus Expands Union Choice

A decade ago, Michigan became a right-to-work state, which ensured that no employee could be forced to pay union dues. Since then, the two state teachers unions have gone from having more than 142,000 active members to having fewer than 97,000. That’s a 32 percent decline — despite the number of teachers and school employees in Michigan increasing.

This year, Michigan became the first state in sixty years to repeal its right-to-work law, and the legislation is a major blow to workers and the state’s economy. After losing jobs, income, and population throughout the decade prior to the passing of the right-to-work law, Michigan families finally saw substantial wage and employment growth; moreover, the state’s population decline even turned around.

While the law will be a financial boon to private-sector unions, adding tens of thousands of new dues and fee payers to their ranks immediately, the repeal does not affect union choice for school employees.

That’s because, in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) that public union activity is innately political and that the government cannot force anyone to pay government union fees. In sum, all public-sector workers — federal, state, local, and school — are “right-to-work” employees across the entire country.

Many parents recognized, for the first time, that their priorities for their children did not match up with their school’s.

The subsequent changes in union membership nationwide have been significant. According to federal filings, the National Education Association has lost 8 percent of its membership since the Janus decision, and the American Federation of Teachers is down more than 10 percent. In total, the two largest unions have lost almost 250,000 members.

This is severely undercounting the results of Janus, however. Federal filings report all members in those unions, including those who work in the private sector and in states that were not affected by the decision. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has filed hundreds of public-records requests to government entities across the country to track changes in union membership. Our results show that 15–20 percent of union workers in schools resigned their memberships in 2022.

Total union membership is currently at the lowest ever recorded by the federal labor department. One reason why is Janus: the decision has cost unions hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because they can no longer force public employees to pay them dues.

The Future of Choice Is Bright

So, what’s next? Some states are taking major steps when it comes to school choice, but there has been movement toward expanding union choice, too.

Indiana passed a law requiring public unions to inform school employees of their First Amendment right to not pay dues. The state also made it easier for teachers to resign their membership, if they so choose. Teachers must confirm their continued membership annually.

And in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has been pushing a bill that would require teachers’ unions to regularly obtain the support of 60 percent of teachers so as to retain the organization’s certification. The bill also would prevent school districts from collecting dues on behalf of unions and stop unions from distributing certain information on school grounds. These changes all make sense: no one should be forced into an organization, and political groups should not be able to use government resources or facilities to collect money or distribute information.

School choice and union choice are advancing, but why now?

School policies enacted during COVID are one driving factor. Many parents were satisfied with sending their kids to the local public school until they felt disrespected by school closures, mask mandates, and other strategies that went on for far too long. It didn’t help that unions drove many of the closures and assured parents that hastily implemented online education was just as good as in-person instruction — a claim anyone with kids at home knew to be false. Many parents recognized, for the first time, that their priorities for their children did not match up with their school’s.

These changes in education and union policy are good — for parents, for teachers, and for students. Research, such as the work performed by Caroline Hoxby of Stanford University and Katharine O. Strunk of Michigan State University, has found that the presence of unions does not lead to better educational outcomes in schools. And, as we’ve seen with recent strikes in Chicago and Los Angeles — two of the largest districts in the country — unions often lead to disruptions in the lives of children and parents. Unsurprisingly, unions also tend to fight against school choice.

There’s one key reason why states rarely pull back or eliminate choice in education: a built-in constituency has arrived. Millions of people are now taking advantage of these policies, whether they are families exercising school choice or teachers choosing to forgo union membership. Let’s hope more follow their example.

Jarrett Skorup is vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

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