Powerful teachers' unions share striking link with states struggling to teach kids to read

States with stronger teachers' unions tend to have weaker literacy performance and have adopted fewer of the policies credited with improving reading outcomes, according to a new analysis from a center-left think tank.

Eight of the ten states to score among the worst in the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) assessment of early-literacy policies were home to powerful teachers' unions. Among the top 60% of states in terms of early-literacy policy scores, only four had strong teachers' unions.

Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Indiana, all Republican leaning states with weak unions, were among the states with the best literacy outcomes. Maine, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington and Rhode Island, blue states, were among the worst.

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks during a rally outside of the US Department of Education headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 13, 2025. President Donald Trump was sued by a group of mostly Democratic-led states over his alleged plan to effectively dismantle the US Education Department by slashing its workforce in half. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The pattern isn't universal. Maryland, a blue state with a strong teachers' union, has posted strong reading results, while South Dakota, a red state with a weaker union, has struggled. The differences suggest union strength and party control alone don't explain states' reading performance.

Rachel Canter, PPI’s director of education policy, conducted the analysis with colleagues by comparing teacher-union strength rankings with states’ early-literacy policy scores. Canter is also one of the people behind the slate of educational reforms in Mississippi that propelled the state from among the worst in the country for educational outcomes to among the best.

"Democrats, however, don’t often ask me how to replicate Mississippi’s success," Canter said. "They ask if it’s possible at all, given the power of teachers’ unions in their home states."

Teachers' unions, according to Canter, exert massive amounts of influence over both educational policies and how those policies are implemented in the classroom. This can make schools in states with stronger unions slower to adapt to challenges or to adopt new, better methods.

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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks during the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Aug. 22, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Mississippi’s reforms, among other things, added kindergarten-through-third-grade screenings, literacy coaches, individual reading plans and held back third graders who failed the state reading test. The state reinforced those measures with science-based reading instruction, increased teacher training and tougher licensing requirements.

Tweaks to teaching like these can be difficult to achieve in states with influential teachers' unions, with labor reps arguing that the changes place undue burdens on educators.

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Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter speaks at a rally outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters, Feb. 26, 2026. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Many of the states that underperformed in the Progressive Policy Institute’s study also have Democratic leadership. Teachers’ unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars every electoral cycle on electing Democrats and pushing left-of-center policies.

"States dominated by Democrats have been slower to embrace similar reforms," Canter said. "Organized labor might explain some of this gap."

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Multiple GOP-led Southern states have adopted educational reforms similar to those introduced in Mississippi. Those same states dominated the Progressive Policy Institute’s rankings of the states with the best student literacy.