The organization said it has a strict policy on inappropriate content and called the lesson "unacceptable, inappropriate, and antithetical" to its values. Schools have faced serious backlash over the years for similar assignments on slavery. Another teacher on Long Island, New York, asked students to "write something funny" about pictures of slavery that same year. And last year a Tennessee school district dismissed a student-teacher for asking fourth grade students to recite graphic, violent methods to control slaves during a Black History Month assignment.
Currently, in non-right-to-work states that allow collective bargaining for public employees, all workers covered by a union contract must pay dues. That would cut into the unions' budgets and reduce their power, which could lead to the same weakening of pay and benefits that Wisconsin's teachers have experienced. But unions in other states have seen this coming for a long time.
The unions weathered a similar case that deadlocked last year after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and they have since taken steps to build confidence among their membership so they will keep paying dues even if it's no longer required. Related: Why the world isn't getting a pay raise.
In the years since Act 10 passed, Brey said her union has adapted by becoming more active on the local level, and offering more training and other services to make membership more appealing for teachers.
Meanwhile, Pigorsch is considering where to look for a job after she earns her certificate in January. Many of her peers, she said, have been warned off by older teachers who've become cynical about the changes to Wisconsin schools. She wants to stay and try to improve things in Wisconsin, but better pay and stronger representation are just across the St. After Act 10 passed in , Wisconsin was slow to rebuild its teacher workforce, but it has happened over time.
Today, Wisconsin is back to about where it was in Meanwhile, K student enrollment has fallen by about 0. This surge may have led people to believe this was a new normal, but in subsequent years the number of workers retiring each year has returned back in line with its prior baseline. Contrary to what we might expect, this mass exodus of veteran teachers did not seem to harm student achievement.
This is c onsistent with evidence from the retirement world, where early retirement programs that induce many veteran teachers to retire have not led to declines in student performance. In fact, the teacher workforce in Wisconsin today looks pretty similar to what it looked like in the past. Since Act 10 passed in , the average age of Wisconsin teachers has dropped from Average salaries show a similar trend.
The graph below is in nominal dollars, so it presents a slightly rosier picture than what Wisconsin teachers might be feeling. In inflation-adjusted terms, Wisconsin teacher salaries are lower today than they were in previous decades. But you could have said the same thing at the end of , before Act 10 passed. In real terms, average teacher salaries in Wisconsin were much higher in the late s.
Act 10 had nothing to do with this long-term decline. The slide in average teacher salaries is also not unique to Wisconsin. Research from our organization and others found that COVID played little role in school reopening decisions — what mattered was whether there was a strong union in the area. The teacher shortage is a national problem , covering states across the political spectrum. According to data from the Department of Education tabulated by the Center for American Progress , almost all states have experienced significant declines in the number of students entering teacher preparation programs.
States such as Illinois and New York, where little union reform is possible, have seen larger declines than Wisconsin. Act 10, in many ways, has benefited education. Perhaps relatedly, implementation of Act 10 was found to be associated with increased math proficiency. All of this came with little change to student-teacher ratios and a decline in average teacher experience levels of less than a single year. Wisconsin will continue to prosper because of Act 10 and right-to-work — and other states with similar laws will too.
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