Like NJ, States With Powerful Teachers Unions Have Weaker Student Recovery from the Pandemic, Yet They Spend 70% More on Education

The data shows that students in states with powerful teachers unions have underperformed those in states with weaker ones in recovering from pandemic-related learning loss. That is true for both the absolute level of student achievement in 2022 and the change from 2019 to 2022. States like Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas have all outperformed New Jersey — as well as Connecticut, Minnesota, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington. This makes sense given that states with powerful teachers unions stayed closed for longer during the pandemic and students suffered greater learning loss. But what is particularly striking is that the states with powerful teachers unions spent over 70% more per pupil to get these lesser academic results. That’s a very poor “education bang for the taxpayer buck” — where the students and taxpayers lose and the teachers unions win — just like New Jersey.

Teachers union strength. We used the Fordham Institute’s ranking of teachers union strength, which considered membership, resources, and political power. We looked at the top 15 and bottom 15 states to provide a comparison between states with the most and least powerful teachers unions. New Jersey was ranked 4th.

Post-pandemic student achievement. We used the Urban Institute’s study of demographically-adjusted student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP — “the nation’s report card”) from 2019 to 2022. Importantly, the study accounts for demographic differences among students. A rich state like New Jersey does very well when using unadjusted NAEP scores because we have a lot of high-performing, wealthier students who mask the underperformance of our less-wealthy students. Poorer states like Mississippi, which have a higher proportion of poorer students, cannot do that. The Urban Institute compares like-students with like-students and in that way measures how well a state educates all of its students.

To provide adequate measurement, we looked at both the absolute level of demographically-adjusted NAEP scores by taking the average of a state’s 4th- and 8th-grade math and reading scores for 2022. We also looked at the recovery from pandemic-related learning loss as measured by the change in NAEP scores from 2019 to 2022.

Per pupil spending. We then looked at each ranked state’s per pupil spending to measure the “education bang for the taxpayer buck,” using the US Census Bureau data for FY2023.

States with powerful teachers unions underperformed. As seen in the table below, in aggregate, the top 15 union states averaged a 243.3 NAEP score, which was -6.1 points lower than the 2019 aggregate average. In terms of rankings among the 50 states, the top 15 states averaged 26th for absolute NAEP score and 28th for the recovery from pandemic-related learning loss — both below the national median (25th). This makes sense given that states with powerful unions tended to keep schools closed for in-person learning for longer (see, e.g., this Brookings report) and the students suffered more learning loss as a result. Note New Jersey’s extremely poor performance for the change in NAEP scores from 2019 to 2022: 42nd out of 50. Gov. Murphy has a lot to answer for.

States with weaker teachers unions outperformed. The table below captures the performance of the 15 states with the least-powerful unions. In aggregate, those states averaged a NAEP score of 245.2 in 2022, a change of -4.2 points from 2019. These 15 states ranked an average of 21st in absolute NAEP scores and the change from 2019, both above the national median.

More powerful teachers unions mean lower performance. Comparing the two tables, we see that the 15 states with more powerful teachers unions underperformed the 15 states with weaker unions both in absolute terms (NAEP scores of 243.3 vs. 245.2, respectively) and in learning recovery (change of -6.1 vs. -4.2, respectively). Note the remarkable performance of poorer states like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas look pretty good, too.

At a 70% higher cost. But what is so striking about these academic results is the attendant per pupil spending by the states. The 15 states with the most powerful unions averaged $21,447 per pupil against $12,584 for the 15 states with the least powerful unions. In other words, the big-union states spent over 70% more per pupil — and New Jersey spent more than twice as much — for poorer academic results. The students and taxpayers lose and the teachers unions win.

That’s a very poor “education bang for the taxpayer buck,” which turns out to be a fitting description of states with powerful teachers unions — just like New Jersey.