Public school teacher strikes in the US have been a hot topic in recent years, with educators taking a stand for better working conditions and higher pay. These strikes have garnered significant media attention and sparked public debate, but their effectiveness and impact on students have been subjects of much speculation.
One of the main challenges in studying teacher strikes has been the lack of centralized data for researchers to analyze. The Bureau of Labor Statistics used to track all strikes and work stoppages across the country, but since its budget cuts in the 1980s, only strikes involving more than 1,000 employees have been documented. This leaves out the majority of teacher strikes, as 97 percent of US school districts employ fewer than 1,000 teachers.
However, a recent study by researchers Melissa Arnold Lyon, Matthew Kraft, and Matthew Steinberg has compiled a comprehensive data set covering 772 teacher strikes across 610 school districts in 27 states between 2007-2023. This data set provides the first credible estimates of the effects of US teacher strikes, shedding light on their causes and consequences.
The study found that teacher strikes lead to significant wage increases on average, regardless of their length. While teacher strikes in the US are not common, the researchers discovered that they are effective in delivering gains for workers. On average, strikes caused compensation to increase by 3 percent (or $2,000 per teacher) one year after the strike, reaching 8 percent (or $10,000 per teacher) five years out. Additionally, more than half of strikes also called for improved working conditions, such as lower class sizes and increased spending on school facilities and non-instructional staff, which were also achieved.
Interestingly, the study found no relationship between the length of a strike and its impact on teacher salary. Even short strikes were found to be just as effective as longer ones in securing wage increases for teachers. This suggests that teacher strikes can be a powerful negotiating tactic due to the attention they attract from the public and the media.
Contrary to previous research in other countries, the study found that US teacher strikes did not harm students academically. While longer strikes negatively affected math achievement in the year of the strike and the year after, scores rebounded for students after that. In fact, the researchers could not rule out the possibility that brief teacher strikes actually boosted student learning over time, given the increased school spending associated with them.
The study also revealed that teacher strikes were more common in conservative, labor-unfriendly states, where large-scale coordinated strikes across districts were more prevalent. Despite laws in many states that ban or prohibit teacher strikes, educators have continued to organize labor stoppages to advocate for better working conditions and higher pay.
Overall, the findings of this study suggest that teacher strikes remain a potent tool for educators to improve their working conditions and compensation. The public support for teacher unions and the right to strike has been on the rise, indicating that educators may continue to use this tactic in the future to advocate for change.