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Jenna Vandenberg's avatar

As someone who has taught in Las Vegas, Denver, and (now) Washington state, this really hits home! The only thing I’d add is the role of teacher’s unions in each state. I wonder if states with large unions that practice the right to strike have better teacher pay and/or student outcomes.

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Chad Aldeman's avatar

Good question! There's a lot of work out there about union power, but perhaps my favorite is this article from 2018 showing that unions often *came after* a state had already decided to increase education investments. Aka, the two things happened in tandem rather than one thing (unions) necessarily causing the other: https://www.agustinapaglayan.com/_files/ugd/a763a0_3703edea889f4b19bd0686a293369b28.pdf

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