Ninety-nine percent of Connecticut’s teachers are union members, the highest rate in the nation according to a new national study by the Fordham Institute ranking the state’s teachers’ unions as the 17th strongest in the nation.
This report by the conservative policy group also notes that every teacher pays $517 in mandatory union fees each year. One out of every $50 donated to state political parties in Connecticut came from state teachers’ unions, the 14th highest rate in the nation.
The Institute points to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s “partial success” in reforming education as proof of the power the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teachers’ union, enjoys.
“Malloy may have learned a valuable lesson here: It’s important to play nice with the CEA,” the report concludes.
The five states with the strongest unions include Hawaii, Oregon, Montana, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
