What If Teachers' Unions Were Never Formed?

The Actual History

The history of teachers' unions in the United States dates back to the late 19th century, emerging from the broader labor movement when working conditions for teachers were often challenging and inequitable. Prior to unionization, teachers faced arbitrary dismissals, gender-based pay discrimination, and limited professional autonomy. Female teachers, who represented the majority of the workforce, were particularly vulnerable—often facing requirements to remain unmarried, adhere to strict dress codes, and accept significantly lower wages than male counterparts.

The first formal teachers' organization, the National Education Association (NEA), was established in 1857 as a professional association rather than a union. Initially dominated by administrators and education officials, the NEA operated primarily as a policy and standards organization for much of its early history, avoiding collective bargaining and militant actions.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) formed in 1916 with a more explicit union identity, affiliating with the American Federation of Labor. The AFT emerged from local teacher unions in urban centers, most notably the Chicago Teachers Federation led by Margaret Haley, who championed better working conditions and pay equity. The AFT's early organizing faced significant opposition, with teachers in some districts forced to sign "yellow dog contracts" prohibiting union membership, and female teachers particularly vulnerable to dismissal for organizing activities.

Both organizations underwent transformative changes in the 1960s and 1970s. The NEA evolved from its professional association roots toward true union status, while the AFT gained prominence through successful strikes and collective bargaining victories. A watershed moment came in 1962 when President Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988, granting federal employees the right to collective bargaining. This was followed by state-level legislation throughout the 1960s and 1970s extending similar rights to public sector employees, including teachers.

The 1960s saw pivotal moments in teacher unionism, particularly the 1962 United Federation of Teachers strike in New York City led by Albert Shanker, which established collective bargaining rights and significantly improved working conditions. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, teacher strikes became more common as unions secured contracts addressing not only salaries but also class sizes, preparation time, and grievance procedures.

By the 1980s, the NEA and AFT had become major political forces with influence extending beyond traditional labor issues into broader educational policy. Today, the NEA reports approximately 3 million members, while the AFT claims 1.7 million members. Together, they represent one of the largest organized labor blocks in the United States, wielding significant influence in educational policy debates, political endorsements, and campaign financing.

Over recent decades, teachers' unions have faced increasing challenges, including the growth of charter schools, legal challenges to agency fees (culminating in the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision), and various education reform movements critiquing union protections. Nevertheless, teacher activism has resurged in many states, with prominent walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and other states between 2018-2019 demonstrating continued organizational capacity despite legal limitations on public sector strikes in many states.

Today, teachers' unions remain central institutions in American education, representing a majority of public school teachers and maintaining significant, if contested, influence over educational policy and practice across the nation.

The Point of Divergence

What if teachers' unions were never formed in the United States? In this alternate timeline, we explore a scenario where the development of organized labor within the education sector took a dramatically different path, resulting in the absence of the powerful teacher union movement that has shaped American education for over a century.

This divergence might have occurred through several plausible mechanisms:

First, the early teacher organizations that formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries might have remained firmly committed to a "professional association" model rather than adopting union tactics and structures. The National Education Association, founded in 1857, maintained a professional rather than labor identity for much of its early history. In our timeline, the NEA gradually evolved toward union status in the 1960s-70s, but in this alternate history, it might have resisted this transformation, remaining an organization dominated by administrators and focusing exclusively on professional standards rather than workplace conditions and collective bargaining.

Alternatively, the legal framework that eventually permitted public sector unionization might never have emerged. Without key legal developments—such as President Kennedy's 1962 Executive Order 10988 granting federal employees collective bargaining rights, or the subsequent state-level legislation enabling public sector unionization—teachers might have been permanently excluded from union protections. A more hostile legal environment could have permanently suppressed teacher organizing efforts.

A third possibility involves the critical period of the early 20th century when key figures like Margaret Haley and the Chicago Teachers Federation were laying the groundwork for teacher unionism. More effective opposition from school boards, business interests, and political forces might have extinguished these early organizing efforts before they could gain momentum. If early teacher organizers had been systematically removed from their positions or if "yellow dog contracts" (prohibiting union membership) had been more effectively enforced, the nascent teacher union movement might have been permanently stunted.

The most likely divergence point would be the period between 1900-1920, when the American Federation of Teachers was formed (1916) and began affiliating with the broader labor movement. Had these early organizing efforts been thwarted, or had teachers embraced a different model of professional organization that explicitly rejected collective bargaining and labor tactics, the landscape of American education would have evolved along a dramatically different trajectory.

Immediate Aftermath

Educational Workforce Conditions

Without the unionization of teachers, the immediate impacts on the educational workforce would have been substantial through the mid-20th century:

Persistent Gender-Based Compensation Gaps: The significant wage disparity between male and female teachers would have likely persisted much longer. In our timeline, unions played a crucial role in gradually eliminating explicitly different salary schedules for men and women. Without this pressure, school districts would have maintained gender-based pay discrimination well into the late 20th century.
Absence of Standardized Salary Schedules: The development of step-and-lane salary schedules (compensating teachers based on years of experience and educational attainment) was largely a product of union negotiations. Without unions, teacher compensation would have remained more arbitrary, with individual contracts negotiated without transparency and subject to administrator preferences and biases.
Limited Due Process Protections: Early union contracts established grievance procedures and due process rights that protected teachers from arbitrary dismissal. In their absence, the culture of administrative control characterized by "hire and fire at will" practices would have continued. Teachers would remain vulnerable to dismissal for personal life choices (such as marriage for female teachers), political views, or simply falling out of favor with administrators.
Extended Workday and Duties: Without collective bargaining agreements specifying teaching loads, preparation periods, and duty limitations, teachers would have faced continuously expanding job expectations without corresponding compensation increases. The practice of assigning teachers extensive non-instructional duties (playground supervision, cafeteria monitoring, janitorial tasks) would have persisted without contractual limitations.

Educational Governance and Policy

The absence of teacher unions would have dramatically altered the power dynamics in educational governance during the critical period of educational expansion following World War II:

Administrator-Dominated Decision Making: School administrators and boards would have maintained nearly unchallenged authority over curriculum, teaching methods, and resource allocation. The concept of "shared governance" that emerged in unionized districts would never have developed, leading to more hierarchical administrative structures.
Accelerated Implementation of Efficiency Models: Business-influenced "scientific management" approaches to education would have faced less resistance. The application of industrial efficiency models to education, measuring teacher productivity through standardized metrics and emphasizing cost-effectiveness over professional judgment, would have advanced more rapidly and thoroughly.
Earlier Experimentation with Performance Pay: Merit pay systems and other performance-based compensation models would have been implemented more widely in the 1950s and 1960s, limited only by the administrative capacity to implement them rather than union opposition.
Reduced Teacher Voice in Legislative Affairs: The absence of organized teacher representation would have left educational policymaking more thoroughly dominated by business interests, taxpayer associations, and administrator organizations. The substantial lobbying infrastructure that teachers' unions developed would never have emerged, significantly reducing teacher influence on policy decisions.

Labor Movement Ramifications

The failure of teacher unionization would have had significant ripple effects throughout the broader labor movement:

Weakened Public Sector Unionism Overall: Teachers represent one of the largest segments of the public sector workforce. Without successful teacher organizing, the entire public sector union movement would have been significantly weakened. Other public employees like firefighters, police, and municipal workers might have faced greater challenges in their own organizing efforts without the precedent and alliance of teacher unions.
Altered AFL-CIO Development: The AFT's affiliation with the AFL (and later AFL-CIO) brought a significant white-collar, female-dominated workforce into the mainstream labor movement. Without this integration, the labor movement might have remained more heavily concentrated in male-dominated industrial and craft unions, potentially accelerating its decline as manufacturing contracted.
Different Civil Rights Alliances: Although teacher unions had a complex relationship with civil rights movements, by the 1960s they generally aligned with progressive civil rights positions. Without organized teacher voices in these debates, the alliance between labor and civil rights causes might have developed differently, particularly in northern cities where teachers formed a significant portion of the educated workforce.

The immediate aftermath period (roughly 1920-1970) would have seen an educational system where teachers remained relatively disempowered as professionals, school governance remained more autocratic, and the separation between administration and teaching would have been more pronounced. The educational expansion of this period would have occurred under a different power dynamic, with significantly less teacher input into how schools were structured, resourced, and operated.

Long-term Impact

Educational Compensation and Career Structure

The absence of teachers' unions would have fundamentally altered the professional landscape of teaching through the late 20th century and into the 21st:

Alternative Compensation Models: Without unified salary schedules negotiated by unions, education would likely have adopted more differentiated pay systems decades earlier. By the 1980s, we would have seen widespread implementation of performance-based compensation tied to student outcomes, administrative evaluations, or subject area specialization. Teachers in high-demand STEM fields would command significant premiums, while humanities and elementary education salaries would likely stagnate.
Reduced Retirement Security: The defined-benefit pension systems that became standard for teachers would never have developed the same robustness without union advocacy. Instead, we would likely have seen earlier shifts to defined-contribution plans (similar to 401k programs) by the 1980s, transferring investment risk to individual teachers and reducing retirement security.
Transformed Career Trajectories: The teaching profession would likely have developed a more explicitly tiered structure, with most teachers remaining in the classroom for shorter periods (5-10 years) before either advancing to administration or leaving education entirely. Without union-negotiated longevity incentives, mid-career salary plateaus would have prompted earlier departures from the profession.
Gender Composition Differences: The teaching profession might have experienced more rapid masculinization in certain sectors as market-based compensation models created salary differentials that attracted more men to certain teaching specialties (secondary STEM, school leadership tracks), while elementary education might have remained even more female-dominated and lower-compensated.

Educational Policy Development

Without the institutional counterweight of teachers' unions, educational policy would have evolved along dramatically different trajectories:

Accelerated Market-Based Reforms: The school choice, charter school, and accountability movements that gained momentum in the 1990s would likely have emerged much earlier and advanced more rapidly without union opposition. By the 1990s, we might have seen nationwide voucher programs, extensive charter networks, and potentially even the partial privatization of public education systems in many states.
Earlier Standardization and Testing Regimes: The accountability movement characterized by standardized curriculum and high-stakes testing would have faced less organized resistance. The reforms that emerged in our timeline with "A Nation at Risk" (1983) and later No Child Left Behind (2001) would likely have appeared in more sweeping forms in the 1970s-80s.
Different Technology Integration: The adoption of educational technology would have followed a different trajectory without union-negotiated limitations and working condition protections. Schools would likely have embraced larger class sizes enabled by technology, online learning formats, and automated instructional systems much earlier, with less concern for the employment implications for teachers.
Workforce Flexibility: Without collective bargaining agreements specifying teaching assignments, class sizes, and working conditions, school systems would have implemented much more flexible staffing models. By the 2000s, many districts might employ a majority of teachers on short-term contracts rather than with continuing employment expectations, similar to adjunct faculty models in higher education.

Political Landscape Transformation

The absence of teachers' unions would have profoundly reshaped American politics, particularly for the Democratic Party and progressive coalitions:

Weakened Democratic Party Infrastructure: Teachers' unions provide not just financial support but crucial volunteer networks for Democratic candidates. Without this resource, Democrats would likely have developed greater dependence on corporate donors and professional campaign staff rather than education-based volunteer networks. This might have accelerated the party's shift toward centrist economic positions in the 1980s-90s.
Altered Coalition Politics: Progressive coalitions would have developed differently without teachers as a central organized constituency. Environmental, social justice, and other progressive movements would have lacked the institutional support often provided by teacher organizations, potentially reducing their effectiveness or changing their tactical approaches.
Education Funding Politics: Without unions advocating for increased educational funding, tax limitations and austerity measures affecting education would have faced less organized opposition. The dramatic differences in school funding between wealthy and poor districts might have become even more pronounced, with less political pressure for equalization formulas.
Different Culture War Dynamics: Many educational "culture war" issues—from textbook content to prayer in schools to LGBT+ inclusion—would have played out differently without unions as participants. Conservative movements might have gained more rapid influence over curriculum and school policies without organized teacher resistance, particularly in moderate and conservative regions.

Global Competitiveness and Educational Quality

The long-term impact on educational outcomes and national competitiveness would have been complex:

Knowledge Economy Positioning: American education would likely have developed greater responsiveness to market demands but potentially at the cost of educational equity. The system might excel at producing elite graduates in economically valuable fields while providing more minimal education to disadvantaged populations.
Research and Innovation Effects: Without the job security provided by tenure and union protections, educational innovation might have followed different patterns. Risk-taking in pedagogy might decrease in some areas, while market-responsive innovation (particularly in technologies and methods promising efficiency) would accelerate.
Widening Outcome Disparities: Without collective teacher advocacy for equitable resources, the gap between high-performing and struggling schools would likely widen substantially. By the 2020s, we might see an even more stratified educational system, with premium educational options for those who can access them and minimally resourced education for those who cannot.
Professional Knowledge Development: The infrastructure for sharing professional knowledge among teachers—often supported by union professional development—would have developed differently. In its place, we might see more proprietary approaches to teaching methods, with effective techniques treated as competitive advantages rather than shared professional knowledge.

By 2025 in this alternate timeline, the American educational landscape would be nearly unrecognizable compared to our own. Market principles would dominate educational organization and delivery, teaching would function more as a transitional career than a lifelong profession, and education would more explicitly reflect and potentially reinforce existing social and economic stratification. Whether such a system would produce better or worse overall outcomes remains one of the great counterfactual questions of educational policy—with compelling arguments on both sides.

Expert Opinions

Dr. Richard Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation and author of several books on education policy, offers this perspective: "The absence of teachers' unions would have fundamentally altered the American middle class. Teachers' unions didn't just secure better wages and working conditions for educators—they helped establish teaching as one of the most reliable pathways to middle-class security for college-educated women and people of color when other professions remained largely closed to them. Without this institutional support, I believe teaching would have become a revolving-door profession with minimal job security and highly variable compensation. The ripple effects would extend far beyond education, potentially undermining the development of the female professional middle class that has been crucial to social mobility in the post-war era."

Professor Moe Thyselton, Educational Policy Researcher at Stanford University, presents a contrasting view: "In a world without teachers' unions, American education would likely have embraced innovation and structural reform decades earlier. The absence of collective bargaining constraints would have allowed districts to implement performance-based compensation, remove ineffective teachers more readily, and experiment with alternative staffing models that our international competitors have used successfully. While there would certainly be downsides regarding teacher retention and working conditions, the system would likely have developed much greater responsiveness to both student needs and economic demands. The significant reforms we're currently struggling to implement in our timeline—personalized learning, flexible staffing, competency-based progression—would already be mainstream practices rather than experimental initiatives."

Dr. Janelle Scott, Professor of Education at UC Berkeley, emphasizes historical context: "We cannot separate the rise of teacher unionism from the broader struggles for equality and dignity that characterized 20th century America. Teachers' unions—particularly in urban centers—became vehicles not just for professional concerns but for racial and gender equity. Without these organizational structures, I believe the teaching profession would have remained much more explicitly stratified along racial and gender lines well into the 21st century. School systems would likely maintain the hierarchical structures that were common in the early 20th century, with predominantly white male leadership making decisions for a workforce with limited voice or protection. The democratizing influence of collective bargaining, however imperfect, would be entirely absent from educational governance."