MAE is a wholly different beast than teacher's unions in most states. Mississippi does not require teachers to join the union, thus the union needs to compete t

MAE is a wholly different beast than teacher's unions in most states. Mississippi does not require teachers to join the union, thus the union needs to compete to attract teachers. Thus, it is incentivized to actually do stuff. Usually, when people say teacher's unions (or at least when I refer to them), I refer to the set up in the most populated states like CA, NY, IL, etc, where it is a requirement for teachers to join the union, regardless of what they think of the union. I'm fine with employees banding together. What CA and other states do (require teachers to pay dues to the union) is criminal. Basically, the strength of the union correlates with educational outcomes: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/how-strong-are-us-teacher-unions-state-state-comparison https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/how-strong-ar... As of 2006 (a bit dated), only 36% of MS teachers were in the union.