Our children are failed by an education system that doesn’t care — and teacher unions are to blame

August 9, 2026 - 02:47

New York pours more taxpayer dollars into its public schools than any other state in the country. Per student, the spending is unmatched. Yet the results tell a different story. Test scores have flatlined, achievement gaps have widened, and too many children leave high school without basic reading or math skills. The question is no longer about funding. It is about what that funding is actually buying.

The answer, for many families, is a system that protects adults over students. Teacher unions have become the most powerful force in education policy, and their priorities rarely align with what children need. They fight for tenure rules that make it nearly impossible to remove ineffective teachers. They resist any form of performance-based pay, arguing that it is unfair, while ignoring the fact that students are the ones who pay the price. They oppose charter schools and other alternatives that offer parents a way out, because choice threatens their monopoly.

When schools fail, the union response is always the same: ask for more money. But New York already spends over thirty thousand dollars per student in many districts. That is more than the cost of a private school education in most parts of the country. And what do families get for it? Bureaucracy, administrative bloat, and a curriculum that often prioritizes ideology over fundamentals.

The real tragedy is that the children who suffer most are the ones with the least political power. Wealthy families can move to better districts or pay for private tutors. Poor families are stuck. They are told to be patient, to trust the system, to wait for reform that never comes. Meanwhile, union leaders sit in comfortable offices, negotiating contracts that protect their members but do nothing to help a struggling third grader learn to read.

It does not have to be this way. Other states and countries have shown that accountability and flexibility work. But as long as unions control the conversation, nothing will change. The money will keep flowing, the excuses will keep coming, and the children will keep falling behind. That is not a funding problem. It is a failure of leadership, and it is a choice.