Blue States with Powerful Teachers' Unions Have Far Worse Reading Scores for Students Than Red States with Weak Unions
A new report revealed that blue states with powerful teachers’ unions are underperforming with respect to literacy against Republican states with weaker unions.
The findings from the Progressive Policy Institute revealed that eight of the 10 states with the worst literacy scores were Democrat-run states where teachers’ unions carry sway, according to a report from the New York Post.
Only five of the states were Republican-run, and one was a swing state.
New York state was among the worst performing, as over half of children between third and fifth grade this year failed their reading proficiency tests.
The Empire State is also a political bastion for teachers’ unions.
Meanwhile, 13 of the top 23 performing states were run by Republicans, while only 4 were run by Democrats.
A new analysis from the center-left Progressive Policy Institute found a striking pattern in states’ early-literacy performance.
Eight of the 10 states with the weakest early-literacy policy scores had powerful teachers’ unions. Among the top 60% of states, just four had strong… pic.twitter.com/1seYPPUAm5
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 17, 2026
Only seven of the top 32 states were run by Democrats.
Progressive Policy Institute Director of Education Policy Rachel Canter was an advocate for education reform in Mississippi, where literacy rates have been surging in recent years.
But she said that progressives are slow to adapt — and that unions are often to blame.
“Democrats, however, don’t often ask me how to replicate Mississippi’s success,” Canter described, per the New York Post.
The stronger the teachers unions, the fewer early literacy reforms states have adopted.
Blue states average just 9 of 18 key literacy policies, compared with 13.5 in red and purple states.
Children’s ability to read should come BEFORE union power. pic.twitter.com/mSLhEahRrY
— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) September 14, 2026
“They ask if it’s possible at all, given the power of teachers’ unions in their home states.”
Republican states were more likely to adopt the recommended literacy practices that led to notable improvements in Mississippi, while Democratic states with unions were less likely.
“States dominated by Democrats have been slower to embrace similar reforms,” Canter continued. “Organized labor might explain some of this gap.”
Canter noted that requiring added training for teachers at elementary schools with the worst performance, along with requiring third graders with the lowest literacy scores to repeat the grade, were among the policies that bore fruit.
“We found a strong, negative correlation between the two — the more powerful the unions, the fewer literacy policy principles the state had adopted,” Canter said.
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