OPINION:
Virginia’s public schools face mounting pressures from declining K-12 enrollment, stagnant or falling student achievement and persistent budget strains.
Yet the General Assembly is preparing to consider legislation that would expand or mandate collective bargaining rights for public employees, including teachers. This move could shift power away from locally elected school boards and toward union hierarchies, exacerbating rather than resolving these challenges.
Good teachers deserve competitive pay, and nimble resource allocation is essential to address hard-to-fill positions or urgent student needs. Taxpayers expect their dollars to reach classrooms directly.
Collective bargaining agreements, however, introduce rigid structures that often undermine these priorities. They impose fixed timelines, mandatory negotiation processes and additional administrative burdens — including attorney fees, expanded human resources staff and compliance requirements — that divert funds from instruction.
Without an independent taxing authority, school districts draw from an already limited well, forcing trade-offs that hit students and front-line educators hardest.
Fairfax County Public Schools offers a stark example. Pre-COVID-19, the district enjoyed healthy surpluses. Even with federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund assistance during the pandemic emergency, recovery proved elusive.
Then came its first major collective bargaining agreements under the 2021-enabled framework. Promised raises and other commitments added significant costs.
Facing chronic shortfalls, exacerbated by enrollment declines, the county provided less funding than requested, forcing Fairfax County Public Schools to trim raises, cut positions, increase classroom sizes and reduce services.
The result? Budget deficits persist, administrative overhead grows and flexibility shrinks, all while student writing scores have continued to slide.
Richmond Public Schools tells a similar story. With 66% of students falling below Virginia Department of Education expectations, the district grapples with poor outcomes and massive funding gaps.
After approving collective bargaining agreements, including teacher raises, the City Council denied full funding requests for fiscal year 2026, leaving a roughly $20 million shortfall.
To balance the budget, Richmond Public Schools implemented millions of dollars in cuts. It eliminated long-standing vacancies, increased class sizes through layoffs and canceled summer school, a critical intervention for struggling students.
Rather than bolstering support where needed most, resources are being redirected to meet inflexible union commitments.
Smaller districts echo the pattern. Alexandria City Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools and Falls Church City Schools, all plagued with declining enrollment and tight budgets, face growing union-driven pressures.
Collective bargaining adds layers of mandated costs at a time when per-pupil funding is squeezed and demographic trends show no quick rebound.
School boards, accountable to voters, lose direct responsiveness. They become intermediaries caught between union demands and limited local revenue.
When counties or cities can’t fully fund agreements, cuts fall not on union leadership or those to which they grant preferential terms, but on classrooms, programs and teachers outside the union’s good graces.
The proposed legislation threatens to accelerate this shift statewide, potentially removing local discretion and forcing collective bargaining agreements even where districts lack capacity.
In an era of shrinking student populations and fiscal restraint, Virginia needs empowered school boards, elected by communities, to prioritize students, adapt quickly and ensure taxpayer dollars serve education first.
Mandating or expanding rigid bargaining frameworks risks entrenching bureaucracy over innovation, hierarchy over merit and special interests over the public good.
The pattern is clear across Virginia’s districts: Collective bargaining mandates don’t strengthen public education. They strain it.
Lawmakers should reject these proposals and preserve the local control that lets school boards prioritize classrooms over compliance and students over bureaucratic and union demands.
• Cortney Salt is director of employer engagement for the Freedom Foundation.
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