Where We Agree This Labor Day: It’s Time to Unlock Conditions for Modern Classrooms

As we celebrate Labor Day, a time to reflect on and honor the contributions of American workers and the ongoing pursuit of equitable, fair, healthy, and compassionate workplace conditions, it’s also important to recognize how far the labor movement has brought us. However, we must also acknowledge how much further we still have to go—especially in the teaching profession.

Labor Day was born out of struggle—a response to the harsh realities faced by American workers in the late 19th century. It recognized that our nation’s prosperity was built on the backs of those who toiled in factories, on railroads, and in the fields. In subsequent decades, the labor movement has expanded across a wide range of industries, making significant strides in improving working conditions, securing fair wages, and ensuring that workers in both the private and public sectors have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

But the labor movement’s work is far from finished. And for educators, whose frustration and pessimism about the profession’s future are at an all-time high, taking decisive action has never been more urgent.  

The collective bargaining process—a cornerstone of labor rights—holds untapped potential to unlock the innovative changes our educators want and our classrooms desperately need. At E4E, we believe that teachers, who intimately understand the unique challenges of their classrooms better than anyone else, should be at the forefront of these efforts.

Yet, too often, the contracts that govern teachers’ working conditions and students’ learning environments are seen as static, immutable, locked-down documents. Our recent research has shown, however, that contracts can be powerful levers for dramatic change when unions, teachers, district leaders, and policymakers come together with a shared vision of contracts for modern classrooms, fostering conditions that build a sustainable, dynamic, and rewarding profession ready to take on the needs of not only today, but tomorrow.  

Where We Agree showcases how innovative contract provisions have led to real, meaningful change in districts across the country. Whether it’s focusing on pathways for differentiated compensation models and career ladders that expand the impact of highly effective educators, increasing professional learning opportunities that magnify the power of teacher leadership, or instituting more effective layoff policies to retain our most high-quality, diverse talent, the potential of contracts to transform our schools begins with focusing on what we can agree on: our world is rapidly changing, and we must adapt our classrooms to meet the moment.

To illuminate the real-world impact of teachers’ contracts, we’re inviting educators across the country to join us for a Where We Agree series of events, where we will dig in deeper on some of the top issues teachers have clamored for change around–and where contracts have delivered on that change. 

For our first event on September 24, Where We Agree: Pathways for Increasing Teacher Pay, we want to honor the tenants of Labor Day by focusing first on the issue of differentiated compensation, sharing examples from district and union leaders, as well as teachers, about how the collective bargaining process resulted in successful compensation models in their schools. In an environment where districts have had to do more with less, making smarter decisions with their funding, there is no better time to inspire teachers to see their contracts not as constraints, but as tools for making their profession more rewarding, dynamic, and sustainable and creating the schools their students deserve.

This Labor Day I want to both honor the past achievements of the labor movement and look forward—to envision a future where the teaching profession is as respected, supported, and empowered as any other. The next phase of the labor movement needs to go beyond fair pay and better working conditions to create an environment where educators and students can thrive in modern classrooms. That begins with focusing on Where We Agree.

Evan Stone

Evan Stone is the Co-Founder and CEO of Educators for Excellence.