In the Spring 2019 issue of Education Next, Martin West wrote that strikes in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Denver "may presage a new era of conflict."

Debate is focused on a pay-for-performance program but benefit costs loom in the background.

Every California teacher could see an immediate pay boost of $10,250 per year, if not for the state's massive pension debt. Yet the Los Angeles teacher strike deal kicks the can on that crucial issue.

As the teachers strike in Los Angeles drags on, there has been no shortage of media coverage. How fair has it been?

From 2001 to 2016, the Los Angeles Unified School District increased overall spending by 55.5 percent, but employee benefit costs soared 138 percent.

As teachers in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) prepare to go out on strike this Thursday, Chad Aldelman calls attention to the district's big increase in spending on employee benefits. He notes that one reason benefit costs are so high in LAUSD is that the district has offered generous health care benefits to retired teachers.

There's a win-win solution to teacher compensation. But it requires a willingness to rethink how teachers are paid and how school dollars are spent.

Nat Malkus is a resident scholar in education policy at AEI.

NPR's Anya Kamenetz and Cory Turner consider what the Janus ruling will mean for teachers uions in an article that draws on research by Bradley D. Marianno and Katharine O. Strunk that was published recently in Education Next.

Only 25% of the public favor collecting union dues from non-members.