This chapter documents the reasons for the diminished number of teacher strikes in the US since 1981. It also argues that while teacher strikes have declined, the two national teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have become major political targets of Republicans and even some Democrats. The chapter offers the book’s conclusion: that struggles over public education were fundamental in the demise of labor liberalism and the rise of neoliberalism. It also chronicles how continued market reforms have undercut public education in the years after the 1980s and asks what can be done to revitalize social democracy in the US.
