Last fall, the Colorado Education Association boasted that over 80% of the candidates it endorsed statewide won their races. But scratch beneath the surface of that talking point and you’ll find a very different story —  one that reveals not union strength, but growing teacher discontent and a roadmap for educational improvement that doesn’t require collective bargaining agreements.

The real story is unfolding in Colorado Springs, where School District 11 is in its first year without a teachers’ union contract. And the results speak louder than any union press release. 

For years, D-11 struggled. Student performance declined. The district landed on state watch lists — not once but multiple times. Teachers were frustrated, hamstrung by rigid contract provisions that prevented administrators from making necessary changes. It was textbook institutional dysfunction.    

Then the D-11 school board made a decision not to renew its contract with the Colorado Education Association. Union officials predicted disaster. Mass teacher exodus. Educational collapse.

The opposite happened.  

D-11 entered the 2025-26 school year with record low teacher vacancies. For the first time in years, the district was fully staffed at the start of school.

Freed from collective bargaining restrictions, administrators could finally hire the teachers they needed when they needed them.

But it gets better. The district eliminated more than $6.5 million in administrative overhead, bureaucracy that existed primarily to manage union contract compliance, and put that money where it belonged — in teachers’ pockets.

The result was a 10% increase in total compensation for classroom educators.

Without a union contract, D-11 teachers got better pay, administrators got the flexibility to build stronger teams and the district saved millions.

This is what educational freedom looks like.

The union’s response? Radio silence about D-11’s success and loud boasting about school board elections in which its candidates won.

But here’s what CEA won’t tell you: They played in districts where they were already going to win.

That 80% reflects careful candidate selection, not real grassroots support.

Union opt-outs are the true measure of teacher sentiment.

Last year, Colorado saw record numbers of teachers opting out of CEA. Teachers are voting with their feet, choosing professional freedom over union control.

Look at Colorado’s highest-performing schools. Of the 17 districts “accredited with distinction,” less than a third operate under collective bargaining agreements.

Among the top 10 performing districts, only two have union contracts.  

Now flip it around: Of Colorado’s 10 lowest-performing districts, seven are bound by CBAs.

The pattern is unmistakable. Under a third of all Colorado school districts have collective bargaining agreements, and the data suggests they’re outperforming their unionized counterparts.

D-11 parents now have more engaged teachers and schools on the upswing. D-11 teachers have better pay and professional freedom. The only losers are union officials who can no longer siphon dues from unwilling members.

D-11 has shown that educational freedom is possible and it works. It means parents have real choice in their children’s education.

And it means teachers have choice, too — the choice to organize if they want to, or focus solely on their students and their profession.

In D-11, they’re choosing the latter.

Aaron Withe is chief executive officer of the Olympia, Wash.-based Freedom Foundation.