I addressed this in another comment. Unlike many states, Mississippi does not require teachers to pay dues to the union (California for example, does). Mississippi has a low rate of teachers union membership as a result (only ~36%). Mississippi has one of the weakest teachers unions in the country.

Because of this, the union has to do what teachers want, rather than vice versa.

I'm speaking from experience with the California Teacher's Association. CA mandates even non-member teachers to pay union dues.

EDIT: Here is an article from the CTA highlighting their efforts to fight phonics-based reading instruction: https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/04/read...

Woohoo! teachers unions!!!

You can disagree with the whole-language reading, but it's a stretch to claim that a union opposing mandates on teachers is not representing what the teachers want.