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The California Teachers Association is the 6th most powerful state teachers union in the nation, according to a new report from a pair of East Coast nonprofits. California teachers are #1 in terms of scope of bargaining and perceived influence, according to the state profile (PDF here), and #18 and #20 in its level of political involvement and its resource management.

“California has the most union-friendly bargaining laws in the nation,” according to the report.  “The state requires collective bargaining in education, lets its unions automatically deduct agency fees from non-member teachers, and permits teacher strikes. Further, of the twenty-one items examined in this metric, California mandates that eleven are bargained (only Nevada requires more). The remaining ten provisions are implicitly within the scope of bargaining, as state law is silent on them.”

Written by a New York City advocacy group and a Washington DC think tank, the new report ranks state teachers union according to membership, revenues, scope of bargaining, and other measures of influence. While some union officials have mocked the report’s findings, union watchdog Mike Antonucci describes it as extremely useful.