Oakland teachers union strike puts students last
Dear John,
Oakland's teachers union is at it again. About 3,000 teachers in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) are on strike this week — the third teacher strike in just over a year in a district where students suffering from deep learning deficits can’t afford to lose more classroom time.
Classes were canceled for the 34,000 students in the district for two days this week. The Oakland Education Association (OEA) launched the strike as students are preparing for final exams and with just three weeks remaining before summer break.
That’s no surprise because teachers unions always plan strikes when they will be the most disruptive to students and families.
Of course, salary negotiations can effectively take place without shutting down schools and hurting students, but the teachers unions' strategy depends on using students as pawns in collective bargaining negotiations.
“We’ve seen this pattern,” Lakisha Young, founder and CEO of the parent group The Oakland Reach told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Every time it’s time to negotiate, there’s always a strike. We’ve become indoctrinated into this behavior like it’s OK.”
"You can support teachers without supporting kids’ learning being disrupted,” Young said. “Don’t use our kids as a bargaining chip.”
Under the latest OUSD proposal, the district has offered OEA members a 13% to 22% raise, along with a one-time bonus and back pay.
So what’s the union’s beef?
Beyond compensation, union leaders are demanding district action on "common good" issues, which include "a long list of demands not usually part of negotiations such as housing for homeless children, reparations for Black students, and the kinds of trees used in landscaping," the Chronicle reports.
“It’s not compensation anymore," Young explained via social media. "So are our kids out of school because of drought-tolerant shrubbery?... Are our kids out of school — hurting Black and brown kids the most — in the name of… reparations and racial justice?! Does anyone else see the irony here?”
Of course, none of the bargaining discussions tie teacher raises to student performance in OUSD, where student achievement scores for Hispanic and African American students are alarming:
- Less than two in ten (19.8 percent) of OUSD’s African American students meet California’s English Language Arts (ELA) standards and only about one in ten (10.7 percent) meet grade-level math standards.
- Less than a quarter (24.8 percent) of OUSD’s Hispanic students meet state ELA standards and only 14.5 percent meet grade-level math standards.
OEA demands more pay despite such abysmal student performance scores and shrinking enrollment. According to California Department of Education enrollment data, OUSD has lost 3,847 students since the 2019-20 school year, a decline of a significant 7.8 percent.
OEA has not announced an end date for the strike. The last day of school in the district is scheduled for May 25.
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