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California is facing the prospect of massive teacher strikes across the state as conflicts over working conditions, pay and special education staffing reach a boiling point.
The strikes, which could begin as soon as next week, have been approved by thousands of educators – affecting schools in some of the state’s largest districts including San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.
In San Francisco, 97.6% of teachers voted in favor of a strike, setting the stage for the first such action in the city in nearly 50 years. Teachers in Los Angeles, where the LA unified school district is considering layoffs to address its budget woes, authorized their union to move ahead with a strike. Meanwhile, San Diego educators are preparing for their first walkout in 30 years, while some five unions around Sacramento have said they are ready to strike if necessary.
The development comes just one year after the California Teachers Association, which represents 310,000 of the state’s educators, kicked off the We Can’t Wait campaign uniting 32 districts across the state for demanding better wages, smaller class sizes and more student resources.
“It’s unacceptable that in the ‘Golden State,’ with its vast wealth and resources, our communities struggle with fully staffing our neighborhood schools,” David Goldberg, the California Teachers Association president, said in a statement announcing the effort last year.
“This is why educators are coordinating to take a stand statewide. Together with parents, students and our communities, we demand that districts prioritize resources for our students and ensure California leads the country in providing a quality public education for every student.”
Last year’s announcement cited a report with troubling stats about education in the state, including that 84% of teachers surveyed said they couldn’t afford to live near their workplaces, 81% said their salaries weren’t keeping up with the cost of living and four out of 10 educators were considering leaving the profession.
Every school district on the verge of striking in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego is a part of the We Can’t Wait collective bargaining campaign.
San Francisco educators could start striking as soon as next week after more than 5,200 members of the United Educators of San Francisco voted to authorize union leadership to call for a strike. The union and the school district have been bargaining for nearly a year and both parties await the results of a fact-finding report this week before UESF can move ahead with a walkout, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“What comes next is ultimately up to the district and their actions, but San Francisco educators are making it clear that we are more than willing to do everything we can for our community,” the UESF said.
Educators in San Diego held a rally last week in what the union dubbed as “our last attempt to get the district to stop understaffing special education” ahead of the strike set to begin on 26 February. The San Diego Education Association has said the district has for years violated the special education staffing requirements laid out in their contract, and some 90% of members voted to strike.
The San Diego unified school district has announced schools will be closed the day of the strike.
“We will have an opportunity to put the eyes of the whole city on our fight to stop the special education staffing crisis in our district,” the San Diego Education Association said in a statement.
