Oakland Teachers’ Union Puts Liberal Agenda Ahead of Members, Students, ParentsBy Freedom Foundation
May 16, 2023
It’s getting so bad nowadays unions don’t even pretend to serve their members anymore.
Case in point: On May 8, the Oakland (Calif.) Education Association (OEA) pulled its 3,000 members out of the classroom, abandoning 34,000 students with only three weeks left before summer vacation was due to start.
The union, which represents not only teachers but also nurses, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and substitutes, originally warned the strike could well continue into next fall, but news broke over the weekend that the impasse may have been broken.
“We are still on strike, but momentum is on our side,” an OEA tweet said on Saturday night.
What makes the episode so telling is that, by most accounts, the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) offer of nearly $70 million in pay raises was never the sticking point.
Rather, the union ordered its members to strike after the district initially scoffed at OEA’s so-called “common good” demands, which included reparations for black students, use of vacant properties to house homeless students and families, subsidized bus transportation for students who receive free or reduced-price lunch and work to secure Section 8 vouchers from Alameda County and the city of Oakland to meet the housing needs of all families and students at OUSD.
School board President Mike Hutchinson said, “While we agree on the principles of the (common good) proposals, they simply do not belong in the contract language.”
Following a weekend bargaining session, however, OEA and the district say they’ve made progress on four of the demands, including housing and transportation, the community schools grant, the Black Thriving Community Schools initiative, and school closures, the Bay Area News Group reported.
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Source:
https://redstate.com/freedom-foundation/2023/05/16/oakland-teachers-union-puts-liberal-agenda-ahead-of-members-students-parents-n746053
