Opinion: Not the Time for Labor Strife

As a former AUSD employee of over 30 years, I find it disheartening to see teachers once again donning red, standing on the sidewalk soliciting car honks, and having to threaten to shut the district down in order to get improved compensation for their efforts. Somewhere in my closet I’ve got one of those crimson shirts. What’s most frustrating is that the circumstances that governed school funding when I began teaching back in the late 80’s have not significantly changed.

AUSD teachers earn less than those working in other cities’ schools, but AUSD is also funded at a lower level compared to neighboring districts. If I told you it all goes back to Proposition 13 passed in 1978, you’d think I was nuts.

Every few years the cycle repeats—teachers negotiate for raises and health benefits they absolutely deserve and the schools’ leaders push back saying they cannot meet those demands without risking financial insolvency. During one of those cycles we teachers asked for a 4% raise, the district offered 0%, and after months of labor actions we settled at…wait for it…a 2% raise.

What’s also disappointing is the rhetoric used, frankly, by both sides of the debate. Of course the superintendent is paid more than the top teacher, so using that fact to demonstrate inequity is unnecessarily inflammatory. He’s a good guy doing a hard job during difficult times. The legitimate argument that AUSD has been underfunded for special education is known to all. Hey superintendent, how about mounting an effort to go get the money?

I honestly have never understood the adversarial nature of the relationship between the school board, district leaders, classroom teachers and classified staff. There are no demons here. I know that because I’ve known and still know the folks who wear suits to work, those who wear jeans, those who lecture, and those who work a broom.

I also know this: As this process creeps toward whatever the outcome will be—a last-minute settlement, most likely—it’s hurting parents and kids. It was not long ago that schools opened back up, welcoming children who had been traumatized by the COVID-19 quarantine. Tremendous adjustments had to be made to accommodate the new, additional needs of the young learners. Teachers, equally harmed by trying to deal with their personal lives having been locked down while struggling to teach on camera, performed miracles every day as everyone strived to get back to normal. I imagine all involved only recently got to take a deep breath from all that chaos.

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And now teachers have to wonder: If we go on strike—yes for the greater good, yes for possible better pay and benefits—how will I pay my bills in the meantime? Parental stress from having to consider how they can twist their lives to provide care for their kids if schools close is also a horrible thing. And making students, particularly high school kids, embrace the anxiety of wondering how they can keep taking steps to graduate, to prepare for AP tests, to apply for colleges if things fall apart, is powerfully unfair.

The house of education got knocked over by COVID. It’s only recently been rebuilt, and even then just barely. This is not the time to put the constituents through another disaster. Teachers and administrators, right now I’m taking the side of the parents and kids. Do not prolong this strife any longer. Sit down, lock the door, figure it out, do the best you can for the teachers (they’re the straws that stir the drinks) and then get back to doing the noble work you all do—educating the next generation of citizens.

Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.