For the first time in 47 years, teachers are going on strike in a city that routinely ranks among the world’s most expensive: San Francisco.
The city’s more than 100 public schools are closed after the teachers union and the school district — home to about 50,000 students — could not reach an agreement on proposals involving pay, benefits and special education.
Throughout the country, teachers earn less than comparably educated professionals, a disparity that experts have widely blamed on the gender pay gap since teaching is historically a woman-dominated or “pink-collar” profession. But in the San Francisco Bay Area — the epicenter of the global tech boom that has revolutionized society, skyrocketed the salaries of its innovators and driven up the cost of living in Northern California — teachers have particularly felt the impact of pay disparities.
In a region where even earning a six-figure income may not be enough to make ends meet, the salary for a new credentialed teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is roughly $80,000. But in San Francisco County, the median income is $186,000, with a median income of $109,700 for a one-person household considered low income.
An estimated 67 percent of San Francisco’s teachers are women. Their pay is considerably lower than that of teachers in nearby Mountain View, home to Google, and Palo Alto, home to HP (formerly Hewlett-Packard). Their modest salaries have led to San Francisco teachers commuting an hour or more because they can’t afford housing in the city. San Francisco officials have greenlit the opening of new affordable housing units with teachers prioritized as tenants.
For years, United Educators of San Francisco, the teachers union of more than 6,500 members, has demanded higher pay. Standing on the steps of Mission High School in San Francisco’s historic Mission District, teachers union President Cassondra Curiel on Monday explained the reasons for the strike.
“It has taken over 10 months of sounding this alarm, negotiating, asking nicely and hearing unfulfilled promises to get to this point; we are still being promised one thing and offered another,” Curiel said. “That’s the truth of today.”
She said the union, which represents nurses, librarians, paraeducators, speech pathologists and more, will stand together until their members get the contracts they deserve.
“Our students deserve schools filled with trusted adults who can stay where they can find access to housing when their family experiences a crisis and fully staffed special education programs designed to meet their needs,” Curiel said. “Our educators deserve workloads that allow them to give their students the best, fully funded family health care and wages that keep up with rising costs.”
The teachers are scheduled to picket at Civic Center Plaza at 1 p.m. local time. In the meantime, members of other unions marched, chanted and drummed outside of the SFUSD headquarters in solidarity — holding signs stating: “Public school employee working conditions are student learning conditions” and “We can’t wait for the future our students deserve.”
Maria Su, the superintendent of San Francisco Unified, said in a recorded statement that she did not want a strike period, let alone a prolonged one.
“We are at the table, and we urge UESF to continue the conversation with us,” Su said. “We need to finish this conversation so that our students can stay in the classroom where they belong.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes most of San Francisco, are among the local leaders who urged the teachers not to strike and to continue negotiating.
The city is providing free breakfast and lunch to students at multiple locations throughout San Francisco during the first days of the strike and is prepared to do so for an extended period. Temporary child care is also available for strike-impacted children 5 and younger.
The San Francisco teachers strike comes during a period when big city teachers unions across the country have authorized walkouts. Earlier this month, United Teachers Los Angeles, representing educators in the nation’s second largest school district, authorized a strike amid contract negotiations. Last fall, Minneapolis teachers authorized a strike but reached a deal before walking out was necessary. In August, Philadelphia teachers authorized a strike ahead of the school year but ultimately came to an agreement with their school district as well. And over the past four years, teachers and other personnel in school districts including Columbus, Minneapolis and Seattle; and Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento, in California, have gone on strikes.
Negotiations between the San Francisco teachers and the district are slated to continue Monday.
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