Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Oakland Teachers Need Cooling Off Period
Politics / Education Robert Gammon — Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 11:33 AM
The Oakland teachers union has decided to postpone its one-day strike for a month because the planned walkout is not legal until a mandated fact-finding report is done, the Trib and Chron report. Let’s hope the union takes the next few weeks to rethink its unreasonable demand for a 15 percent raise at a time when real unemployment in Oakland is above 20 percent and the school board is facing a $36 million budget deficit.
The union’s planned walkout also serves as a reminder of its bullheadedness. The fact that the union has announced its intention to hold a one-day strike even before it knows the results of the fact-finding report shows that it doesn’t care what the report’s results will be. In short, the union apparently could care less if the report confirms that the cash-strapped district simply can’t afford its demands, because at the end of the day, facts don’t matter. For people entrusted with educating our youth, that’s a position that calls for some serious reconsideration.
Comments (2)
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"people entrusted with educating our youth" need to be compensated accordingly. You get what you pay for.
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That seems pretty harsh. Oakland teachers have pretty low salaries relative to other public teachers in the state, and some of the toughest classrooms. Give them a break. They deserve their raise. Keeping the good teachers in Oakland--rather than letting them go to higher-paying, cakier districts--should be a priority.
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