Why are Oakland’s kids still not in school? Striking teachers say it’s for the ‘common good’

With just 13 days left in the school year, most Oakland classrooms remained empty Monday as striking teachers walked the picket line for a third day — but the impasse is no longer focused on money or benefits.

Instead, the Oakland Unified School District and the teachers’ union, the Oakland Education Association, are locked in a dispute over the teachers’ so-called “common good” demands, which seek to address racial equity, homelessness and environmental justice for students across the city.

The demands — which include using closed school sites to house homeless students and creating a committee to coordinate reparations for Black students — are not issues that historically have kept children out of the classroom.

Now, the dispute is even dividing the six members of the Oakland Unified school board itself: On Monday morning, board members Valarie Bachelor, VanCedric Williams, and Jennifer Brouhard urged the rest of the board to allow the district’s bargaining team to put the common good proposals on the table.

The proposals coming out of Oakland are more expansive than many labor experts have seen in the past. But they’re part of a growing trend, said Bradley Marianno, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Nevada.

“Since 2012, there’s been a rise in progressive leadership within teachers’ unions, starting in Chicago and then expanding to other areas,” said Marianno. “These progressive caucuses have sought to expand the scope of bargaining beyond just the traditional bread-and-butter items to those that touch on community and student needs, coupled with labor needs.”

Of all the union’s demands, the school-board allies are pushing hardest for one more directly related to education: a new shared-governance model that would allow parents and teachers at each individual campus to hold decision-making power rivaling that of the principal’s office.

Such a policy, they argue, could only be effective if folded into the teachers’ binding labor terms rather than adopted by the voter-elected board as a districtwide initiative.

“What we’ve seen over and over again is (that) when we do a top-down approach, as the district has, the resources are squandered,” Williams said at a news conference Monday. “This is a great opportunity to really share the decision-making capabilities to support our young folks.”

Earlier this year, the West Contra Costa County teachers’ union was successful in pushing for something similar — a committee of parents, teachers, school staff, students and others who are involved in the decisions behind grant spending for community schools, a model of education that incorporates additional services for students, families and community members.

“These common-good proposals are really fascinating, because they’re turning into a movement for teachers to advocate for public issues,” said John Zabala, the president of the teachers’ union representing West Contra Costa County. “The working conditions of educators are the learning conditions of students. These things are intricately tied together.”

The state of California has earmarked $4.1 billion for community schools in the coming years. Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, the vice president of the Oakland Education Association, said Oakland Unified has received $84 million in community school grants over the last few years, money that is meant to be spent, in part, on shared decision-making at school sites.

“It is preposterous to say that the district cannot afford shared governance when it doesn’t cost them a dime,” Taiz-Rancifer said. “They just don’t want to give up power.”

Still, Dr. Katharine Strunk, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, said such proposals are not that simple.

“These educators are the experts,” Strunk said. “We wouldn’t necessarily want a community board dictating what hospitals spend their money on, because I don’t know what goes into providing first in class care to all the different populations a hospital serves. I trust the hospital administration and doctors to do that.”

By filing a claim of unfair labor practice, the union was able to skip the usual steps that precede a decision to go on strike. The union said they’ve been battling to be heard for the last eight months, and that the district has repeatedly failed to come to the table. They also accused the district’s negotiating team of dragging its feet to acknowledge several key common-good demands, ultimately refusing to discuss them without further authorization.

But Mike Hutchinson, the board president, has little patience for that narrative, insisting that several proposals – such as shared governance, reparations and housing for students – have already been the subject of board discussions and could be established anyway. In a news conference Monday afternoon, he also said the district would only negotiate on items related to pay and working conditions. The two sides seem to have aligned on compensation: the district’s latest proposal included a 10% retroactive raise for OEA members, a one-time bonus of $5,000 and salary bumps ranging from 13% to 22% going into next school year.

“We want the same things, but the difference is the teachers’ union wants to be in charge,” he said in an interview, noting that there are five other employee unions at Oakland Unified. The union, he said, “doesn’t serve the common good – they serve their members.”

As of Monday afternoon, there was still no word on whether school would be opened by Tuesday. But Bachelor warned there could be more conflict to come if a resolution isn’t reached.

“I hope that we don’t have to escalate this,” Bachelor said.