Big-city US teachers unions are looking drunk with power — risking one doozy of a hangover as the public realizes how anti-education they’ve become.
Last year, the Chicago Teachers Union won pay hikes above 4% a year for four straight years; the city already spent more than $30,000 per student, but then the CTU got one of its own elected mayor, and Brandon Johnson has stacked the Board of Education to give the union whatever it wants — despite Chicago’s near-$1 billion budget deficit.
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Cali teachers mean to catch up; the arrogant California Teachers Association has been orchestrating strike threats from San Diego to San Francisco.
’Frisco teachers got a 6% raise over two years; the Oakland union got raises of at least 11% raise over two years.
And the United Teachers Los Angeles union announced Wednesday that it will strike — the second one in the last three years, and the third since 2019.
Strikes are terrible for children, for families, and for the community — harming poor and middle-class families most, since working parents have few options for child care.
The union wants a whopping 17% pay hike over the next two years. The cash-strapped LA Unified School District is offering to meet it halfway, with an 8% rise — still better than most private-sector workers, with far fewer benefits and less job security, can expect.
It sure wouldn’t be a merit pay hike: District student scores in English and math are below state averages (which themselves are still below pre-COVID levels); under half the kids are proficient in English, barely more than a third in math.
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