Wave of California teacher walkouts and strike votes across California has drawn attention to teacher pay and benefits, with the California Teachers Association framing the timing as deliberate rather than coincidental. David Goldberg, president of the state’s largest teachers union, tied the pattern to a broader strategy by aligning contracts so negotiations — and potential job actions — would land in the same window, making it easier for the union to press for more resources.
Goldberg described the effort as rooted in unmet needs across districts and said the circumstances have been “ripe for a long time.” He said “All these districts going out on strike — it’s not a coincidence at all,” adding that “Everywhere in the state there are people with unmet needs.” In his account, the union is also using the spread of actions to make it easier for teachers and local unions to learn from one another about how to win more funding for public schools.
The contract coordination, Goldberg said, involved district unions working for years to align their agreements so they’d expire together on June 30, 2025. The plan was meant to set off a wave of negotiations and potential strikes, with the union aiming to garner public attention and increase political leverage at the same time. He said teachers unions from at least a dozen other districts have joined the broader effort even if they were not part of the original group, and he pointed to the union’s scale and resources as part of the campaign’s momentum.
Several districts have already carried out strike actions. The AP report said San Francisco teachers went on strike for four days earlier in the month, while West Contra Costa teachers went on strike in December. It also said teachers in San Diego, Woodland, Apple Valley, Duarte and Madera had planned to strike but reached a settlement at the last minute, while teachers in Los Angeles, Oakland, Dublin, West Sacramento, Twin Rivers and Natomas voted overwhelmingly to strike. In Berkeley, Soquel and other districts, teachers were holding rallies and appeared headed for strike votes.
Alongside the union push for higher compensation, the report described budget pressures that districts are facing as enrollment falls and pandemic-era funding ends. It said districts receive state money based in part on how many students show up each day, which has left some school systems with less revenue as classrooms sit half-empty. It also said California schools received more than $23.4 billion in one-time grants intended to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss, and that state and federal authorities urged spending on short-term tutoring and enrichment rather than permanent cost increases.
The AP report said some districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified, used part of those funds to boost teacher pay or hire permanent staff and are now struggling to sustain those changes after the grant money ended. Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, said it is unclear whether districts can afford teachers’ demands for higher salaries or more generous benefits. Roza also warned that if districts agree, the money likely will come from reductions to what she described as non-essential programs, such as sports, electives and advanced placement offerings, and could include staff layoffs.
Roza said any service cuts would likely harm low-income students the most, describing those students as more dependent on special school programs and more likely to attend schools with newer teachers. She also said low-income families often have fewer child-care options during strike disruptions and so could experience greater academic disruption. She argued that school boards need to stand up for those students and negotiate more effectively by increasing transparency about finances and being willing to close under-used schools, saying it would be “so irresponsible to erode services for vulnerable students because you don’t have a spine.”
Not all views on the walkouts are supportive. Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy at the California Policy Center, said California should get rid of teachers unions altogether, arguing that while teachers deserve higher salaries, unions do not always act in students’ interests. He criticized the unions for defending what he called incompetent teachers and for holding strikes that he said harm students and families, and he said the California Teachers Association has a political “stranglehold” over Sacramento, describing it as overshadowing legislative conversations even when education is at issue. Christensen said charter schools and private schools are less likely to be unionized and, in his view, sometimes produce better outcomes, and he referenced that other states limit collective bargaining or do not allow teachers unions to strike.
In San Francisco, the report included parents’ reactions after a settlement. Meredith Dodson, identified as executive director of the San Francisco Parents Coalition, said she was relieved the strike had ended, while acknowledging that most parents support teachers and believe they deserve better compensation. She said the walkout was stressful for families and disrupted learning for thousands of students, adding that the $183 million settlement includes raises and improved benefits and that the district plans to pay by draining its reserve funds.
Dodson said families are now bracing for follow-on cuts as districts confront shaky finances. She told the report: “What comes next? Layoffs? Increased class sizes? State intervention?” and said the board will face “hard questions” about what is best for students.