Oakland Teachers to Strike
California Teachers Protesting against Education Cuts Last Year
Teachers in Oakland, California have voted overwhelmingly to strike in the pursuit of a fair contract and against budget cuts
The teachers - members of the Oakland Education Assocation - have voted overwhelmingly for a one day strike on March 24th. Like the rest of California, the Oakland district is facing budget cuts which it is intending to visit in part upon schools in the form of increased class sizes, staff reductions, shortening the school year from 180 to 175 days and a pay freeze for this year.
Meanwhile according to one report the district is using $10 million to fund benchmark testing and $5 million on consultants. This is to help the district become eligible for Obama’s education secretary Arne Duncan’s ‘Race to the Top’ funding which amongst other things requires teachers’ pay and evaluation to be tied to testing.
If you have any first hand accounts of this struggle to include on this blog please contact mary@teachersolidarity.com
March 06 2010 03:52 pm | General