Why Are Oakland Teachers Planning a 1-Day Strike on Friday?

Thousands of Oakland public school students are being asked to stay home on Friday because their teachers are planning a walkout to protest the Oakland Unified School District's plan to close seven schools and merge or shrink four others.

The district, though, says it doesn't have enough substitute teachers on hand to keep most classes running, and is accusing the teachers union of violating labor agreements. On Thursday, it filed for an injunction with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board to try to block the action.

This comes just three years after Oakland teachers participated in a week-long walkout.

KQED's education editor Julia McEvoy and Morning Edition host Brian Watt spoke on Thursday about the increasingly volatile situation.

The following is edited for length and clarity.

BRIAN WATT: This is a pretty radical move by teachers. How did it come to this?

JULIA MCEVOY: Teachers say this strike is about sending a message. They claim the district’s most recent move — approved in February — to close schools without community input is an unfair labor practice, and that means they can strike. They say they want the district to understand they have a right to bargain over the issue of school closures. Seventy-five percent of teachers voted for the strike.

We expect teachers to be out in front of schools with picket lines, and then there is a rally and march later in the day.

BRIAN WATT: Despite OUSD's move to seek an injunction and block the strike, the district has so far told families to keep their kids home tomorrow.

JULIA MCEVOY: Yes. The district says it can’t find enough substitutes and other staff to fill all the vacancies in classrooms. So keep kids home and the absences will be counted as excused.

The teachers know this is not going to be easy on families. Here is Vilma Serrano, who is a full-time classroom teacher and on the OEA's [Oakland Education Association] executive board:

VILMA SERRANO: Of course any day lost of school is significant. But we also know this is part of a larger message, and this could be any school. All of the schools on that [closure] list had different metrics that didn’t make sense. ... And so I want parents to really understand that we are doing this for our students.

BRIAN WATT: I can imagine not all families are excited about this situation.

JULIA MCEVOY: Yeah, I will say there are some parents who are coming out strongly against this one-day strike. One of them is Lakisha Young, who runs a parent empowerment organization called The Oakland Reach. That organization has been working with OUSD this year to train parents to be literacy tutors at Sojourner Truth, the district’s virtual school.

She’s very angry about the planned strike, and says politics are getting in the way of kids being able to learn — especially kids who have already missed too much school and fallen behind during the pandemic. She says every day matters, and asked me: "So whose kids and whose parents is this supposed to be doing good for?"

Young says, at least right now, her tutors are still planning to work with students tomorrow.