Oakland teacher strike grinds into 4th day; Parents seek seat at bargaining table

OAKLAND — Tens of thousands of students were still out of school Tuesday on the 4th day of the Oakland teachers’ strike; and with parents struggling to find childcare during the day, some say they should have a seat at the bargaining table.

“Not working is not an option for me,” said Patricia Johnson who brought her child to school despite the strike. “I’m a solo parent. I’m the provider for our family. I have my own business and I don’t get paid if I don’t work. It just felt like the only option today.

Her son is a 2nd grader at Emerson Elementary School. Tuesday was the first day he’s been back to school since the strike started – the only student at the school for the majority of the day.

“He said he had fun. He got to do science projects. He made all this origami stuff, he played basketball,” said Johnson.

Attendance has been down significantly since the start of the strike. The Oakland Unified School District has approximately 34,000 students enrolled. On Thursday, 1,322 students were in attendance, Friday saw 1,138, and Monday 1,354 – less than 5% of the total number of students enrolled.

Now parents like Johnson are starting to ask for more transparency in the negotiations as the stalemate looks like it will continue into a fifth day.

“We’re hearing this he-said, she-said. The district did this, the union did this. We have no idea what’s going on,” said Johnson. “Everybody says everybody else is lying, so how can that be true? Unless everybody’s lying.”

Johnson says the majority of parents she talked to support pay raises for teachers, but according to statements from the OUSD and the Oakland Education Association (OEA), the pay raises aren’t the major sticking point. It’s the items in the “Common Good” proposal from the teachers union asking the district to implement the Reparations for Black Students policy, as well as asking OUSD to use vacant property to help house students and their families. 

They also ask the district to use resources to help OUSD families get into low-income housing – demands that might be outside the scope of a school district, and will definitely need parental and community support.

Some school board members are now making the argument for parents to be at the bargaining table.

“Shared governance, giving power to all educators and parents is the only way to build racially just and safe schools that we have all promised to our students,” said District 2 board member Jennifer Brouhard in a press conference on Monday.

The only way to have parents involved is if both the school district and the teacher’s union agree to it, which could be negotiated during the new labor contract.