What About the Kids? San Fran Teachers Demand Parents Eschew Homeschooling During Strike... to Help Them

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Most people will agree in general that teaching is a pretty thankless job. Bratty kids, parents who do not participate in their kids' education, and woke school districts make for an almost impossible task. 

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In recent years, especially since COVID, though, in some school districts, teachers wanted to be paid to not work at the expense of students; it is obvious in those situations that many teachers are not in it for the kids, but for the benefits the teachers union can squeeze out of the taxpayers. 

Currently, teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District are on strike, and one of their union demands is that parents help them, not the students.

On Thursday, the San Francisco teachers' strike dragged into its fourth day with no end in sight. Teachers walked off the job earlier this week, keeping more than 50,000 students out of the classroom. The usual issues are the topic of negotiations, higher wages - more specifically, a nine percent raise over two years - and subsidized family healthcare—something the school district says it cannot afford. 


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Like most school districts whose teachers go on strike, the San Fran SD claims it could lose millions in funding for each day the strike goes on. But in a rare move that would keep students on track academically while they missed days in the classroom, the district prepared homework packets that, according to the district website, include, “five days of independent study work and practice in both English Language Arts and in Math."

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Great idea. Teachers' strikes are most likely not going to be avoided, but most people would agree that they should affect kids' learning as little as possible. Well, most people accept...teachers. In several social media posts, teachers claim that the district is not offering homework packets to help kids, but to stick it to the teachers union. 

They go on to claim that messages sent to parents about the packets were a ruse for the district to continue to receive funding, and therefore not be forced to negotiate with the union and meet their demands. One of the social media posts read:

“If many families participate in independent study, it reduces pressure on the district and can prolong the strike. If you are able, we ask that you do not participate in the independent study provided by the district.”

Translation: if you homeschool your children during the strike, the strike will go on longer than needed, and it is your (parents') fault. Needless to say, many parents were not happy with the social media statement from the teachers. One parent called it "messed up," and added, ”Strike if you must but it’s diabolical to say ‘don’t do independent study while we shut down the school for a few days.'" 

Others came down on the side of the teachers and compared the packets to "crossing the picket line." That same parent also said, ”The district providing packets like this that the teachers themselves did not put together...is essentially the same as using scabs."

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While student test scores among the San Francisco Unified School District are not abysmal, they could definitely use some work, with the only metric over 50 percent being reading scores among high school students. But if teachers refuse to be in the classroom, and they don't want parents to homeschool during the strike, who is teaching the kids? 

The answer is no one. Is that by design? More and more parents say that teachers are indoctrinating students instead of educating them. You have to wonder, is the strike more about the teachers—or about dumbing down the kids to feed them radical agendas?

Negotiations between the school district and the union remain ongoing. We'll keep you posted on this developing story.

 President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.

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