San Francisco Teachers’ Strike Leaves 50,000 Kids Out of School

San Francisco teachers are on strike this week to demand higher pay. The strike is creating chaos for parents who have to find some way to care for their kids or simply stay home from work. This is the first strike of teachers in the city since 1979.

The teachers walked out on Monday morning after their union, United Educators of San Francisco, could not reach an agreement on raises and health care costs despite nearly a year of negotiations with the San Francisco Unified School District. The union represents about 6,000 teachers, librarians, social workers and nurses who work in more than 100 schools in the city.

The strike has no set end date. The last teachers strike in San Francisco, in 1979, lasted for nearly seven weeks, making it one of the longest in state history…

San Francisco’s closure could be a harbinger in California, as teachers unions have made a concerted effort to pressure districts for more compensation in recent months. Besides the walkout in San Francisco, educators in Los Angeles, San Diego and two Sacramento-area school districts have authorized strikes as part of their ongoing contract negotiations…

On Monday morning, Cassondra Curiel, the president of the union, the United Educators of San Francisco, led a rally on the steps of Mission High School, where dozens of teachers, dressed in red, rattled tambourines and hoisted signs calling for higher wages. Some brought their children, who were out of school for the day.

Today the strike entered its third day after union reps walked away from negotiations last night.

Union leaders reportedly dismissed their negotiators shortly after 10 p.m., as the district was preparing to present their latest offer while updating the labor group every 30 minutes with their status, the officials said. 

When they notified union leaders and United Educators of San Francisco President Cassondra Curiel they were ready to submit the offer, they were advised the union negotiators had gone home…

Union officials sent out a bargaining update just after 11 p.m. Tuesday saying that “if the last 48 hours have taught us anything, it is that the district has a priorities problem.”

Of course the main issue in the negotiations is money. Initially the district offered 2% increases for 3 years. The union wants 4.5% for two years. The district has already agreed to meet in the middle at 3 percent.

SFUSD’s Superintendent Maria Su said they are making progress as the strike continues, yet the main issues at stake are still health care and wages.

“We have a few remaining articles that we need to close today,” Superintendent Su said on Tuesday. “Healthcare, salaries, and special education work. Our proposal needs to be aligned with the recommendations of the third party neutral fact-finding report. Under my leadership, SFUSD is on course for fiscal recovery. We do not want to derail that really hard work that we as a community have done.”…

Initially, the district offered 2% raises for the next three years, but now it has offered 3% each year for two years.

There’s an interesting opinion piece in the SF Standard offering an explanation for why the district is worried about what it can pay teachers. It’s about pensions.

District spending on pensions and other retirement costs has grown at nearly five times the rate of school revenues, squeezing out funds needed for teachers’ salaries. 

Since 2006, the district’s total revenue has risen 123%, from $537 million to $1.2 billion. But pension spending has surged 538%, from $31 million to $198 million, and spending on retiree health benefits has jumped 450%, from $8 million to $44 million. Together, those two line items consume nearly $250 million a year, money that flows not to working teachers but to retired employees…

The district could afford to pay current teachers far more if it weren’t hemorrhaging money to service retirement obligations it never should have incurred at this scale.

Obviously that’s a problem that probably can’t be solved anytime soon. As for the current strike, the union claims that parents support them but there’s at least some evidence that support isn’t as strong as they claim.

San Francisco teachers union strike enters third day of public schools shut down

Union members wondering on Reddit why parents don’t seem very supportive of the strike pic.twitter.com/t43vt3v2lc

— Rohin Dhar (@rohindhar) February 11, 2026

I think parents may be able to make this work for a week but if the union doesn’t wrap this up by next Monday, I suspect their support is going to start dropping quickly.