The goal would be to boost salaries of every teacher who is paid less than workers in other professions with comparable credentials and experience in their respective states.
As Oakland teachers prepare for a strike, a state arbitrator points to a range of factors, such as basing state funding on attendance rather than enrollments, a disproportionate concentration of charter schools in urban districts and high special education and pension costs as potential stumbling blocks to reaching an agreement not only in Oakland but in other districts experiencing labor turmoil.
Union leaders at Los Angeles Unified are concerned that the growth of charter schools has come at the expense of dollars for district schools and the teachers working in them.
Strikes in low-paying states opened the public's eyes. In California, where teachers are among nation's highest paid – cost of living aside – Education Next's 2018 poll found more support for raising overall funding than teacher pay.
