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Throughout California this year, fractious contract negotiations between school districts and teachers’ unions have been common.
Here in the Livermore Valley, both the Dublin and Pleasanton teachers’ unions have voted overwhelmingly to authorize strikes if their leaders believe that’s what it will take to reach an agreement. Both associations have formally declared the talks are at impasse, triggering a state-mandated process with an outside mediator to see if they can find solutions.
Both unions have staged public demonstrations to build community support for their positions. That’s been mirrored by press outreach by a coalition of 18 unions (The East Bay Coalition for Student Success) holding a media event to push for higher compensation.
Pleasanton started talks the farthest apart and still has a huge gap between union wants and what the district is offering. The district started at 6.3% and has since raised it to 6.5% while the association is now at 14.25%.
District officials have said that $9.5 million in cuts will be required next year even if its offer is accepted. Pleasanton has dropped about 700 students over the last few years, making its year-to-year finances more challenging that when enrollment was stable.
Dublin officials are offering 2% while the union wants 9% noting that the district received a 8.22% increase in state funding.
It’s what’s going on with the state funding that sharpens these negotiations. Thanks to the federal Covid bailout funds and high-income earners doing well, the state was awash in money less than two years ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders bragged about the $100 billion surplus.
Now, if you buy the governor’s numbers (I’ve got beach front land in New Mexico for you if you do), the shortfall this year and next will be $38 billion. The non-partisan Legislative Analyst puts it at $68 billion. The governor’s budget largely ducks any tough decisions, borrowing funds and shifting money around. Among them is what would be a scam in the business world is holding over payroll a day so it is booked in the next fiscal year.
The estimated increase for next year for schools in 0.76%, in effect a cut against inflation.
The challenge in Sacramento and, by extension, in districts across the state is Proposition 98 that voters put in place in 1998. It mandates about 40% of the budget be allocated to kindergarten through community college funding.
That number was really healthy less than two years ago and now is looking like anything but.
Thus, teachers union leaders are pushing hard to get as much as they can because the pot will not be getting any bigger in the foreseeable future.
Trustees and district officials are looking at those same forecasts and trying to keep their books fiscally sound.
