Democrats Are United on Teacher Strikes. But They’re in a ‘Gladiator Fight’ Over Education.
When 30,000 Los Angeles teachers went on strike on Monday, prominent Democrats — and potential presidential candidates — lined up to give their blessings.
Senator Kamala Harris of California said she was “standing in solidarity” with teachers, who are demanding higher pay, smaller classes and more support staff.
“I’m with teachers all the way,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said on Twitter.
Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders all shared similar sentiments about a strike that has drawn broad public support but disrupted the routines of half a million, mostly low-income children.
In 2019, after a year of teacher walkouts across the country, it is practically impossible for a national Democrat to profess anything short of full-throated support for picketing educators. But many of them this week steered clear of the most contentious underlying cause of the strike: the teacher union’s opposition to the growth of charter schools, and the union’s claim that district officials — who are largely Democrats — favor charter schools over traditional ones.
The unified cheers from Democrats belie deep and long-running rifts in the party over what public education should look like, at a time when the party is debating its direction. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, likened the Los Angeles strike to “a gladiator fight” between two factions.
On one side are those who have hewed to President Barack Obama’s centrist position on schools: supporting high-performing charters, which are publicly funded but privately managed, while putting pressure on teachers’ unions to raise student achievement and give up some of their traditional seniority protections.
On the other side is organized labor, which has resisted the growth of the mostly nonunion charter sector. Union leaders say charters take students and public dollars from traditional neighborhood schools.
But as democratic socialism, and sympathy for unions, is on the rise among young Democrats, the Obama-era view that charters create more competition and better choices for families no longer rules the party.
Over the past year, teacher walkouts, including six in conservative and swing states, have captured the public’s attention. The movement has “reshaped the discussion within the Democratic Party nationally,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, the firebrand president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that is currently on strike. “Do we need to back away from what corporate Democrats have been promoting for a long time, which is charter schools and privatization?” CONTINUE READING: Democrats Are United on Teacher Strikes. But They’re in a ‘Gladiator Fight’ Over Education. - The New York Times