Editorial: San Francisco teachers strike out students

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Feb 24, 2026

Published in Op Eds

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Strikes by public employees aren’t good for the taxpayers, but they sure can be revealing.

This month, teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District went on strike. They wanted a 9 percent raise over two years and more funding for their health care plan. If those demands sound familiar, they should. No matter the rhetoric that surrounds a strike by public employees, the sticking point is almost always money.

This situation was a nightmare for parents. The immediate crisis was arranging child care. For many families, that’s a major disruption and stressor. Teacher strikes also disrupt student learning. To help, the district offered “independent study packets and supplemental digital materials” for students on its website. It included different material for each grade. It may not have been as helpful as in-person instruction, but it was something.

But the union wasn’t happy. Nadim Hossain shared a screenshot of an email he received from someone at his child’s elementary school.

“We ask that you do not participate in the independent study provided by the district,” the email read.

What reason could the union have for not wanting students to do schoolwork?

“If many families participate in independent study, it reduces pressure on the district and can prolong the strike,” the email stated.

And there it is — more evidence that union officials will quickly sacrifice student learning for a bit more leverage to boost teacher pay. Never mind that the reason taxpayers fund teachers’ salaries is to help students learn. The strike ended after four days. Teachers received a 5 percent raise over two years and a significant boost in health care benefits for dependents.

This is why it’s an awful idea to allow public employees to strike. Such strikes aren’t directed against a corporation or its shareholders. They directed against the public. This point is so obvious that President Franklin D. Roosevelt didn’t even believe that the public sector should be allowed to bargain collectively.

The Las Vegas Valley got a taste of this in 2023. The Clark County Education Association was fighting with the Clark County School District over a new contract. Teachers started closing down individual schools by calling in sick. At the time, the district was able to obtain a legal injunction to stop the illegal strike.

But that won’t be an option in the future. Last year, Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 161, which redefined “strike” to exclude rolling sickouts by teachers.

With the district facing a budget crunch, those sickouts may be coming sooner than anyone expected. As San Francisco showed, that’s bad news for students, parents and taxpayers.