Parent: Sacramento teachers union tactics undermine educational needs of students

I’m a parent with two children in the Sacramento City Unified School District. My friend who trains teachers taught me that the principal ethical oath of all teachers is to “do no harm.” Yet the repeated and divisive bargaining tactics by the Sacramento City Teachers Association do substantial harm to my children who deserve a quality education from our public schools.

The recent no-confidence “vote” against Superintendent Jorge Aguilar by SCTA was a game of blitz chess, with chess master and SCTA Executive Director John Borsos sacrificing students as expendable pawns. Predictably, this “vote” is just another chapter out of the same dog-eared SCTA playbook we’ve all seen before.

It’s meant to create noise to distract from the good things the district has done — like reopening schools for kids to joyfully return to campus even in the waning days of this pandemic school year. It’s meant to unleash misinformation, infighting, name-calling, distrust and cynicism. It’s meant as a threat to call for a strike. Finally, it positions surrogates to push for an end to the fake drama that SCTA instigated by pressuring the district to give into union demands that shortchange the students, just for “labor peace.”

Let me forecast this summer. The no-confidence “vote” was Stage 1. Next, SCTA will move to Stage 2, pushing the baseless “fake numbers” script they’ve been using for over three years that re-treads other inflammatory talking points.

In late August, when SCTA’s demand for a retroactive raise has failed, they will open Stage 3, calling for a strike to destabilize the “back to school better” 2021-22 school year and blame the destabilization on the district.

How will Stage 4 play out? Will the district capitulate to SCTA’s anti-student politics? Or will it exercise pro-student leadership like it did this spring when it reopened schools despite SCTA’s foot-dragging?

One of the gaslights of this “vote” is the laughable contention that Aguilar is responsible for the district’s failure to teach students with disabilities. Upon his arrival in 2017, Aguilar was handed a scathing audit documenting decades of inadequate teaching and inappropriate discipline of students with disabilities that violates their federal civil rights.

The audit referenced part of the SCTA’s collective bargaining agreement in the 1990s, which gave teachers the ability to opt-out of teaching students with disabilities or planning for their education. SCTA vigorously defended this illegal clause until 2017, when Aguilar insisted that it be dropped from the teacher’s contract.

Additionally, Aguilar and his team:

▪ Recruited a classroom educator, principal and special education leader to serve as his chief academic officer;

▪ Provided families with translators in multiple languages to help them access information and programs for students with disabilities;

▪ Launched the Dyslexia Intervention Pilot to serve thousands of students with reading struggles;

▪ Implemented early literacy and math assessments to end the wait-to-fail approach for students with learning disabilities; and

▪ Delivered professional learning to teachers to design their lessons for greater access to all students.

The district is doing good, important work on these and other initiatives but SCTA is not a collaborative partner. Far from it. They then blame the district for poor student outcomes. The district is currently under threat of losing its special education funding because of SCTA’s unconscionable opposition to teachers and school psychologists providing mandated services throughout the pandemic.

I hope my forecast of continued labor drama is wrong. If not, parents and community leaders need to decry SCTA’s harmful playbook that puts the working conditions of teachers over the educational needs of students in SCUSD. We must push the district to break away from the game and remain steadfastly pro-student.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that the Sacramento City Teachers Association filed grievances against the Sacramento City Unified School District in these areas: The hiring of a chief academic officer; providing families with translators in multiple languages to help them access information and programs for students with disabilities; launching a dyslexia intervention pilot to serve students with reading struggles; delivering professional learning to teachers to design their lessons for greater access to all students. SCTA did not file grievances in these cases.

This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.