San Francisco public schools shut down on Monday as teachers went on strike demanding improved healthcare benefits and pay raises, leaving the families of some 50,000 students scrambling for child care and meals.
Members of United Educators of San Francisco walked off the job for the first time since 1979 after union leaders and the San Francisco Unified School District failed to reach an agreement during a weekend bargaining session.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie had pleaded with both sides to keep schools open for three more days while negotiations continued, to “allow kids to stay in the classroom and the adults to keep talking.” Bargaining resumed Monday afternoon, a union spokesperson said, but there was no set end date for the strike.
The district announced that schools would be closed Tuesday and urged parents to check the district website “for learning, food, childcare, and district support resources.”
In one of the nation’s most expensive cities, “the affordability crisis for those of us devoted to San Francisco’s next generation is real,” Cassondra Curiel, the teachers’ union president said in a statement.
Also, rising healthcare premiums “are pushing excellent teachers and support staff out of our district,” which now has hundreds of educator vacancies, Curiel said.
“This week, we said enough is enough,” she wrote.
At school sites across the city Monday, picketing educators marched, rattled cowbells, beat drums, and held up signs reading: “On Strike for Safe and Stable Schools” and “We Can’t Wait / Invest in the Schools Our Students Deserve.”
San Francisco USD Supt. Maria Su told reporters Monday that “every day this strike continues has real consequences.”
“Students are losing instructional time. Families are scrambling to take care of their children, to arrange child care,” she said during a news conference. “Many of our most vulnerable students are losing access to food, mental health support and connections to their school community, their friends, their beloved educators, their support system.”
L.A., San Diego teachers authorize strikes
The San Francisco teachers’ strike could portend more labor unrest in California, where educators in other major districts, including Los Angeles, have signaled that they, too, are prepared to strike for higher pay, smaller class sizes and more resources.
Last month, members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leadership to call a strike, ratcheting up pressure as negotiations stall and as the Los Angeles Unified School District is planning for likely staff layoffs and budget cuts.
In San Diego, the teachers’ union voted before winter break to authorize a one-day unfair labor practice strike on Feb. 26 if the San Diego Unified School District does not improve special education staffing.
The labor tensions come as COVID relief funds have ended and public school enrollment in California has plummeted in recent years, leading to reduced state funding.
Last year, the California Teachers Assn., the statewide teachers’ union, launched the “We Can’t Wait” campaign, urging union chapters to band together to be forceful in labor negotiations.
San Francisco budget struggles
The San Francisco school district has said it is struggling with “long-term budget challenges made worse by having fewer students and temporary COVID relief funds that are now gone.”
Some prominent lawmakers called on union leaders to keep classrooms open, including U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Scott Wiener, the Democratic state senator from San Francisco, who joined Lurie in asking for a 72-hour pause before the strike.
The union said it had been abundantly clear about its timeline. A union spokesperson told The Times on Monday that “these are not strike-happy people,” noting that it had been nearly half a century since the last teachers’ strike, which lasted more than six weeks.
SFUSD is facing a $102-million budget deficit and is under state fiscal oversight because of a long-standing financial crisis. The district has said that if layoffs are needed to close the gap, employees will be given notices this spring.
Supt. Su said Monday that the district “does not have unlimited funds” but that, despite financial challenges, it put forward “a viable offer” to the union “that we can afford.”
“We will be at the table and we will stay for as long as it takes to get to a full agreement,” Su said. “I do not want a prolonged strike.”
What teachers are demanding
Negotiations began in March 2025.
The teachers’ union has asked for a 9% pay raise over two years and has said that money could come from reserve funds. On Saturday, the district offered to give union members a 6% raise over two years.
Rising healthcare costs for teachers with families have been a major sticking point. The union said its educators receive some of the lowest contributions to their healthcare costs among neighboring districts, leading many members to work elsewhere.
Family healthcare premiums have risen to $1,500 a month, according to the union, which said that is up to 40% of what some of the lowest-earning classroom support staff make in a year.
Teanna Tillery, union vice president and representative of paraeducators — who work individually with students, often on part-time schedules — said that increasing healthcare costs and the region’s high cost of living have offset the $9,000 permanent salary gains the union has made since their contract negotiations two years ago.
“We’re having to commute in to other cities just because we just can’t afford to be here,” Tillery said. “Most of us are working more than one job to be able to make ends meet, and one job should definitely be enough for all of the educators.”
With one dependent, Tillery said her healthcare premiums have reached $900 a month, which, for part-time educators, can take up 40% of their biweekly pay.
“For our classified employees who have two or more dependents, they’re paying $1,500 a month for their portion of the healthcare, and that’s quite a bit of money that’s taken out of their checks when they are not full-time employees.”
The union was asking the district to cover all medical premiums for members and their dependents “or the lion’s share of it,” a spokesperson said Monday.
The Associated Press reported that Su said the district had offered two options: Paying 75% of family health coverage to the insurance provider Kaiser or offering an annual $24,000 allowance for teachers to choose their own healthcare plan.
The district and union on Saturday came to a tentative agreement on a sanctuary school policy, mirroring the city’s own, that aims to protect immigrant and refugee students.
Cindy Castillo, a social studies and ethnic studies teacher at Mission High School, told the crowd at a Monday rally there that stability, to her, meant fully accommodating students with special needs and retaining students and educators of color, and fully staffing security teams on campuses to prevent violence.
“In my classroom, we talk about how we make change for the common good,” said Castillo, noting that she was an SFUSD alum. “I am standing here to walk the talk.”
