When teachers strike, they halt instruction in the classrooms and rally on the streets to demand better pay and working conditions. Strikes often occur when they can most effectively impact policy makers—when contract negotiations are pending, state funding is being debated, or other issues that require the attention of the entire education system are at play.
Typically, teacher strikes revolve around money for resources and salary during contract negotiation, but they can also call into question curriculum or testing, staffing size, classroom size, and a host of other ideas. In recent years, some big city teachers have started to use their leverage to take on more sweeping social justice issues—for example, the 2012 Chicago teacher strike focused on the need for more nurses and support staff.
The most successful teacher strikes are driven by a compelling vision of what’s at stake, a sense that the objectives are important and can’t be achieved through other means that are less high-intensity and risky; that the effort is well-organized and has broad support among teachers; that the union leadership can be trusted to see the effort through; and that a settlement can be reached quickly.
But even when all of those antecedent conditions are met, a teacher strike may still be unsuccessful. That’s because when teachers walk off the job, students will stay out of school. And schools need a stable schedule to keep their doors open and maintain access to food services and child care.