Students in Minneapolis Public Schools have now missed 10 straight days of classes amid a teacher strike that is showing minimal signs of letting up two weeks after it began.
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers indicated the city school district had made some movement to meet its demands as the union work stoppage drags on and missed school days stack up.
The strike has already cost students in the district 10 days of class at a time when missed school days have received heightened scrutiny due to learning loss wrought by pandemic school closures. At least half of the missed days must be made up to meet state requirements, either by canceling spring break or by extending the school year.
The city said that meeting the union’s demands of higher pay, class size caps, and mental health resources would put the school district more than $150 million over budget. Nevertheless, the two sides have engaged in extended negotiations since the onset of the strike.
MINNEAPOLIS TEACHER STRIKE ENTERS SECOND WEEK AS CITY CLAIMS FUNDING SHORTAGE
On Sunday, the district gave the union what it called its “last, best, and final offer,” which included raising minimum wages for the majority of “education support professionals” to $35,000 per year, a proposal the district said would require budget cuts in other areas for the next school years.
The district said the offer required Minneapolis Public Schools to “reach beyond its financial means on behalf of our ESPs and will need to make more than $10 million in reductions for the next school year as a result.”
The offer was minimally impressive to the union, with President Shaun Laden saying the offer was appreciated but that the district could guarantee $35,000 for all ESP staff.
.@MFT59 ESP chapter president @shaunladen responds to district’s last, best, final offer for ESPs: pic.twitter.com/oqD2gfWB15
— Becky Zosia Dernbach (@bzosiad) March 20, 2022
Still, the union president said that “it won’t take much more on [the district’s] part to settle this strike and get our students and educators back to school.”
Laden also said the city “can do better to recruit and retain educators of color, reduce class sizes, add mental health supports, and create stability for our students by proposing competitive pay for licensed staff.”
“Our members are ready to hold the line until we get there,” Laden said.
Cristine Trooien, the executive director for the Minnesota Parents Alliance, told the Washington Examiner in an email that two weeks into the strike, “Minneapolis parents are seeing through the union’s thinly veiled attempt to justify this strike as a last resort that is in the best interest of students.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The fact remains that students don’t get a do-over when it comes to their education and it is tragic that they are being held hostage in what appears to be nothing but a grab for state surplus dollars and an ideological crusade,” Trooien said. “If the union cares about students as they claim to, they will reach an agreement that is within the district’s means and get kids back into their desks and teachers back into the classrooms posthaste. These students and families and the City of Minneapolis as a community can’t afford more of the same.”
