It Doesn’t Add Up, California Teachers Union Seeks Raises As Student Scores Tank
By AG Staff – February 10, 2025
The California Teachers Association launched a coordinated collective bargaining campaign last week, demanding more state funding, higher pay and better benefits, even as student test scores continue to fall.
According to the Wall Street Journal, California teachers average around $101,084 in salary with another $30,000 in pension contributions from the state, yet the Nation’s Report Card shows only 29% of California fourth graders score proficient in reading.
The continuing decline in test scores can also be seen in a mere 35% of fourth graders scoring proficient in math and the fact that test scores haven’t improved since 2009.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that K-12 spending in California has increased by a third since 2019 and two-and-a-half fold since 2009 while student enrollment has fallen by 360,000 since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Schools that were shut down the longest during Covid are facing some of the biggest declines as many working-class families either left the state or began homeschooling their children.
Teachers unions were able to negotiate large salary increases when the state was receiving large amounts of federal Covid relief funding but now that the funding is drying up, some districts say they are running out of money and are considering laying off staff.
An even bigger question looming over the low proficiency scores for students is whether they are even being taught reading and math or simply being indoctrinated into woke ideology at the taxpayer’s expense.
With California teachers unions pushing their allies in state government for even more compensation for their members, the poor performance of the students doesn’t appear to be a priority.
California parents and taxpayers should be seriously questioning whether they are sending their children off to be taught skills that will help them succeed in life or simply being programmed into whatever woke ideology is currently in fashion.
