Students Return to Minneapolis Schools After Historic Three-Week Strike
Categories: US Education News
Students are back in school across Minneapolis on Tuesday after teachers union leaders and city officials reached a deal to end a three-week strike over low pay, lack of diversity among teachers, large class sizes and student mental health challenges.
"We know this is not only historic for how long we were out, for some of the gains we have, but also for the unity of our chapters," Minnesota Federation of Teachers President Greta Callahan said. "We shouldn't have had to go on strike to win any of these things, any of these critical supports for our students. But we did, and everybody sees that now."
“We're happy, but we know this isn't enough,” she said. “This does not create the schools our students deserve, but it is certainly one step closer.”"Nothing is more important to the MPS community right now than returning our students to their classrooms," Minneapolis school Superintendent Ed Graff said in a statement. Last week, teachers and support staff in Sacramento staged a walk-out over low wages and health care benefits. The labor dispute, which is still ongoing, has locked out 40,000 students from school since Wednesday.
“Educator vacancies and other staff shortages represent a real challenge as our schools work to recover, falling hardest on students of color, students in rural communities, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners,” he said. “I am calling on states, districts, and institutions of higher education to use ARP funds to address the teacher shortage and increase the number of teacher candidates prepared to enter the teaching profession.”