Bay Area teachers rally to defend public education and protest ICE 

In the days after Trump was elected a second time, my 3rd graders felt very fearful. One student who is nonbinary expressed feeling scared and angry that Donald Trump doesn’t accept their gender. Another worried that the president would not like him because of his skin color. More expressed general anxiety about Trump’s racism, sexism, and homophobia.

It hurts to see my students feel afraid for their future. Especially because they’re not wrong to be worried. I am so disappointed by the world we’re handing to them, with the twin crises of fascism and climate change looming. Not to mention the austerity of public education and the systematic and deliberate disinvestment in public schools over the past 30 years.

It was refreshing to be in the streets with my contingent of Oakland public school teachers and among so many other educators, students, and community members at the May 17 Fight for Schools rally. I was happy to see how many other unions showed up and the turnout of people who share my fury at the recent cuts at the Department of Education.

The rally featured faculty, students, and community members delivering inspiring and fiery speeches about the many ways we can fight back against right-wing attacks on education. The energy was invigorating! I’m happy I could take some small action to safeguard what we’ve fought for in our schools.

—Sarah Wheels

On Saturday, May 17, 2025, over 15,000 teachers and allies took to the streets in five locations throughout California, to protest attacks on  public education in the state. This is a rather unprecedented response by the California Teachers Association (CTA) who initiated the actions.

There have been times when CTA called for members from many areas to come to Sacramento to protest at the state legislature (a more militant lobby effort) or to have delegates from all over the state attend the CTA State Council, this was much more a call for mass mobilization.

While Sacramento and Los Angeles were two of the five locations again targeted, the other locations were San Francisco, San Diego, and Hanford (in the San Joaquin Valley). These rallies included CTA members, but countless other education workers, labor militants, community activists, and students.

At the San Francisco protest, which I attended, there were over 2000 activists. It reflected a good generational spectrum and a decent racial mixture.

Geographically, it was not just the core in San Francisco and Oakland, but educators from many towns, from Hayward to Mt. Diablo, from Richmond to Oakley, and even as far away as Berryessa, all attended.

There were issues raised about cuts to programs at the state and local levels, about progressive taxation, and about contract battles (including efforts for the larger districts to coordinate negotiations). But the central theme of the protests were federal policy and spending (about $16 billion), the attacks on public education and efforts at privatization (such as pushing vouchers) and the dismantling of the Department of Education.

There are proposed cuts of $12 billion, coming to nearly $3000 per student, pending. David Goldberg, CTA president, speaking in San Diego, noted how this would impact lower income families, with much of these cuts coming from Title I funding. And Dolores Huerta, a historic leader of the farmworkers movement, speaking about the Central Valley, noted how these cuts would savage students in rural/ agricultural areas as well.

But beyond education, many issues were front and center in the San Francisco protest, such as immigrant rights and support for LGBTQ+ students. One of the speakers, Judy Greenspan, representing the Oakland Education Association (OEA), my union, also highlighted Palestine solidarity and academic freedom, as well as overall labor solidarity (the rally occurred at Harry Bridges Plaza, named for the renowned ILWU leader of the 1934 general strike)

One final reflection is about the presence of the National Education Association (the largest union in the U.S. and of which CTA is a part). The NEA, while on the liberal side of the political spectrum on racial, gay, reproductive rights, et al. issues, has been one of the unions most wed to the Democratic Party (sending more delegates to the Democratic conventions than any other organization).

But there joining in the Labor Network for a Cease Fire (which is also calling for an arms embargo to Israel) and their devoting considerable staff and resources to backing MayDay Strong, the campaign initiated by the CTU, show evidence of the pressures from within and the questioning of the uncritical stance to the Democratic Party.

This is not to be naive as to where the labor bureaucracies will end up, but a sign of significant shifting in the political landscape.

—Bill Balderston