Oakland teachers plan walkout Friday over school closures

April 27, 2022

Teachers in Oakland, California, will be going on a one-day strike Friday to protest school closures the district has planned for this year and next year. A teachers' union said the Oakland Unified School District is going back on a 2019 agreement with the closures.

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"There's a recent Stanford study that shows that closing schools impacts black students and accelerates gentrification in communities of color," Brown said, citing a study released by the Stanford Graduate School of Education on March 28.

The district argues that school closures will save money, Brown said. "But studies have shown that school closures [do] not save a significant amount of money for school districts," he said. "The district claims that there's a budget shortfall and there's no choice but to close schools. But there's always a choice and we must make a choice for for our students."