On Wednesday — just two days before ballots are mailed to voters for the District 11 school board election — the Colorado Springs Education Association plans a walkout at district schools. 

The union’s strike is not about wages, benefits or working conditions — its usual beefs. This time, it’s about power and control. It’s a calculated political stunt designed to sway voters, and the union doesn’t mind if it hurts students and families in the process.

Indeed, District 11 teachers are already among the best compensated in the region. They enjoy one of the highest starting salaries in El Paso County, received a 10% boost in total compensation this year, and work a shorter school calendar than their peers in neighboring districts. 

As well, the district has trimmed $6.5 million from its bureaucracy to redirect dollars into classrooms; raised the share of the budget devoted to instruction from 60% to 70%, and led the state in banning cell phones in class to restore focus on learning. Those are reforms that benefit not only students but also teachers.

The CSEA’s real gripe is that, last December, the District 11 board ended the union’s 57-year master agreement. It had given the unaccountable union more power than even the democratically elected school board itself. For decades, that contract blocked reforms and improvements while District 11’s academic performance languished near the bottom of Colorado public schools — at times ranking in the lowest 10% of the 178 school districts statewide, according to Colorado Measures of Academic Success scores. 

By restoring its own rightful authority as the elected representative of the district’s parents and taxpayers, this board made real change possible while keeping its promise to maintain excellent pay and benefits. 

For union leaders, the loss of their longtime, lopsided control was intolerable. So, the union is staging a reprisal — resorting to the one tactic it knows best despite the unfortunate message it sends to our kids and the public.

A strike doesn’t punish the board. It punishes families. In that regard, of course, this strike will be like any other that is staged against our public schools. Parents are forced to scramble for child care. Students lose a day of instruction that they will never get back. 

Perhaps as bad is the image it presents to students, their families and the rest of the taxpaying public. The strike risks painting all teachers with the same brush in the public’s eyes, regardless of teachers’ individual views.

Fortunately, it appears the union has grossly overestimated its strength. The D-11 administration estimates only a third of district teachers will participate in the strike; schools will remain open while a relative handful of disgruntled union members picket outside.

The union does not, in fact, represent the mass of teachers, only a small and radicalized minority of them. Most D-11 teachers — who make our children their top priority day after day, and who deserve the community’s utmost respect — have no use for the union’s antics. 

Although the union strike is regrettable, it does serve one useful purpose: to make clear to the community the stark distinction between the teachers who toil for our kids — and the union that only claims to represent them.