Search: Home Hero, 04/2022

A recent national story from TIME dives into the different ways that short-staffing in local public services impacts our communities. The story correctly points out that without workers, local governments and special districts struggle to provide crucial services such as safe drinking water, maintained roads and bridges, functioning public transit, properly staffed schools, and other vital functions like processing permits or administering social services.

“When we fight, we win! When we fights, students win!” was the mantra for the eight workdays (and twelve calendar days) of the Sacramento City Unified School District strike. Both classified staff–including school bus drivers, nutrition service workers, custodians, instructional aides, maintenance workers, and clerical staff–and teachers represented by Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) went on strike starting March 23.