Health premiums surge, driving California teacher strikes

healthcare premiums – From Twin Rivers to West Contra Costa and San Francisco, teacher walkouts across California have increasingly centered on one issue: health premiums that now hit as high as $1,600 a month for some families—an expense teachers say is swallowing pay gains while

For teachers in Twin Rivers Unified School District. the decision was blunt and exhausting: by March. they had spent 12 days on strike. The immediate trigger was healthcare. For some teachers and their families. premiums had climbed to about $1. 600 a month—an out-of-pocket burden teachers say is growing fast enough to make wage increases feel meaningless.

This school year, other classrooms across California went quiet for similar reasons. Little Lake City teachers in Sante Fe Springs, Norwalk and Downey walked out for 10 days. Natomas Unified teachers in Sacramento struck for seven days. Dublin Unified, West Contra Costa Unified and San Francisco Unified teachers each struck for four days.

In each of those conflicts, the strikes ended with health coverage victories. Other unions reached agreements with their districts on improved health benefits, though some are still working through bargaining.

Behind the headlines sits a widening mismatch that school communities are starting to feel in their daily lives: district budgets are squeezed by declining enrollment. expiring federal aid. and rising pension costs—while teachers argue that health costs have accelerated far faster than their take-home pay.

The numbers help explain the anger. The cost of health benefits has surged nearly 500% since 2013-14. outpacing school funding growth. according to School Services Inc. a California education consulting firm. During the 2024-25 school year. California school districts. on average. spent 8% of their average daily attendance funding on health and welfare benefits for school employees. according to a report released as part of the Getting Down to Facts III collection of education research.

Teacher salaries and healthcare inflation don’t move together. A National Council on Teacher Quality study found that the average healthcare premium for a public school employee increased 14%. while teacher salaries increased by 10% between 2018 and 2022. Since then, insurance rates have continued to rise at a steady pace.

In a July 2025 survey of nearly 2. 000 California teachers. 69% said high out-of-pocket costs for often inadequate healthcare benefits were eating into their paychecks. Heather Peske. president of NCTQ. said: “Health insurance premiums are rising faster than teachers’ salaries are increasing. and so this is. of course. making it harder for teachers to be able to afford to stay in the profession.”.

The contrast between public perception and lived experience is part of what makes the dispute so combustible. California Teachers Association President David Goldberg said some teachers pay as much as $1,600 per month in out-of-pocket costs. Goldberg also said teachers feel budgets have “basically been balanced on their backs for years.” During an EdSource Roundtable in February. he added that about a third of the association’s members report living paycheck to paycheck and even delaying needed healthcare.

College research adds another layer to the picture. Paul Bruno. an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and lead author of “District Dollars 3. ” said teacher salaries have been mostly flat over the last 20 years as unions and school districts have prioritized health benefits during contract negotiations. “Teacher compensation has gone up pretty substantially, it’s just not in salary,” Bruno said.

For districts, the same rising costs are showing up in their spending totals. They have lost average daily attendance funding because of declining enrollment and federal Covid dollars. while they pay more for pensions. healthcare. supplies. and special education. Between the 2004-05 and 2024-25 school years. healthcare costs for California districts increased 46%. or $6. 345 per teacher. according to Bruno’s research. Medical benefit costs increased 52% to $18,839 per teacher, while the cost of dental and vision plans dropped slightly.

Bruno said schools are harder hit because districts generally carry a larger share of employee benefit costs than most other industries.

Even so, the burden is not spread evenly across California. Health benefits are collectively bargained between local districts and their teachers unions and vary widely from place to place. A California Teachers Association analysis of benefits data submitted to the state by 783 school districts found that about half of the state’s districts paid between 70% and 90% of teachers’ health benefits for the 2024-25 school year. while about 13% of districts paid the entire cost.

It’s not clear how many districts, if any, require teachers to pay the full cost of the insurance. But Bruno warned that agreeing to pay 100% can leave districts shouldering the entire cost of increases, and he said it removes incentives for employees to select less expensive health plans.

In Kern County, the debate has a different tone because the baseline is different. Kern County schools are the most generous to their teachers in terms of health benefits: 18 of the 37 districts that reported data to the California Department of Education paid 100% of teachers’ health premiums. and another 15 districts paid between 90% and 99.58% of teachers’ health benefits.

Megan Harwell. president of the Kern County Education Association and union for the Kern County Office of Education. said: “Not only do we have our benefits 100% paid for. we have extremely good benefits. Like we’re talking gold plan PPO benefits.” Harwell. a special education teacher. said the issue comes up every year during contract negotiations because rising costs are still there even when the baseline is generous.

“ So, it’s never been a given,” Harwell said. “It’s always been something we’ve fought very hard for.”

She said the Kern County Office of Education paid approximately $1. 700 a month for health benefits for each teacher and their families. and that next year the cost is expected to be about $2. 000. Harwell said Kern County teachers are often shocked to hear that teachers in other districts pay between $500 and $1. 700 a month for their family’s health benefits.

For Harwell. the bargaining philosophy is straightforward: with healthcare costs soaring. holding the line on premiums should be a priority even if it means accepting a smaller pay increase. She described it as a worry about momentum. “Because if you open that floodgate, then when does it stop?. Like. it’s $50 now. but next year it’s going to be $100. then $200. then $300 and then whatever we get in COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) will be eaten up by the amount of money we’re paying for our benefits. ” she said.

Not all districts share that approach, and the pushback is growing as negotiations intensify.

Bruno said districts’ share of health insurance costs covered by districts declined during the early 2000s. The trend leveled off around 2012 as California increased state funding for education. and since then districts have consistently covered about 85% of employee health benefit costs. he said. But in some cases this school year, districts asked teachers to pay more.

Peske said shifting more healthcare costs onto teachers could make it harder for districts to recruit and retain teachers. especially if benefits become less competitive. She urged district leaders to negotiate for lower-cost insurance plans. seek better rates from providers. or partner with other districts to buy insurance at lower prices. She also said the state could help districts improve their rates.

“States are in a particularly unique and favorable position to negotiate better health insurance rates for their employees,” Peske said. “So, for example, the state of North Carolina provides state-level health insurance. So. they’re able to negotiate a plan with much better rates since they have many more employees. obviously. than a single district does.”.

Peske acknowledged that a statewide program could be difficult in California because each district has its own collective bargaining agreement with its teachers.

All of it is now being negotiated in real time, with walkouts and contract talks stretching across months and districts. The strikes in Sacramento. El Cerrito. Sante Fe Springs. Norwalk. Downey. Dublin. and San Francisco ended only after unions secured health coverage victories—or moved negotiations forward with agreements that improved benefits. The disputes are still unfolding. but the stakes have sharpened: teachers are not only arguing over money on paper. they are trying to keep premiums from swallowing the lives they’re living outside the classroom.

California education teacher strikes healthcare premiums out-of-pocket costs collective bargaining school district budgets health benefits EdSource