If all teachers did this collectively the children would remain in an even standing with each other, your performance reviews would stay comparable and you would think in an interview you would be given the chance to explain that your poor review came from not having resources to meet the standards.
This
might work in a country where there's a centralized gov't controlled education system (which is one of the reasons Finland spends so much less per student and gets better results). It would not work in the US, where there are vast disparities in access to education, states set standards and provide most of the funding, and school boards are highly independent.
Children would not remain in an "even standing with each other", because they aren't in an even standing right now. In wealthy communities, children come to school fed, supplied, home-tutored and ready to learn. Their test scores are higher and their schools enjoy more funding. They go on lots of field trips, play instruments, and enjoy all kinds of supplementary learning opportunities. They have teacher's aides and psychologists and nurses. In poor communities, many children come to school hungry, without school supplies or even adequate clothing, and from chaotic homes with stressed, overworked parents. Their schools rarely, if ever, offer field trips, in large part because parents can't afford to pay for their children to go. These kids don't play instruments, because they can't afford them and it's nearly impossible to get enough used instruments donated for an entire class. And even if they manage this, these instruments are often poor quality, damaged, and horribly difficult to learn to play. And, because these schools have less funding, they can't afford to keep learning specialists and nurses, etc, on the payroll.
Plus there's many people who strongly believe that any sort of arts education is a frill and a frippery and why would poor kids need such a thing anyway? All they need is paper and pencils to learn their 3 Rs. So middle class kids continue to receive more, and poor kids receive less, and many people have no issues with this. There's a deep rooted cultural attitude that the poor don't deserve nice things, which interferes with efforts to fund the most troubled schools.
This is a good piece from the Atlantic on the inequality at the heart of the US Education system:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/
And that's not even touching on the idea that school children can just let a year or three of learning slide without suffering any long term impact.
I can see it now... There's the teacher saying to the class, "Sorry, kids, I didn't purchase any lab supplies, so this year's science class will just consist of reading and memorizing the text. Oh, but I can't afford copy paper or ink, either, so you'll all going to have to share these three books! They were published in 1985, so be gentle with them. That's one's missing 20 pages out of the center."
That scenario might fine for MY kids, because I would have just signed them up for Saturday classes and taught them myself at home. I know a lot of elementary science! But, I also know many parents don't have the resources I have. And their kids would miss out, badly.
It's the kids who need the
most help, who would pay the harshest price, with this kind of "job action". And in the end, the inequality between schools will only widen and the disadvantaged kids will become even more disadvantaged. Because the system simply isn't set up to respond in the way Happyinwonerland wants it to.
I know a lot of folks like to grumble that school is just "glorified babysitting" and a way to "warehouse kids" so they don't roam the streets in feral packs. I've been guilty of this kind of hyperbole in the past myself, but the simple fact is that a publicly funded education is often the
only education many children will ever get. Losing even just a few months is a big deal.
I support public education. I want to see it get better. I don't have the answer to the problem but I do know that telling teachers they should stop doing their best to try to educate their students is not the way to fix things.
I give full props to the panhandling teacher for doing whatever it takes to help her students succeed.