“Since 2008, the cost of living in LA has increased 27% yet the district offers stagnant wages and healthcare.” “Even with $1.86 billion reserves, the LAUSD says it does not have the money to improve our schools to include lower class sizes, accountability for charter schools and a real reinvestment in school safety, vital staffing and educational programs,” UTLA says on its website. The LAUSD has offered a three year contract with a 6 percent pay raise spread over the first two years the union wants a 6.5 percent raise retroactive for a third year. UTLA and the Los Angeles Unified School District have been deadlocked in contract negotiations since April 2017, and teachers have been working without a contract for more than one year. Izumi said that while UTLA and its allies claim that charter schools inadequately serve the needs of low-income and minority students, the data demonstrates that charters are improving the achievement of those students. “According to a 2017 study by the school-research-and-rating organization GreatSchools, there were 156 public schools in California ‘that are providing strong results for African-American students and Hispanic students.’ While only a little more than one in 10 public schools statewide is a public charter school, among these 156 high-performing schools, nearly one out of three was a charter school,” Izumi said. Charter school enrollment in Los Angeles has increased because parents have been dissatisfied with the performance of regular district public schools, which are staffed by UTLA’s teachers,” Izumi added.

“Even worse, UTLA’s secretary Arlene Inouye now says that the strike ‘is not just about salary,’” Izumi said. “UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl has recently called for a cap on the growth of charter schools in Los Angeles, which has more charter schools than any other school system in the nation. The union accuses LA Schools Superintendent Austin Beutner of working to vastly expand the number of charter schools in an attempt at privatization. The UTLA labor union claims charter schools siphon off students and money from the district. “I’m not anti-charter schools,” he said, but added that charters need transparency. Gavin Newsom said he was accounting for in his budget, during his press conference Thursday, where he presented his 2019-20 Budget. UTLA is also calling for “Charter School accountability,” something Gov. Only one day after setting the date for the strike, the union’s president called for an “immediate” cap on the number of charter schools in the district. One of the biggest beefs the United Teachers of Los Angeles labor union has is with charter schools. The union wants to use the district’s reserve to pay for their demands, but that reserve is already at a minimum level, so giving in to the union’s demands would push the district into insolvency and potentially liability for a state takeover.”

“The union wants retroactive 6.5% pay raises going back to 2016 and more staff in every school. Izumi is the Director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. “The demands of the United Teachers of Los Angeles bear no relation to this fiscal reality,” said education scholar Lance Izumi, in an interview.

Yet the LAUSD budget is weighed down by retirement and health obligations, which policy analysts say could get in the way of long-term teacher pay increases. The LAUSD teaches more than 600,000 kids with 30,000 teachers in 1,100 public schools.įor months, teachers have been threatening to strike for better pay. The United Teachers of Los Angeles labor union says low teacher pay, poor working conditions, large class sizes, and the growing demand for charter schools and school choice are chief among their complaints. Gavin Newson has only been governor for seven days and is already facing the first strike in 30 years at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest school district.

Lausd strike update 2018