REFORM: Members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) walked out of their schools to strike for the betterment of education in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
By Natalie Vargas, Staff Writer
After 20 months of bargaining, 31,000 UTLA members are participating in the strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). According to the Los Angeles Times, the teachers made the final decision to strike on Friday, January 11, 2019, after multiple offers made by the district did not meet their demands. The major objectives of the teachers were to decrease class size, hire more staff, receive better pay, and stem the increase of developing charter schools. Members of the teacher’s union marched to the school district headquarters to emphasize the importance of their needs being met.
Initially planned for Thursday, January 10, 2019, the strike was moved to Monday, January 14, 2019. The reason for postponing was not contracts between LAUSD and UTLA in the works, but a legal issue involving the date of the original strike. In order to begin the strike, the teachers were legally required to inform the district 10 days before they planned to break their labor agreements. Teachers involved in the strike accused LAUSD’s superintendent of attempting to stop the educators from striking with a legal technicality rather than making a better offer.
Because schools stayed open during the strike, the district spent three million dollars to employ 400 substitutes and over 2,000 staff to cover the teachers, librarians, counselors, and nurses involved in the walkout. Austin Beutner, the Superintendent of LAUSD, attempted to negotiate with teachers and made large efforts to prevent the strike from happening. An offer previously made by the district was to spend $75 million to hire more staff, which would decrease class size, though the teachers were still not content with the wage raise presented by the district. LAUSD initially planned on giving the teachers a 6% raise over two years of a three-year contract, while the teachers were interested in an immediate 6.5% raise. Likewise, the latest district offer before the strike was to lower middle school classes by two students, keep a full-time nurse on campus at elementary schools, and add an additional high school counselor and librarian for all secondary schools. Nonetheless, the teachers were still concerned with the fact that extra staffing was only assured for one year. Although the UTLA desired more staffing to create smaller class sizes, Superintendent Beutner claimed that the district does not have the money to meet their demands.
A major cause of the strike is the wish to halt the growth of charter schools so that public schools do not have to compete with them for students. As a result of charter schools being nonunion, to suspend the creation of new charter schools, the district would have to speak with state legislation because nonunion schools do not have to abide by school district rules. Additionally, teachers are resistant to charter schools, as they wish to improve already existing schools rather than build new schools. The education of Los Angeles’ students is one of the most important factors for teachers that are taking part in the strike. “We’re marching for the future of public education… [n]o one’s doing this for fun. We’re missing our kids,” elementary school teacher, Micheal La Mont, said.
The school district has allegedly lost millions of dollars because of the strike. Despite the fact that the district claims to need more state funding to meet teacher needs, the UTLA is persistent in continuing their fight for education. By walking out of classrooms, the teachers are determined to improve educational opportunities for Los Angeles’ youth.