When will LAUSD students be free to breathe again?
Children are powerless. Teachers' unions are powerful. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, this is known as “science.”
“The district has an agreement with UTLA that requires the parties to negotiate before L.A. Unified can lift its masking mandate,” reported journalist Linh Tat in these pages on Monday.
United Teachers Los Angeles met with district officials on Friday for some of this “negotiating.” The district made a proposal to revise its healthand-safety protocols, and the union left without making a counterproposal. More “negotiations” are scheduled for today.
In the meantime, UTLA informed its members that the district proposed making indoor masking optional and ending mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing of students and staff no later than April 29. The union is surveying its members to see how they feel about these changes.
Just to be clear, how anybody “feels” about proposed changes is not a scientific metric. It tells us nothing about the actual risks of the virus or the effectiveness of any of the measures put in place to stop the virus from spreading.
According to the state of California and the county of Los Angeles, there is no longer a scientific reason for mandatory masking in school buildings.
But LAUSD is being held hostage by UTLA. The union's email to its members stated, “The district is not lifting the indoor masking requirement at this point because we don't have a bargaining agreement.”
You can bet the “negotiations” are not centered on a technical discussion of viral transmission.
How much will it cost to let children in LAUSD schools see faces and breathe freely?
Who knows? The union has been trying to shake more money out of taxpayers for years. UTLA walked out on strike in 2019 and stayed out until LAUSD agreed to contract terms that the district, facing a structural annual operating deficit of $500 million and a potential takeover by the county, couldn't afford. Quickly the school board drew up a proposal for a tax increase on property owners and put it on the ballot for voter approval. Voters said no.
UTLA is just one of LAUSD's “labor partners,” so it's likely that other unions will eventually get something similar to whatever the teachers' union negotiates while they have the kids locked in classrooms and tied up in masks.
These little chats about COVID-19 health-and-safety protocols are completely separate and in addition to the regular contract negotiations, which are coming up.
In September, UTLA reached a “safety protocol” agreement with LAUSD. According to UTLA's website, “key elements” of the agreement included “a 5% ongoing raise along with a one-time $2,000 stipend for this school year and a one-time $500 technology stipend for last school year.” But don't go thinking this was just about money. There was more. “There will be no evaluation for permanent educators who have not received a below standard evaluation in the last five years,” the union cheerfully informed its members.
Whatever you think of masks, testing and the rest of the assorted COVID-19 “mandates,” “recommendations” and “guidance,” perhaps we can all agree that there's nothing scientific about what's going on in LAUSD.
This is happening because Gov. Gavin Newsom refused to issue an order to reopen schools, instead choosing to “empower” local districts and their “labor partners” to work it out locally. Generally, school board members are negotiating with the powerful unions that donated large sums to get them elected. The threat that the same unions could donate to get somebody else elected hangs in the air. In other words, they're both sitting on the same side of the bargaining table.
Who represents the kids? Nobody.
It is dangerous to have decisions about children's health and well-being in the classroom delegated to people who are effectively paid to deliver better wages and benefits, not better educational or health outcomes.
Teachers who are unhappy with this situation are free to resign from the union. They will still work under the same union contract, but they will not have to pay dues to the union.
Maybe somebody will learn something from that.