L.A. schools lost $15 million on Day 1; teachers’ strike continues for second day
LOS ANGELES – As the first Los Angeles teachers’ strike in 30 years stretched into its second day Tuesday, the school district’s top official lamented that the walkout already had cost millions in state funding.
Teachers, meanwhile, returned to the picket line and then converged downtown for a rally to protest the growth of charter schools, which their union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has blamed for draining funds from the district.
Los Angeles schools Superintendent Austin Beutner, in a morning news conference, said the first day hit hard with only a third of the district’s students showing up for school. That cost the school system about $25 million in state funding tied to enrollment, he said. Subtract unpaid wages for the strikers of $10 million, he said, and that amounts to an estimated one-day net loss of $15 million.
The union, which wants better wages, smaller class sizes and more support staff at schools, has argued that the Los Angeles Unified School District has the money on hand to meet its demands, even while saying that the school system also needs to get more state funding.
Beutner said the union and its 31,000 members who walked off the job should join with the district in pushing Sacramento to better fund schools.
DEAR ABBY: I’m a 15-yearold girl. I’m a fun person to be with, and I love spending time with my friends and family. But one thing sometimes ruins it. I have a bit of a temper and some anger problems. I’m wondering if you have anything that could help me control my temper and be nicer to people? I get into disagreements with people I care about because of my attitude. Can you give me some guidance? – TESTY TEEN IN WISCONSIN
DEAR TEEN: If you think you are the only person with anger issues, you are mistaken. We are living in increasingly stressful times that have affected most of us in one way or another.
It takes self-control – and maturity – to react calmly instead of spouting off angrily. Before you can deal with your anger problem you need to be able to pinpoint what makes you lose control. The problem with a hair-trigger temper is that those who fly off the handle sometimes shoot themselves in the foot.
While anger is a normal emotion we all experience at one time or another, most people start learning to control it during childhood. Uncontrolled anger is destructive because it