L.A. teachers strike, but schools stay open
LOS ANGELES — A skeleton crew of substitutes welcomed students to Los Angeles schools Monday as tens of thousands of teachers walked off the job for the first time in three decades, but parents wondered how much their kids were learning in the nation’s second-largest school district.
Educators and parents wearing ponchos created a sea of umbrellas as they packed streets in pouring rain to march from City Hall to district headquarters, pressing for higher pay and smaller class sizes that school officials say could bankrupt the system with 640,000 students. The rain-slicked streets filled with protesters contributed to heavy downtown traffic, but there were no major incidents or arrests.
Teachers aim to build on the momentum of successful strikes nationwide that began last year in conservative states and have moved to the more union-friendly West Coast. But unlike those strikes that shut down many schools and forced parents to find other care for their kids, all 1,240 K-12 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were open.
For kids who went to school, bus service was normal, breakfast and lunches were served, and “students are safe and learning,” Superintendent Austin Beutner said at a news conference.
The district has hired hundreds of substitutes to replace educators and staff members who left for picket lines, a move that the teachers union has called irresponsible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the sides to resume negotiations and end the strike that was “disrupting the lives of too many kids and their families.”
The union rejected the district’s latest offer to hire nearly 1,200 teachers, counselors, nurses and librarians and reduce class sizes by two students. It also included a previously proposed 6 percent raise over the first two years of a three-year contract. The union wants a 6.5 percent hike at the start of a two-year contract.
Teachers earn between $44,000 and $86,000 a year depending on their education and experience, according to the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The district says the average teacher salary is $75,000, which reflects an older, more experienced workforce.
Teachers want significantly smaller class sizes, which routinely top 30 students, and more staff members for the district’s campuses in Los Angeles and all or parts of 31 smaller cities, plus several unincorporated areas.
The district says the demands run up against an expected halfbillion-dollar deficit this budget year and billions that are obligated for pension payments and health coverage for retired teachers.
The union argues that the district is hoarding reserves of $1.8 billion that could be used to fund the pay and staffing hikes.
Teachers are trying to tap into the “Red4Ed” movement that began last year and won big raises even in states with “right to work” laws. Those walkouts started in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona and moved to Colorado and Washington state.