USA TODAY International Edition
LA teachers plan to strike on Monday
The nation’s second-largest school district is on the verge of chaos.
United Teachers Los Angeles – 34,000 educators strong in the schools in question – is expected to strike starting Monday. UTLA and the Los Angeles Unified School District have been negotiating a new contract for almost two years with little to show.
Teachers plan to picket their individual schools and then rally downtown. Here’s a primer on the strike.
Question: Just how big is this strike?
A: LA Unified School District, which covers 710 square miles and is home to 4.8 million residents, serves more than 640,000 K-12 students. (That’s more students than the entire state of Wyoming has people.) Some of those students are in charter schools, but nearly half a million are in schools where educators plan to walk out.
LAUSD is the second-largest employer in Los Angeles County. That means this strike will have an impact on hundreds of thousands of people.
Q: Why are teachers striking?
A: Teachers in LA want bigger paychecks. UTLA also wants more money for counselors, nurses and librarians, plus a reduction in standardized testing and promises of smaller class sizes.It also wants regulations on charterschool growth.
UTLA points to nearly $2 billion in reserves at LA Unified that the union says can be used immediately to pay for its varying demands.
Q: Why won’t the district give them what they want?
A: LA Unified Schools, led by Super- intendent Austin Beutner, offered a 6 percent raise by the second year of a three-year contract. (The union wanted 6.5 percent, plus a year retroactive.)
The district says the nearly $2 billion in reserves is already pledged causes including raises for cafeteria workers and bus drivers. If it met every UTLA demand, the district says, it would go bankrupt, which is illegal.
Q: What will happen to the kids?
A: The district plans to keep schools open during the strike.
About 400 substitutes plus 2,000 credentialed district staff – including administrators who used to be classroom teachers – will help fill the void of the 34,000 striking teachers.
Roughly 80 percent of students in the district rely on their school for lunch, and school administrators want to make sure those students are able to eat. The schools also are committed to providing meals and a safe environment for their more than 20,000 homeless students.
Q: How are parents responding?
A: Many parents support the union but plan to send their children to school because they work and have no childcare options during school hours.
Other parents have said they’ll hold their kids out of school. Some have even volunteered their homes as a rest stop of sorts for picketing teachers. The district has said that because school is open, students are expected to attend.
Q: How long might the strike last?
A: It’s unclear. By hiring subs, the district has prepared for a strike that could last multiple days. But it’s tough to know how long parents will put up with a potentially altered school day, or how many kids will show up for classes.
LA Unified School District, which covers 710 square miles and is home to 4.8 million residents, serves more than 640,000 K-12 students.