How can this be happening in the liberal utopia of California and the city of LA? I think the answer is simple but probably not welcome. A large influx of non English speaking, low income students has overwhelmed the system LA is quite different than it was 25 years ago as is California. Far more poor people and far more poorly educated families. Tough to have a successful outcome even with more resources.
The teachers are also being a bit unrealistic. In most walks of life when your employer has financial difficulties you have to accept sacrifices or find another line of work. Businesses just can't raise prices to give wage increases. The teachers believe that the taxpayers need to fork over more money so they can get increases. I know its all for the children but in the end it is about working conditions, wages, pensions, and benefits. Teachers have better pensions and benefits than the vast majority of non-governmental workers in California. I don't begrudge them that but their total compensation package easily exceeds $100K (California Employee Database).
How about a referendum asking the very blue State of California to repeal Prop 13 and raise everyone's property tax? It will be sold as "for the children" but most of the money will go for salaries and pensions. Plus it will never pass. Somehow it is always better to tax someone else (the "rich") than pay more. you can't have it both ways.
9
Could the reporter be a bit more specific on the 40 person classroom claim? How many teachers are assigned to this classroom? What type of class is it - P.E., A.P, band, chorus, elementary full inclusion? Elementary, middle , high school?
3
This is one selfish group of people.
It was their choice to become teachers, it was their choice to live in the most expensive and corrupt state in the union.
Because they're not happy with their lot, they are holding students hostage, students that need an education so they don't wind up like these teachers!
Fire them all, start over....
8
Instead of spending one trillion dollars on rebuilding our nuclear arsenal, which is a total waste, why not redirect the money to education?
2
The reason I’m out striking in LA for this third day this morning against public school prizitization is sort of for the same reason I put solar panels in my house even in the face of overwhelming climate change. I know it’s a lost cause but at least I feel I need to try.
1
80% of students qualify for free lunch so I guess the economic situation in California isn't so great after all. Since Democrats have run the State and the City for years it's their problem. The results of the LA district aren't so great either. Mt guess is that anyone who can flee the LAUSD has already done it. Kamala Harris wants a solution...hey just raise the income tax even higher and see how many people leave. It won't be the 80% of free lunch.
7
One alternative is skip the entire disastrous public school system and go private, there's really no other way in most of the country and certainly no other way in LA County.....
That'll solve your problem right quick!
3
The comments here are full of people venting their spleen in claims that all the problems if the LAUSD are due to illegal immigrants.
It appears that these people see figures like 75% latino and 82% poverty and jump to the conclusion that they are all illegals.
The real numbers state-wide are that approximately 3% of children are illegal immigrants and about 12% have at least one illegal parent. (ref below)
Fractions might be higher in LAUSD, but not so great as to come anywhere near the crazy assumption that illegals are big cause of the problems here.
The reality is that the LAUSD serves a large (and rapidly growing!) population of poor and predominantly latino US CITIZENS, and it isn't serving them very well.
The high growth rate of the student population is a result of the bulging latino immigration into LA from roughly 1990 - 2010 that transformed the demographics of LA, particularly South LA. While a big (but not clearly known) fraction of that were illegals, most were US citizens coming from elsewhere in the USA -- most of the students now are children of that wave.
School construction has been costly, and has not kept up. This is one of the causes of the large and crowded classes: not enough classrooms.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jul/05/viral-image/no-39-california-students-arent-undocumented/
3
@Lee Harrison
Maybe some more parental involvement would help as well.
3
This is in reference to all the comments that apologize or paper over the salary issue. We act as though it's unseemly for teachers to ask for better pay. I'd want my children taught by a well compensated adult who can have a comfortable life not an exploited 22 year old subsisting on ramen. We want our most difficult jobs to be carried out by people who are seasoned professionals which means they've been tested, made mistakes, and have confidence in how to do their jobs. We say teachers are disrespected in our society but the disrespect comes from the inside -- the admin, superintendents and school boards who keep expecting more but don't provide support or training or frankly the financial incentive to work harder. We pretend teachers are charity workers, teaching for the love of the trade. Do you want the surgeon cutting out your appendix to do it as an avocation. I didn't think so
8
Funny I read all of the time how healthcare is too expensive and we have to cut costs, improve access, and make it of higher quality. In education we need to spend more, limit access to alternatives, and never measure outcomes.
4
Children, citizens or not, deserve to be educated and provided with the services needed to assist them. Regardless of your opinion they are part of our society. It is a great way to help our country as older generations leave the work force.
Aside from that, a good education shouldn’t be just for the families who can afford to pay for a private K-12th tuition. Public education is what separates us from the rest of the world where only those who can afford it go to school.
I am forever grateful to my public school teachers. Thanks to them I am a college graduate who loves going to work every single day. Stay strong UTLA and teachers across the US!
2
This headline is embarrassing. Teachers are not "disrupting" classes. They are fighting for better education and the 40 students in their classes. What disrupts education? Large class sizes that prevent teachers from building relationships with individual students, understaffed schools, and inadequate compensation for the amount of work teachers must do to meet the needs of all students - precisely what the LA teachers are fighting for.
6
Say what you will, no one cares about poor people. Some of these comments demonstrate less concern for these so called aliens (who are in fact children) than a pack of wild dogs. Did you ever think that maybe these illegal immigrants could one day be a great resource? Maybe even more so if they were educated.
5
Early this evening I heard on NPR that 80% of the students are living below the poverty level. If this is even remotely true, why would Jerry Brown the former Governor boast leaving office with a 11 billion dollar surplus?
Will the new governor use any part of the surplus or will CA residents continue to blindly vote to the left?
4
The statement in the fourth paragraph, that "educators on all sides agree California should spend more money on education" elides one of the main issues behind the strike. Los Angeles Unified is led by a superintendent with no education experience and committed to a program to replace a commitment to public education with "efficient" but often fly-by-night charter schools.
When Chicago teachers went on strike in 2012, the same concern, that we were being led by people who were fundamentally uninformed about our work and ideologically opposed to its success, was what led to a 99% strike authorization vote.
Referring to both LA teachers and the district management here as "educators" is -- to give an analogy perhaps resonant for a journalist -- akin to saying that Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the White House correspondents are all "disseminators of truth."
4
@James Cole
The teachers in Chicago want a 5% across the board increase this year. They want to pay for it by taxing the rich. The outcomes are similarly dismal in Chicago. 90% of the students are minority black or Hispanic since the white population has largely abandoned the public school system, many teachers and the current and past mayors send their children to private schools (parental choice), and the union resists any measure of accountability.
By the way I don't blame the teachers for the miserable results - its largely the result of minimal parental involvement. A large number of kindergartners and first graders miss more than 10% of the school year. Obviously no one is paying much attention. I suspect the situation is the same in LA.
Ever wonder why people move to the suburbs...Its not because people like to commute.
5
Which will end first the LA Teachers strike or the Federal Government partial shutdown?
2
"The sprawling district goes far beyond the Los Angeles city limits, stretching some 720 square miles from wealthy coastal areas like Pacific Palisades to working-class southeast suburbs like Montebello. It is overwhelmingly low income; more than 80 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. And Latinos make up roughly 75 percent of all students, while whites and African-Americans each account for less than 10 percent of enrollment." The teachers want more pay, smaller classes, and more support staff. Why? Because LA schools have gone downhill for the last couple of decades due to... illegal immigration! Talk to the teachers, yes they want more money. Who doesn't?
And I hear that California has the 7th largest economy in the world? Ha!!! Guess LA isn't a big contributor.
6
@Ma -- 95% of the students in the LAUSD are US citizens.
1
Can I ask, how many administrators does LA have? What is the student ratio to administrators and non-teaching personnel? How many sub par teachers are employed and cannot be fired?
Exactly, where does the money go when talking education dollars? The Public Service unions don't want to talk about that, but the conversation needs to take place. Cut 50% of the administrators, and establish a cap on their pay, cap on their benefits and maybe LA will get somewhere, along with the rest of the country.
3
While sympathetic to the LA teachers, I need to say to the NY Times that the NYC teachers went on strike in the early 1970s. At the time I was head of the PTA; our local Presbyterian Church in the Bronx provided the means for teachers to continue to give assignments and curriculum to their students.
2
@Arlene
To clarify, are you saying that during a strike you had NYC teachers working? During a work stoppage?! You realize the point of a strike is for the goods/services to not be performed? Would you have expected farm workers to keep picking grapes on the side during the strike?
It was very selfless (as expected by everyone) of those teachers to continue working when they weren't supposed to be. A strike day is filled with before and after school picketing and other union activities during the day. Does that mean that those teachers didn't participate in the union mandated activities or that you as head of the PTA bullied them into coming in during their normally "off the clock" hours?
Shame on you for perpetuating the idea that teachers need to put their own needs aside for the good of the children at all times. That’s EXACTLY what the LAUSD superintendent and majority charter backed school board are counting on to keep learning-teaching conditions as they are.
1
We the taxpayers are constantly told that everything the teachers want is "for the children". Better pensions, higher wages, smaller classrooms (more dues paying union members) are things the teachers are not concerned with according to the conventional wisdom. The teachers are on strike for more money. That's fine by me but please don't dress it up as anything else.
2
Big media continues to characterize government schools as schools. In fact, they are anything but schools. The reality is they are federal day care and feeding centers for America's vast, ever expanding underclass. The LA (teachers strike) has nothing to do with students or education. Every thinking adult (there are few) realize as much. These holding institutions need to be shuttered. The (students) would be better served by enrolling in apprentice training for a useful trade. Of course, the tax payer will pay for tis less noxious alternative.
10
Excellent solution to the problem of underclass children - “apprentice training” for 6 year olds.
And it’s not as if children actually need to learn how to read, write, perform basic math, etc. etc. so they can function as adults.....
3
Lots of words, little information. Critical and obvious information omitted: expenditure per student with a national comparison, student performance per dollar expended relative to the rest of the nation, administrative expenditures as a percentage of the whole, with a national comparison included. LA schools haven't been exactly world beaters where academic performance is concerned. There are clearly problems, but without a full layout of the performance, expenditure, and administrative statistics, there's no way to get at them.
6
The CA Dept of Ed has materials for assessing the administrator to teacher ratio, which by every report I’ve seen has been getting worse (fewer teachers per administrator) for decades. https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ca/atr.asp What is the ratio in the LACSD? Could the Union agree to a lowering of the ratio to save money, so that money could be invested in more teachers, counsellors and nurses?
4
There was a time when The Times would tell it like it is, rather than slanting so heavily to the left. The Democrats, not the Republicans have created this morass and they now have an opportunity to clean it up. You can't keep bringing immigrants into the US with no place for them to go. You're creating a slave state filled with migrants with little or no skills. The Democrats need them to clean their home, their toilets and keep their manicured lawns in shape, that's obvious, but the fact is that we can't keep raising taxes to support these folks. Think about it, California, as in New Jersey, they want to create a safe zone for illegals, yet they have no plan how to house, clothe, feed or educate them. Now you have teachers striking because their 9 months salary is not enough and/or because their classes are too big. Wake up folks.
17
Why don’t you talk to Trump & the GOPers about hiring illegal immigrants before you start in on the Democrats who don’t complain nearly as much about such individuals.
Start with the folks at the top that are making the biggest stink while simultaneously contributing to the problem.
1
I've been a teacher, and believe me when I say,
too many students in a classroom means teachers
are doing triage.
15
@Pia Not anything new. I was teaching a 4th/5th combination in LAUSD in 1972. All of the behavior problems for both grades had been placed in one room, mine. I was new there in October, because the other teacher quit. There were 45 kids in my room until one of the parents notified the fire department. The fire inspector came through and made the principal take 7 kids out because with so much furniture, the exit aisles did not meet fire code. The principal blamed me, and tried to fire me.
This has always been the way with LAUSD!
3
I think this article should be on the first page. The coverage of the teacher's strike is very important and relevant news.
Thank you,
Marie Lozada
8
This looks like a great opportunity for Betsy DeVos to expand her business.
The solution is quite obvious to Republicans: Another round of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
5
This headline is flawed. Teachers are fighting the “portfolio model”. Our children should not be the victims of venture capital.
It’s not teachers that are “disrupting classes”.
15
The article notes that one of the issues here is class size. I know this is in the nature of an inconvenient truth to the union and the Times, but I think it is obvious that had illegal immigration been controlled or stopped, a very large percentage of the students swelling the class ranks now would currently be in classes in their native countries. The school demographics cited in this article clearly bear that out. No one, including the "woke" California political class, actually believes the laughable claim that immigrants, including and especially illegals, pay taxes that are adequate to support the services they receive.
My proposal would be that any raise the teachers extract here be paid for by a tax imposed on the self righteous liberal Californians who hire nannies, gardeners, and maids, not to mention the dishwashers and busboys in the trendy restaurants they patronize and the laborers on their remodeling projects, since a large proportion are illegal. I realize such a tax would be difficult to enforce, since most of these transactions are in the form of off-the-books cash payments, but still, it would highlight who is actually benefitting from illegal immigration and place the onus on them to pay for its consequences.
15
The above comment, as insightful as it is, neglects the other tenets of modern conservatism -- no taxes even if your deficit is sky high, and policy is more than a glib one liners.
Perhaps the solution is not to tax Californians but rather spend billions of taxpayer dollars to build big beautiful walls in classrooms. If anyone dare challenge the wall then we can always shut down the government.
3
@Airish
The only illegal immigrants who are paying taxes are the ones with fake SSNs. Otherwise, the employers have no legal avenue for deducting income tax from their wages. To be sure, many unscrupulous employers deduct taxes from these workers wages and simply pocket the amounts.
The real bad guys here are the employers. This could all be stopped if the Republicans and Democrats enforced the e-verify program and fined and/or jailed employers who hire illegals.
But the Democrats don't want to penalize employers, and in spite of Trump's bluster, neither do the Republicans.
Having said that, I agree there are many liberals speaking out of both sides of their mouths who are some of the worst exploiters when it comes to employing illegals.
12
In theory, all illegal immigrants should be able to obtain a fake SSNs. There are many sources of them.
On another note, allegedly the IRS will provide illegal immigrants with Taxpayer ID numbers so they can literally pay taxes. I’m not sure how many individuals are aware of this.
We obviously need low-skilled workers in the USA no matter what Trump & the GOP claim. Employers allegedly can’t even hire enough moderately skilled citizens at the current level of unemployment.
Illegals aren’t necessarily in competition for many of the low skilled jobs anyway no matter what folks claim. For the moderate skilled jobs they’re probably not going to compete that much given that many of them will require English proficiency at a minimum if not fluency. Some of those coming from Central America apparently don’t even speak Spanish (other more indigenous languages) so it’s possible that not that as many Spanish speaking employers are going to be able to hire them. They may be stuck with the lowest of the low skilled positions.,
2
You get what you pay for, and those that resent teachers and their education for asking for decent working and schooling conditions for children should ask themselves why they have no issue with the Republican congress giving the taxpayers wealth away to subsidize corporations? It's a waste of taxes to so under-resource public schools that class sizes are above 25. Realistically, children are not able to have meaningful discussions, ask questions, or receive personalized attention when the focus is on safety and behavior management. In the old factory model schooling was litter better than warehousing for the poor and future cannon fodder. Teachers have higher expectations for their work and the children they teach. Parents do too. Schools also do not function any better than other enterprise does with reduced or absent support staff, like librarians, music teachers, and school psychologists. Raise local taxes, ouch, and stop funding charter schools.
12
@Dr. Conde Here in Milwaukee we have a mix of public, charter and private schools, and there are very good and very bad schools in each category. The problem is we have so many schools that they must compete for students in order to survive economically - so much so that marketing and recruitment are their competition grounds not academic performance. The solution here is not to end funding for charter schools but rather to shutter the weakest performers in each category. Please do not be overly broad in your condemnation of charter schools.
1
@S Baldwin
No doubt the situation with charter schools is different in different states, but why not fund the public schools equitably so that instead of marketing and competition, they can provide a well-resourced schooling experience for all of our future citizens?
1
@Dr. Conde - California has one of the highest tax rates in the country. The schools are funded by both local and state funds. As much as you might not like to hear it, the GOP is not to blame here. The state of California has been controlled by Democrats since 1970.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Legislature
"The Democratic Party currently holds supermajorities in both houses of the California State Legislature. The Assembly consists of 60 Democrats and 20 Republicans, while the Senate is composed of 29 Democrats and 11 Republicans. Except for a brief period from 1995 to 1996, the Assembly has been in Democratic hands since the 1970 election. The Senate, meanwhile, has been under continuous Democratic control since 1970."
You can blame lots of things on the GOP...but this ain't one of them.
4
if they want full time pay they should get a full time job (52 weeks a year) they should quit their overpaid part time (36 weeks a year) job! $86,000 a year is rich man's salary.
If you walk off a job you have QUIT and should be replaced.
Only FOOLS march around with signs.
10
@Southern Baptist
You are apparently unaware that classroom teaching is only part of what teachers do. There's also unit and lesson planning for differentiated instruction, grading, calls to parents, decorating the classroom and posting current work on bulletin boards, planning trips and after school activities for students, tutoring after school, analyzing student data and preparing reports, attending professional development, etc. Also many teachers work summers, either because their students need them, they need the money or both. Teaching is not a part time job.
12
@Southern Baptist This is actually a pretty simple math problem. A full time job is equivalent to 40 hours a week, yes? That comes out to five eight-hour days. If you take the number of weeks in a year (52) and multiply by 5, you get 260 working days in a year (not counting holidays). A standard school year is 180 days of instruction, plus a few days for mandatory meetings and trainings — let’s say five. That leaves about 75 days unaccounted for.
So take those 75 days teachers have off (forgetting that some are holidays and some are spent working during the summer) and multiply by 8 working hours in a day. You get 600 hours unaccounted for.
Take those 600 hours and divide by 180 days. You get 3.3 extra hours of work beyond contract time in a day, including working lunches and time spent grading and planning on nights and weekends. Show me a decent teacher that doesn’t spend that much extra time working in a standard week; I dare you.
For example, weekend I spent 12 hours grading papers after a week of being in my high school English classroom until 8 almost every night. How about you get a real job?
19
@Southern Baptist
God didn’t give us the 8 hour work day or weekends. “Fools marching with signs.”
Thanks Unions!
2
Here in NJ our governor is competing with CA for sanctuary state status with similar resulting issues. Coddling criminals never ends well. All the phony polls can't hide what Americans are seeing and feeling, the social turmoil from illegal immigration. It's why Democrats will lose in 2020,
23
Social Workers, who usually have more (required) education than big city district teachers and who must pass very rigorous licensing exams, etc, often are paid a good deal less than these teachers are paid. Before we pay teachers more, let's make are our social workers are getting at least as much, especially since they don't get 2 months plus a few weeks' time off every year.
6
Or...we could get big business out of education. Pass the savings on to both social workers and teachers. We can do both!
4
Let's cut administrator and superintendent compensation to give raises to and hire more of both.
8
@Serving The Public Interest
Teachers and social workers should both be paid more. "Women's work" matters!
4
Raise taxes or divert some money that is spent on medical care for people in the US illegally.
14
In large part and regardless of political ideology, providing basic healthcare for all people in the country (legally or not) is a good idea, if for nothing else than self-preservation. Contagious illnesses and diseases don't distinguish between citizens, legal residents, tourists, visa abusers, or those who snuck in across a desert or northern forest or lake. If you don't want you and your family and community getting possibly deadly contagious illnesses (and these include those that accompany untreated injuries such as wounds), you best support smart and sensible public health measures such as providing vaccinations and treatment to even the "illegals" you resent so much. Of course, this comment assumes we are providing at least the same level and amount and quality of preventive services and needed treatment, for the same or lower price, to all of our citizens as well, and possibly first.
5
Re diverting money spent on medical care, that would be terrible public health policy and place the entire population at greater risk of contracting serious, even life-threatening, contagious diseases.
4
MSW, I could not agree with you more. I never could understand the “conservative” idea of withholding healthcare when the conservative might be eating in a restaurant where the food preparer might have hepatitis, for example. Absolutely crazy!
7
Go, teachers! We support you!
15
Former superintendent(s) and their staff who squandered or other wise mismanaged district funds ought to be sued and/or pursued on criminal charges and be required to pay attorneys fees and punitive damages.
The resulting amounts bestowed on the district, whether in LA or Oakland unified school districts or elsewhere in CA should help pay for needed books and supplies, more school nurses, better (or even adequate at this point) Services and supplies for kids with IEPs and 504 plans, school safety and for teacher pay and benefits. Pretty much in that order.
And it should be noted that in CA funding for public schools comes from the state, not from individual towns' or cities' property or income taxes, and is based on daily attendance, not on overall enrollment. Thus, districts become hyper-vigilant and punitive regarding attendance AND that a teacher strike places families in the untenable position of crossing picket lines and sending their kids to hamstringed schools for chaos-prone classes and compromised safety (if school is even open) on the one hand, or face the truancy officers and possible court action against parents unwilling to send their kids to district schools in those circumstances -- and unjust or overzealous truancy actions and the need to defend against them can have devastating impacts on schools' more vulnerable families, such as those that are low income, single-parent, where there is a history of domestic violence, or for those experiencing crises.
4
@Mama - What you said about how the schools are funded is not true. CA schools are funded by a mixture of local and state funds with the feds contributing about 10% of the total.
Can't be a 'sanctuary city' and 'sancuary state' then complain about the cost of education, class sizes, the illiteracy rates in English or poverty of the students. Raises are completely out of the question. Teacher salaries, healthcare benefits and pensions actually need to go down at least 35% to support this, not up. This is exactly what you signed up for with these policies, so stop complaining about it and figure it out.
Wait till all the kids from Venezuela start showing up. You'll love it. There's a few million on the move and they have zero prospects where they are right now in S. America. Figure another few million from Central America as well, all very eager to resettle and many will be coming to LA county.
The union should immediately vote to end the strike and cut all members' pay the proportional amount necessary to hire the staff needed in support of the policies they've enacted and ambitions of the politicians they've paid to have elected.
This is what's known as accountability.
26
Not all Californians or Angelinos want their state or cities to be "sanctuary" status or grant free or subsidized public education for people here without proper visas or green cards. Should their children and families suffer because of others' choices? Their kids still need great teachers and sufficient supplies and services. Your suggestion would just punish them even more.
7
Some commentators have noted that lasd only spends 16k per student. Assuming that’s true, then an illegal immigrant family with two kids consumes 32k in government services each year, three kids consumes 48k in government services each, and so on. What are the odds these families are paying 32/48k in taxes each year? Probably pretty good given California’s high tax rates. Therefore, the solution to the school funding crisis is to admit many more illegal immigrant families. Problem solved.
8
@RjmYou make way too much sense to be a NYT reader.
1
Amazing - a $75K a year salary - which is for a 10 month work year, and if they stick it out the best retirement pension in the world or may as well be compared to the retirement program of private sector workers.
And of course Latinos make up 75% of all students and 80% of all students qualify for free or reduced lunch programs. There are about 500,000 students.
So whose paying? My sister was an attorney. She complains about the 20K she pays each year for property taxes on her home. She is very liberal.
I ask her does she realize a lot of her taxes go for paying for those kids education. She won't wrap her mind around it. She listens mostly to MSNBC and CNN.
I just heard on the news that Spanish and Black families are having a lot more kids than whites and Asians. Whites aren’t replacing themselves. Which isn’t surprising, how can they afford to pay for their kids when they are raising all the Latino kids?
Teachers you know are screaming for open borders. Seriously?!
All Trump needs to do is point to LA to justify building a wall; where political correctness bumps up against reality.
26
I currently have a contract with Manhattan Beach Unified School District as a speech-language pathologist. These are all English-speaking affluent children and families.
I have never seen such a disgrace of “Cadillac plans” for children all “free” from state funding.
These kids are qualified for services that no other child in LAUSD or any other middle class district would even come near to qualifying for. Every other kid has a diagnosis of “autism,” where they get the Cadillac plan for all their school years. Thousands of dollars wasted.
I have worked around for a while and I cannot believe the services bestowed on the wealthy versus the nothing that the poor families get. It is a disgusting waste of funds, and an outrageous difference between the haves and have-nots.
Believe me, state funds are primarily bestowed upon the wealthy.
5
@Heather Way
As a speech pathologist, apparently you do not have much of an understanding of how schools are funded.
Typically 50% of school funding comes from local property taxes. Most of the rest comes from state funding and then the balance from Federal funding (rounded).
When you have 80% of students qualifying for free lunch – that’s 400K students, whose parents do not pay federal income taxes, state income taxes and minimal local property taxes.
Those taxes fund the schools. 20% of the population are working themselves sick to pay for the remaining 80%. I am part of the 20% who well past retirement age must continue to work to pay high property taxes and for the increased cost of medical care caused by the dilution of Medicare to help defray Medicaid.
There are infinite other costs associated with supporting these children. S. and C. America have had runaway population growth for a century. (Pales in comparison to Africa).
You are determined not to advise these Latino families to have the number of kids they can afford to raise, but rather to have all the children they can have while the upper 20% pay for them until everyone is equally miserable.
Here’s a solution: we’ll keep the funding for poor communities the same regardless if they have fewer kids, then if they have half the number (the same as white families) they will effectively double the per pupil outlays. That seems generous to me, since the so called rich (working people) are struggling a plenty.
6
The LAUSD strike is also an attempt by the district to break the teachers union and deal organized labor a huge setback. The current superintendent, who has no educational experience and whose former job was directing a hedge fund, was hired by a the school board. In turn the majority of the school board was elected because they were subsidized by Eli Broad- a wealthy developer.
Last year, one of Mr. Broads elected school board members, Ref Rodriguez, was forced to resign when he was found guilty of guilty of committing two felonies (misappropriating money to get help get elected). The school board and Mr. Broad were both aware of these charges even before Mr. Rodriguez was elected for the first time. Later in 2017, Mr. Rodriguez was dismissed from his position as the director of PUC Charter Schools.
M. Broad runs the Broad initiative that trains candidates to implement a pro-charter initiative within the district. He pays their salary for the first year and then the district assumes the salary. This strategy has been very effective. LAUSD now has 20% charters-the highest rate in the nation. Administrators who work with the district have to be careful not to criticize any charter school.
At one of the charter high schools, Franklin, it is common practice to dismiss the special education students in October (norm day) and force them to go elsewhere. That way the test scores are higher and costs are lower.
"Money doesn't talk-it swears." Bob Dylan
24
@Tristan Ludlow Eli Broad and former mayor Richard Riordan have pushed through several superintendents who are unqualified, dishonest, lied about their education, etc. The 2 of them look for flunkies they can pass off, hiding the truth for as long as possible. I know of at least two superintendents in the last few years who have had their contracts bought out to get rid of them. Broad just finds another.
3
Terrible portrayal of the charter issue is LA. The entire board majority is pro-privatization, and a stoppage of charter growth is one of the public union's main demands. The anti-charter, anti-Devos placards were thick in the crowd, and this story just misses that.
18
The New York Times (and UTLA) should be highlighting the scourge that is Prop 13. If you don't know about it - google it. Thank you to Prop 13 homeowners who bought before 1980 pay property taxes frozen at that time. IT has helped to kill public education from K through college in California. Furthermore - it applies to rental properties and commercial properties. So while I pay modern rent - my landlord is he is paying 1980 property taxes. Same for commercial builds. And it allows the benefit to transfer to children and grandchildren of the property owner. What a disgrace in a state that claims to be liberal and care for all. IN the meantime we've allowed an outrageous transfer of wealth to property owners and their heirs that has had the byproduct of destroying public education. If you want to support teachers -g et rid of Prop 13
46
@Dana Proposition 13 passed because California state employees were greedy. People were being taxed out of their homes and the Union's response was too bad. BTW: When you buy a home, the new owners pay the current level of taxes, not 1980. All proposition 13 does is protect people from being forced out of their homes. There is no reason California can not live within it's means.
8
@cleo
No, Prop 13 does not just protect people from losing their homes, it also greatly impacts housing availability and housing prices and, thus, the serious housing crises in our state.
Furthermore, Prop 13 currently applies to corporations and other groups such as elite private clubs that own property, a substantial amount of which was purchased decades ago and has just passed along to entirely new generations of owners -- so the property is no longer owned by the original purchasers, who are now long-dead and gone. It's one (controversial) thing to pass along a modest primary residence to one's children without boosting property tax to current market value rates; its quite another to allow the same for, say, for-profit big businesses and ever-higher priced country clubs filled with members making today's salaries, not those of 30, 50, 100 years ago.
14
@cleo that is not accurately regarding Prop 13. Prop 13 allows homeowners to in transfer their property to their children and grandchildren at the pre-1980 tax amount. What possible justification for this white collar welfare is there? And it applies to commercial businesses and landlords. It’s an outrage
15
“This impasse is disrupting the lives of too many kids and their families[.]” That's literally the only way a strike can actually have teeth and work.
7
Not quite. Public schools are not like hotel chains. Students can't just choose to go to another school or district, especially mid-year, and why should children suffer what could be lasting adverse impact because teachers want more cash in their pockets for fewer than 10 full months of work? If the teachers were striking only in order to get much-needed supplies or services for students (rather than personal raises or more vacation or other benefits) and, ideally, if they allowed the students' parents to join in voting whether or not a strike happens in order to help the students, that would be more palatable and just.
We love our teachers and want what helps them teach our kids and to want to teach our kids. But perhaps they could plan and structure their strike differently, so that the most vulnerable and needy and powerless in the picture are left to shoulder the brunt of the hardship caused by a strike. Maybe take a page from the mental healthcare workers who recently striked against Kaiser Permanente?
2
@Mama
There’s been negotiations for over 23 months. Do you really think picketing before and after school would change that? The answer is no. It takes a strong movement to bring about change. This was a last resort.
The largest economy in the world has trouble financing its second largest public school district. How is that possible? No, it is not that there are no available funds to meet the demands of hiring more staff and providing more resources. It is that elected officials and the larger system deem the learning experience of children as a non-priority.
This is the country that has outspend the next top ten countries collectivelly in the military. Why not divert some of those funds from the department of defense to the department of education? Why is it not a national crisis when teachers have to spend out of pocket on school supplies?
There should be a national walkout. Not just these scattered movements across various states since the past year. Every single public school employee should strike simultaneously to send a loud and undeniable message to the billionaire cabinet secretary DeVos (who has actively sought for profiting via private schools) that the underfunding of public schools is a national crisis.
When there are students reading below their grade level, that is a crisis. When the upcoming labor force do not have the necessary skill set for the labor market, that is a crisis. There is money for public education. Reverse the corporate tax reductions, raise taxation on the super rich, and divert those funds to education.
What good is a nation with a strong military, when its citizens are undereducated, and unequipped for the new labor market and civic engagment.
15
@Anym Unfortunately, you missed the part of History class on the Constitution. No where in it does it mention education.
Education is a local issue. A State issue. Screaming about the military makes no sense since the Defense of the Union IS a national issue.
Some Federal funding goes to States. But the vast majority of it is from local taxes.
And as others have written here, when you offer free education to anyone- regardless of citizenship- at some point you run out of local taxes to pay for it.
Or do you support an American National School system run by someone of the President's choosing?
2
As a boomer I grew up in a major city with packed classrooms. Yet I received a first rate public school education that would rival any private school. I was fortunate in having teachers who lived in the community and cared about their students. They viewed us as vital to the future of the nation, not just a paycheck. I have seen that sorely lacking in many teachers today. There are few who have the same views of their students and the communities they come from. Many teachers have become as disconnected, with an us versus them mentality, as the police . Many are just in for the benefits and short work period.
I am sure the naysayers will vehemently deny this. Like the police, teachers need to clean up their ranks. Cut the nepotism, eliminate waivers for unqualified connected staff, stop protecting tenured teachers who shouldn't be near students and maybe they will get more support. I have respect and appreciation for good hardworking teachers and police but both are rife with corruption and incompetence.
13
@Hellen Might be easier to clean house if the need for 'warm bodies' wasn't so high. You can only get rid of the poorest performers when you have someone else and better to fill the slot. Turnover for new teachers is sky high because of the demands of the job and low pay (you can argue about this point all you want but when positions can only be filled during a recession there is a compensation problem). There is plenty of talk about retention and graduation rates for students at all levels but retention of new teachers - not so much.
1
@Hellen
You know you’re old and out of touch when you’re talking about the good old days!
How do YOU know what teachers feel about the students and communities they teach in? Those are assumptions and you know what they say about that.
I have twins who are in San Francisco public schools. By the time my children reached middle school, 100% of their K-5 teachers had left the district.
On 48k/year, you cannot live in a city where a one-bedroom apartment costs $3500/month. You cannot support a family. You cannot pay back your student loans.
Those teachers were at school at 7:30am to 5:00pm, non-stop, asking themselves, "I have two minutes. Should I eat, use the bathroom, or make copies?" Summer was a time to recharge but most needed to take summer jobs to survive.
Why, why, why can't we offer a free MA Education to our top undergraduates? Why can't we start them at a competitive salary for their city or county? Why can't we attract and keep the very smartest and most creative minds?
I stand with LAUSD teachers.
77
@ijive No wonder why the US ranks so far behind in terms of World Education rankings
@ijive Great. Are you prepared to have your taxes go up significantly to pay for these demands? Someone has to pay the freight. By the way, most people work 9-5 or longer for 48 -50 weeks a year and often have to bring work home. They don't get virtually free healthcare or cushy pensions at 55. So what you really want is the majority of people to work harder and pay more. Sounds fair if you are a teacher.
4
Article fails to mention total spend per student which is a critical metric. In LA it's a lot. Where does it all go? Also fails to mention generous health care packages and more importantly pensions. Many regular California state employees join the 1% on early retirements and can look forward to triple digit annual pensions for ~30 years. If not the 1% then certainly the 5%. Not poor.
14
Excuse me. Not only do you expect people to work for a pittance, drive 1.5 hours to get to work and take on 2nd jobs, you also think they don’t deserve a pension. Not that they would be able to save anything from their meager salary towards retirement.
Let’s be honest here. Why not shut down public education entirely and leave it to the mercy of wealthy investors and cooperation to educate future generations, teaching their own agenda in some charter schools still funded by the tax payer (do they know?) No worries, the wealthy will always have top notch private schools.
22
@Aurthur Phleger
The LAUSD budget is 11,200 per pupil per year, which is not a lot. This is about 1/2 of what the budget is in NYC. LAUSD is way under funded!
California is ranked 43rd in the nation in per pupil spending.
14
How much is "a lot"? Can you please give us a reference cite?
2
$75k AVERAGE salary and still striking. That is unionized public workforce for you. The rest of demands is a camouflaging fig leaf.
Tan and spend.
8
I believe the salary runs $55 - 65k. You can google it.
7
The cost of living in and around LA and most, if not all, major cities in CA is very, very high! Teachers, fire fighters, social workers, police, EMTs, doctors and nurses and other people whose primary role is protect and help the public, including in a crisis, need (for us to benefit from their reliable service) to live reasonably close to, if not in, the communities they serve. When local real-world poverty level is over $30-40k/year for two adults or annual income of under $200k qualifies locals for tuition assistance at local private and even parochial schools, $55-75k/year salary isn't as much as it sounds. Federal poverty levels don't account for regional or state or local economic variables, and Los Angeles is not rural Alabama or India.
5
@Mama
Thank you for this well worded explanation. It makes me wonder: Is this strike just a manifestation of our larger economic inequality problem? Also, should public services be a priority in these places?
1
"According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States spends $11,392 per student every year. This figure, referred to as per pupil current spending (PPCS), varies dramatically by state. Some states spend over $20,000 per student while others spend less than $7,000.Apr 17, 2018"
How many undocumented immigrant children attend school in California? You can't have open borders and then complain that classrooms are too full and teachers are underpaid.
If there is not enough money to keep teachers from striking now, what do you think is going to happen if we open our borders? We are already Trillions of dollars in debt as a county and cannot feed the hungry and take care of the homeless as it is.
22
If the offered 6% pay raise is across the board, as is customary in teachers'-union negotiations, it is part of the problem. Because such a raise assigns lots of money to the top of the pay scale, it takes a huge layout to have any impact on the pitiful compensation for newer teachers. That in turn cramps everything else that the LA union asks for.
Unions' demand for "equal" raises measured in percent exacerbates inequality of real means. It afflicts schools everywhere, even those that don't labor under the strictures of Proposition 13. .
7
I quit teaching when the class size increased to 28 students. People who have never taught have no idea.
30
@Zejee. Yet somehow teachers making a lot less were able to successfully teach large classes of baby boomers.
9
Oh those baby boomers.,don’t you know that they are a special generation. You could teach 100 in a class and would not know it
3
@Hellen: And judging from the hateful, ignorant, unsupportive, and unhelpful comments here, not many Boomers turned out well.
2
My wife and I, both LAUSD teachers, are in this soggy video somewhere. We are both 20 year vets. I have my National Board Certification in English; she has a master's in science education. Our investment banker/superintendent has zero educational experience.
We have had one raise in 11 years. Class sizes have risen every year. My colleagues have classes that exceed 50--not 40. Our counselors service about 900 kids each.
Teaching is never simply about us or now. We are fighting for the future of public education, one that doesn't include charters, vulture capitalists, and people outside of education making decisions that impact education.
Genuine thanks to all of our supporters. We will never quit on our students.
116
Thank you and your wife for your dedication. 50 kids? Good God, I am glad my own kids don't have to face that kind of overwhelm and lack of time-sensitive individualized attention! And a caseload of 900 students and their families? There were fewer than 1/2 that number of students in my local high school, and probably that of many other readers.
There is something very, very messed up about a system that allows billionaires and millionaires to live in homes that are taxed at, say, 1969 or 1979 or 1989 levels despite their value and their owners incomes rising sometimes exponentially, and with for-profit charter schools that don't have to provide the same types or levels of services (eg for kids with disabilities) syphoning off the public's money that would should go to regular, nonprofit, citizen-accountable public schools.
One reason public schools are strained is that the wealthy and the non-disabled get into and are able to attend private or charter schools, leaving the regular public schools to serve the neediest (in multiple ways) students and families. Which is also why statistics about percentage of students receiving subsidized school lunches or needing special ed and such can be so misleading.
Kudos to you for keeping students front and center. I just wish they didn't have to suffer so that you and they could get more of what is needed.
10
@CA Parent
Thanks for the lovely response.
It reminds my of the science fiction stories where the haves leave Earth and the have-nots get left behind in a crumbling dystopia. That's my students. I love them, but our hands have been tied for so long...feeing powerless, in a word, sucks.
We just got back from day two downtown again. The support has been gratifying beyond words. Cheers, and best to you. We owe our teachers too.
2
@R Mandl
If things are so bad find another career. No one is making you do a job you don't like. You won't quit on your kids but will take a 6% raise and forget the rest of the demands.
1
Of course they can’t, rich people don’t pay taxes.
And all money goes to stupid elections.
So no money for education guys.
7
Actually the highest waste occurs with the military budget which a couple of years ago was around 40 percent vs only 2 for education. we all know what's the most important as far as politicians are concerned.
12
What do you mean only 2% for education? Maybe in the Federal budget, but not here at home. Most of my local taxes go to education and it is way more than 2% of my tax total. Get real.
2
Yeah, Mr, NJ, but not every state or community funds education the same way or by the same amount. Just like not every state does income tax the same way. You should know that, living in Jersey.
5
California is a wealthy state with liberal democratic leadership, and is a case study in wasteful government spending, rising entitlements, and poor leadership, all leading to unsustainable financial obligations.
There are two lessons:
1) instead of focusing on fringe, special interest issues (e.g. plastic straws and paper receipts), the State should address public spending and create a sustainable tax & spend model with better accountability and less waste,
2) everyone should realize that the teachers union will gladly hurt students in order to increase their benefits, and it is time to completely overhaul the leadership of the LA school system.
I think it interesting that many Presidential hopefuls for 2020 are tip-toeing around this issue.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/los-angeles-teacher-strike-poses-potential-political-minefield/story?id=60368633
If these leaders are incapable of handling this problem, why should we consider them for the Presidency?
17
Hurt students? Do you think large classes are good for students?
23
@surgres
I stopped reading your post after the outrageous and ill-informed comment: "the teachers union will gladly hurt students".
I have taught at all levels, now at the university, since 1980; never met any of those individuals.
12
If you assume that most schools were adequately funded in the 1950's through the 1970's or 1980's, then why are taxes higher today but yet financing schools (and many other state services) seems to be so burdensome. I don't know the entire answer but in just the past 30 years or so, the state obligation for medicaid has nearly tripled. Also, pension costs for state employees now take a much, much larger bite out of the state tax dollar than 30 or 40 years ago. These fast growing expenses crowd out additional investment in education without substantial tax increases, to which most citizens are resistant.
12
@Schneiderman
You are correct. Public pensions, Medicaid and green initiative all suck up money. How about stopping the stupid HS Rail project and spend it on Education???
This strike is a legacy of the anti-tax movement that eroded the property tax base in California (Prop. 13) and more generally cut taxes on the wealthiest nation-wide. Public services and assets of all kinds have been degraded. What else would you expect?
Not unrelated is the recent NYT story on the plight of rural public colleges, in which courses that don't directly feed potential employers' needs are being canned. Who needs worker drones to know history anyway?
33
The money is there. They have huge surplus in their budget. What are they waiting for?
2
Salary is NOT at the top of the teacher's strike. They are not that far from the administration. It's lack of librarians, lack of nurses full time, just one day per week and the fact that some classes (academic classes) are at 50, or 40.. I taught in California and had classes no less (for most of my 40 years) than 38. Sure with AP students it was no problem but having that large a class and one or two "jerks" can ruin any class. Without administration backing one up, it's a wild circus in class.
47
It was a very impressive turnout I thought today in downtown LA and the steady pouring rain the whole time we were down there seemed to only add extra impact. I bought a new umbrella just for the occasion and was glad I did. People can say what they want about we lazy freeloading unionized public school teachers but with the rain I can’t hear a word they say, so I hope it pours even more tomorrow and besides we need all the rain here we can get. Maybe their constant complaining can end our drought here so feel free to unload.
16
@John Doe, in the sentence as you wrote it, it's "us lazy freeloading unionized teachers," not "we lazy freeloading unionized teachers." Use "us" when it's a first-person plural object pronoun, and use "we" as a subject pronoun. You're reppin' a profession, here.
24
@Observer of the Zeitgeist, sorry, it’s pouring still and it’s not too late for you to become a teacher. A pity talent like yours has to go to waste only here in the comments section rather than in a classroom where it might do some student good and who would appreciate it. If you’re lucky you might get a whole classroom full of know it all kids just like yourself who like to show off.
24
Can we get even marginally real, here? Los Angeles is about 30% non-Hispanic white, but the schools are only 11% white students. That means white parents are sending their kids to private schools in droves. It's not racism, either. It's because they want the best possible learning for their kids, like a lot of NYT readers opting to send their kids to Horace Mann et al. If LAUSD mustered its courage, ran against the social justice current that pushed white families out of public schools, and brought back tracked classes in elementary and middle school, those white parents would bring their kids back, teachers could focus their teaching to learning levels, and the schools and teachers would get better overall support. Because right now? The system is in a death spiral, and white folks with influence have no skin in the game besides their taxes.
29
@Observer of the Zeitgeist The reason California has no money for schools is our dirty little secret, Prop 13. Also, it's a HUGE district. There ARE white kids in schools in LAUSD. My kids are reaping the benefits of growing up with a diverse student body who are not cherry picked as they would be in one of the city's elite private school where the African American child gets a full scholarship because he's a star athlete or member of the Los Angeles Junior Chorale.
13
@Observer of the Zeitgeist The reason California has no money for schools is our dirty little secret, Prop 13.
6
@Observer of the Zeitgeist
Sounds just like Chicago where the schools are 90% minority and 9% white despite the white population being 35% of the population. Anyone who can gets out of the system regardless of color.
1
Los Angles has New York union support. Please leave a website/Go Fund Me link to share with the staff at my amazing unionized school.
10
Wow. The average ratios of students to staff are shocking. LA residents should be outraged. Compare those ratios to private schools and affluent suburban districts. I would never send my children to a school so understaffed. Are the classrooms big enough to hold so many?
29
I teach in a high risk high school in Vegas and I had a class last year that had 58 students in it. My portable classroom has 38 desks.
27
@Andrew Rogers
If you stack the students 38 desks means you can teach 76 students, so where is the problem?
8
Nice!
1
Perhaps the new Governor should not fund any more "free healthcare" for illegal immigrants and instead fund the public school system in his state? And why would these illegal immigrants not pile into CA where they are welcomed with open arms - by the politicians? How many millions are there does anyone know? Or is anyone willing to really say what the real number is?
41
Don't give in early, we did and we got the exact opposite of what we were asking for here in Jersey City, NJ. The State cut our funding by 170 million over 5 years as soon as we elected a Goldman Sachs Governor, our insurance became Self-Insurance (costing us the same, but with less legal protection), and our next contract negotiations mean we are looking at a 95 million deficit for next district budget 19-20 school year- to try and break us over the next round of negotiations in a Democratically controlled state and city. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/nyregion/jersey-city-teachers-strike.html
7
@Naatus
And that Goldman Sachs government was a democrat.
4
Honestly, the general public has no clue what it is like for teachers in our society, though I am aware teachers are treated differently in different states. Teaching in Texas will give one PTSD. From what I hear, California is even worse. Those who point out heavy administrative costs, I believe, are on the right track towards one of the major problems. When you have 16 school districts in one city and start adding up the number of super intendentants, their assistants, their assistants' assistants so on and so on, then branch those into individual schools etc., you start developing a quite large pyramid of money, bureaucracy and excess. Most monies are skimmed off the top before they ever get to teachers or the students. Plus, and this is major plus, you have politic playing school boards - school boards who should never ever be given any financial responsibility whatsoever. Not only are they wasteful, they are elected officials with no clue about education or effective curriculum. The bottom line is, it is not about the amount of money; it is how the money is spent. Fancy or high tech doesn't equal quality ed. Common sense does. Focus on a quality education versus the quantity of stuff you stick in that looks good on paper but provides nothing of value in the classroom.
33
The salary sounds reasonable for 180 days work and summers off. God forbid there is a full instruction day during parent/teachers conference week. The horror!
11
@SympatheticEar If you added up all the hours teachers put in on the evenings and weekends it is much more than 180 days of a typical 8 hour work day. Not to mention the hours that coaches put in for low pay. You have no idea.
24
@Badger Beth I have to agree. I don't have any friends who are teachers who aren't spending countless hours on weekends, nights, and during the summer working hard for their students- not to mention helping facilitate other events ie. chaperoning prom. Teachers don't get to just take a coffee walk around the block or work from home for a furniture delivery. It is a trade-off.
18
@ Badger Beth, you mean teachers have to work beyond the scheduled workday and possibly weekends? Seems to me like every job in America. Nothing out of the ordinary.
7
I do not pretend to understand California. A very liberal state. Self image is that they believe in helping others. High taxes and incredibly wealthy people. Yet, they have rotten schools. I have known a number of people who have moved to the Midwest so their kids could escape these schools. Over 40 kids in a class is next to impossible. I have taught, it is really difficult to have such large classes with many kids who have minimal language skills. Where does all of their tax money go? Kids are the future. The much maligned by liberals Southern states do not have class sizes like this. What twisted priorities.
25
@Robert - California has the 38th LOWEST property tax in the US because of Prop 13 that was passed in the 1970s. That is why the schools have no money.
18
The problem is the cost of living in LA and California in general. You could make $150K a year and still not be able to afford a home anywhere near some of these expensive areas. Fix the REAL issue which is the insanely high cost of living and prop 13.
55
@Bryan
Exactly!!!
6
@M U because of prop 13, nobody can "afford" to move and people over 55 stay in their house or maybe move once. Wouldn't you if you were 65 and your property taxes were $1200/year on a $2 million home?
14
I support greater funding of these LA schools as well as greatly increased recognition and respect thru many channels from all communities and citizens of our teachers.
18
I was a HS Guidance Counselor in a NYC high school. I had 400 students, mostly struggling in their major classes. These numbers, for HS, especially for students who need assistance, is appaling. The result is less students graduating, lifelong low incomes and diminished opportunities to improve their status over time.
31
@jayt
"These numbers . . . is appaling."
And therein lies the problem. What is a fair price to pay for teachers and administrators who can neither spell nor speak English?
9
@GMooG
When no one is willing to teach in Ca--you will find out the fair price to pay.
4
@GMooG, for those who feel public school teaching is beneath them, finding grammatical errors is apparently their only gift back and of such benefit to society. Thank you for all that you do.
15
Twenty percent of students require ESL services, 82% are from low income homes (not necessarily recent immigrants, but there is a correlation). Teachers should not have to be social workers.
Our schools, my own town included, are paying a staggering price for the unchecked immigration in recent years.
35
This is what happens when you have a sanctuary state.
34
@Sam C. No, this is what happens when you subsidize irresponsibly-governed red states
35
@Kathy
Really? Blaming republicans for what is going on in LA is the height of absurdity.
16
@Surgres: Not really. It was the Republicans who pushed for and passed Prop 13 back in the late seventies, which is why the schools in CA are struggling now. Prop 13 is one of the main reasons why the Republican party barely exists in CA now. It was a major factor in the decay of the the public school system. So, yes, this is the Republicans' fault, for thinking that Prop 13 and defunding public schools was a good idea in the first place.
4
Why doesn't the NY Times provide the average salary for LA Teachers that have worked 10 years??
What is the health benefits package worth every year??
What is the average pension of a teacher that retires with 30 years service at age 55?
That would be factual news.
39
@Peter All that information is worth knowing. There are benefits, but it's a more difficult job than many appreciate, and requires talents that not everyone has, including dedication, organization, emotional intelligence, stamina, and diplomacy.
21
You could have looked it up faster than typing your comment. It is public information.
7
Solidarity from Melbourne to those out on strike and their allies, by this former Angeleno.
30
For several years I volunteered in a 4th grade class with 20-22 students. I don't know how anyone can graciously and humanely manage more kids than that. Having 35 students per class is just way too many.
In addition to the challenge of teaching to different learning abilities, consider the daily emotional demands put on teachers. Every child is different, most adorable, some very difficult, all needing intellectual stimulation and guidance. Some children are in dysfuntional situations; the consequences of that come into the classroom, and the teacher has to deal with it. It's not an easy job, and it's severely undervalued.
86
"About one-fifth of all students in the district are English-language learners — more than 90 percent of those students are native Spanish speakers..."
The cost of these students is staggering and impacts spending in every other area:
"With increased pressure over the last two decades to raise standardized test scores, many public schools have funneled funds into math and reading instruction, and suffer from a dearth of such professional staff."
Months ago, The Upshot, a feature in NYT, analyzed school results by state. But instead of the usual comparisons of one entire state vs. another whole state, it used a study that created coherts consisting ONLY of students who'd been in the system more than 3 years, effectively eliminating many newly-arrived immigrant children. The results were startlingly different, with many of the lowest-rated states much nearer the top of the [best performing] list. I'll bet the LAUSD suffers from the same problem, dragged down by kids who read below grade-school levels.
On another page of today's NYT, the paper announced that another "caravan" of migrants is forming near Mexico's southern border. So a word to the LA teachers: If the caravan shoves off, you'd better up your demands by another two or three $billion - you're going to need it if they get here!
31
We stand with the teachers! While they can appreciate the, "thank you's", it doesn't pay the bills. Unless you've been on the adult side of the big desk, facing 35 kids, a third for which English is a second language, you are in no position to judge nor criticize. Stay strong!
58
Good ! It's about time. In fact, working people of all stripes should be protesting by the millions.
69
@Abbey Road
Go right ahead. Most of you can be replaced by iPads.
3
Yeah let’s continue to decimate the middle class.
4
@GMooG
I’d like to see an iPad do things my kindergarteners need aside from academics like tie shoelaces, wipe noses, teach them to socialize with their peers...never ending list.
The teachers there make the second highest salaries in the nation. If they complain that the costs are too high they only have themselves to blame since it was they who chose their politicians!
7
Let’s not let the teachers’ union off the hook so quickly. One of the schools highlighted in the article, John Burroughs Middle School, has four vice principals. This kind of excess is rampant nationwide in public schools.
49
The article says there are 1700 students in that school. Four assistant principals is not “excess” with that number of students. The number of discipline issues in a day is likely to be high based on the number of students enrolled.
For reference, the school I am the assistant principal at has 460 students.
22
@HistoryRhymes Principals and Assistant Principals are not teachers’ union members. They have their own association, and numbers are set by the school board.
13
@HistoryRhymes Are there too many vice principals in LA schools? Perhaps, though an actual vice principal has charged in to disagree. But that's a red herring. One of the many issues raised by all the teachers unions, including mine, the union representing community college teachers in the East Bay, is that there are too many administrators and not enough teachers. Is this true at the vice principal level in LA? Probably not as much as at the top, with all the obscenely overpaid top administrators battening vampire like on the schools, the teachers, the students and education generally.,
14
Even out of the first five comments, one was purely partisan. It's the Democrats' fault, letting all of those brown people in. But this is not a story about race or politics. It is a story about disg-race. We Americans love to trumpet about how we love our children. True. We love OUR children, and we want OUR children educated. Other people's children? Not so much, particularly if those other people are brown, or black., or poor, or, well, "not like us." And if they are to be educated, the thought seems to be, why should "I" have to pay for it? Well, raising the educational level of all students, not just those in wealthy families, makes our entire country better. More opportunity - good; less opportunity - bad. It's not rocket science, which is what students in poor schools will never study. Or law, or medicine, or engineering, or what we need as a society. Guess we don't really need brown rocket scientists. Or doctors, or . . . whatever.
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The single, most important factor in how students fare in K-12 is support at home. Look at homework for one example. If material learned in class is reinforced within 24 hours, there is a much higher chance of students retaining that information.
Attitudes toward the value of learning and education are also mostly fostered at home. Parents have far more influence than teachers could possibly provide.
It doesn't take a PhD in Education to recognize these truths, so why place all of the focus on teachers when the cultivation of learning attitudes occurs in the home?
At the end of the day, it's a child's attitude toward learning and education that most influences their performance in school.
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@Glenn Thomas Yes, you are absolutely right. We are asking teachers to do too much, shifting responsibility to them (and school administrators) when students are suffering from a dysfunctional homelife, or one that simply doesn't care about learning.
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@Glenn Thomas
This is absolutely correct. Unfortunately education appears to be a low priority for many of these families and the teachers get the blame.
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USA is ranked 32nd in oecd countries in math (34 countries) 26th in Reading. For all of the 'bravo teachers' comments i read (from other teachers), id like to deviate from the required "teachers are awesome" narrative and examine their effectiveness. If Teachers do care about the kids, how about a 10% raise and work the same number of weeks that private sector does? Maybe we will catch up to 31 out of 34 other countries in math? No doubt Ill be attacked. But looking at performance should not be off the table. Nor should extending school year if teachers want more pay and parents want better results. An extra 3 weeks a year?
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@wally s. You make a valid point, and I hope will not be attacked for doing so. The only thing I would add is this: I know several teachers who put in many hours outside of the classroom -- making lesson plans, grading papers, and often trying to figure out how to help a child who is in a dysfunctional situation. Consider the daily emotional demands of being a teacher to dozens of children, most adorable, some very difficult, all needing guidance. It's not an easy job, and it's severely undervalued.
This is something worth having a discussion about. Thanks for participating in a sensible way.
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@wally s., your comments might seem sensible at first, but they fail basic economic principles of supply and demand. teachers are already unwilling to work under current conditions; adding onerous caveats to a contract won't put teachers in classrooms. you can make all the fantasy schools you want, but teachers are voting with their feet.
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@wally My mother is a high school teacher and her work day does not end when the bell rings. Between providing extra help, attending meetings, correcting homework, creating lesson plans, responding to parent concerns, writing college recommendations, and staying up on current scientific discoveries that might inspire her students, she often works 10-12 hour days. Yes, there are round-the-year jobs where people work that much, but not for 10% above a teachers salary, particularly when they are masters-prepared (some social workers are the only others that come to mind.)
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Bravo to LAUSD teachers. Ever since the Great Recession teachers have been waiting to be recompensed for the sacrifices we have made to keep schools running and kids learning. We have waited long enough.
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I left teaching after seven years because of burnout. My students had excellent test scores and I believe they learned a lot in my classes, but classes were approaching 40, which means I served around 200 students per day. In order to be successful, I had to work about 60 hrs/wk. It is crazy to put that many students in a class! It’s no wonder that people who can afford private school take their kids out of public school. Then schools are left with a higher percentage of less-supported students, making the job harder. I realize the money has to come from somewhere, but children are our best investment and we need to make class sizes smaller! (And i never understood why there were so many high paying administrative jobs in schools - somehow those were always the people that had time to go for jogs and coffees on their lunch breaks while the teachers donated their lunchtime to students.)
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@Pdx
" I realize the money has to come from somewhere..."
Here's a good place to start: Roughly 1/4 of the LAUSD's budget goes to ELL. How many of these kids (or their parents) are here ILLEGALLY? Divvy that money up between teacher salaries and more support staff, then talk about more overall $$$.
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Cheers to LAUSD teachers from across the country here in New England! It’s long past time for placing public schools at the top of American priorities. Thank you, teachers, for your courageous stand in support of better education for your students.
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Forty kids in a classroom. Ridiculously high taxes and absurd housing costs.
And yet liberal Dems want more people to add more kids who can't even feed themselves?
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I wonder what is the percentage of undocumented children that are packing into these schools that so many of our politicians here seem to want even more of? The same ones that NEVER have their children in public schools.
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@Please Go Home You want to make some sense? I don’t even know where you’re coming from on that. Dems want smaller classes, better pay and benefits for the teachers. Housing costs? I suppose they do get higher in districts that have great schools, along with taxes, but then again, people move to these districts when they see value received. It’s not liberal Dems driving that by a long shot. But the objective is to give every kid in every district great schools and great teachers, especially in urban districts like LA.
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@Please Go Home - the kids will suffer and go hungry whether they're let into the US or not. The odds are good they will do better in the US. Keep an eye on the big picture.
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More power to LA teachers. I teach in Oakland Unified. The issues in LA are mostly the same for Oakland. Here it’s about low pay, large classes, and admin heavy. We have been without a contract for over a year and a half. Last week we voted on striking in February, and there was a march downtown on Saturday. Please support public schools; they are important.
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@CA
I support public schools (my mother was a school teacher), but the leadership of the school systems are a joke. We need to gut the leadership of the school system, get rid of the bureaucracy, and put the resources where the students need it.
All in all, this situation demonstrates the failure of leadership in California.
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