L.A. teachers strike for first time in 30 years
Today marks day two of the Los Angeles teacher union strike, a labor stoppage from the nation’s 2nd largest public school district. It’s the first strike for the union since 1989.
I published a story last week in The American Prospect that aims to answer basic questions about why L.A. teachers are striking, and the larger political factors undergirding this whole fight. (Spoiler: there’s a high-stakes school board election in March, a new superintendent’s plan to reorganize the whole district, and a lot of distrust over funding and school privatization.)
The second story was published today in The Intercept, and looks at how national Democrats have responded to the L.A. teachers’ strike. While contract negotiations have jammed up primarily over funding for smaller class sizes, and hiring more teachers, nurses, counselors and librarians — the teachers are also protesting school privatization, and the union has called for a cap on new charter schools in L.A. Today the union protested outside the offices of the California Charter Schools Association, the lobbying arm of the state’s charter movement.
I contacted all 47 Senate Democrats to ask them their position on the strike and general stance on charter school growth. I heard back from seven. Of the other House members who voiced support for the striking teachers, almost none mentioned charters or privatization in their comments. While voicing support for teachers and public education is relatively safe territory for any politician, weighing in on the teachers’ opposition to charter schools comes with more consequence, possibly upsetting powerful donors or the growing number of families who choose charters (or would like to send their child to a charter in the future.)
I’ll end this post with some cute pictures of kids.