Hundreds of thousands of LA students face strike disruption as pay fight explodes

Hundreds of thousands of public school students in Los Angeles are set to have their education dramatically up-ended after teachers announced a huge strike next month as they go to war for fatter salaries. 

Educators swarmed Gloria Molina Grand Park on Wednesday for a rally in the shadow of City Hall in downtown LA on seeking higher wages. 

It follows a breakdown in contract negotiations between three employee unions, including the embattled Los Angeles Unified School District.

Speaking from the stage, United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz announced the April 14 strike alongside Max Arias, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 99.

“The message to the public is, stand with educators. Stand with teachers. Stand with support professionals,” Myart-Cruz told the crowd.

“Because one job should be enough, one job should be enough, and we need to get away from the victim shaming of educators.”

Union members, she claimed, are “30 years old, still living with their parents because they cannot afford a place to live. We have people that are coming from the Inland Empire, driving all the way down to San Pedro schools, and do that on behalf of the school community, but mostly for our babies.”

Teachers at the rally confirmed to the California Post that a strike will lead to “discomfort” for students and their parents. 

LAUSD is feeling the heat following the dramatic detainment at gunpoint and handcuffing of “morally bankrupt” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho during FBI raids on Feb. 25 at his San Pedro home and at the district’s headquarters.

According to the LAUSD website, the second largest school district in the nation “enrolls more than 520,000 students.”

“The District covers an area totaling 710 square miles, which includes most of the city of Los Angeles, along with all or portions of 25 cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.”

School psychologist Jimena Del Pozo, 54, who specializes in helping special-ed kids, attended the noisy rally and told the California Post: “ We’ve been struggling with too much work. The district isn’t willing to hire more teachers and psychologists to help. 

“I understand a strike will be a discomfort for a lot of families and their kids not getting the best education for a few days but we’re doing a strike because we want students to have what they need. Classes are too big. There’s not enough staff.”

“The parents want the same things we want,” she said. “They want better conditions for their kids too.”

High school teacher Vanessa, who declined to give her last name, told the Post she was “looking forward” to the strike.

“I’m here for a fair contract. The district has been sitting on billions of dollars claiming they don’t have enough money to pay more to teachers and to make upgrades to schools,” she said.

“I’m prepared to strike for as long as necessary.”

High school teacher Alex Torres 32, told the California Post that he was at the rally to “fight for education and our students.”

Ruben Sanchez, 54, a second-grade teacher at Budlong Avenue Elementary School, who has taught for 23 years, said he was “protesting to demand more money. I’m absolutely prepared to strike. We have less money these days for essential materials that we need to teach.”

Union leaders on stage addressed the crowd under a banner that read “When schools thrive, LA thrives.”

An ear-splitting live band, backed by DJ Phatrick, blasted protesters with the volume turned up to 11.  

Attendees held signs with messages such as “Fund our schools not AI,” “Protect families, stop deportations,” “Strike ready” and “Stop ICE in our schools.”

UTLA represents more than 30,000 classroom teachers, psychologists, attendance counselors, guidance counselors, nurses and secondary school librarians.

Members are currently being paid under a contract that expired on June 30, according to the Los Angeles Times. And Union bosses say the latest proposal would result in a average 17% salary increase over two years. 

In particular, the proposal will raise the salary of early-career teachers to $80,000. The top rate for an experienced educator would be $134,000. The union is also pushing for hefty automatic pay increases in the future based on years of experience 

In the previous three years, the UTLA won a 21% raise for members — which included a $20,000 raise for nurses who work in education.

Speaking during a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, union Vice President Julie Van Winkle agreed that it had been “audacious” in the past to seek such high raises. 

“And now the teachers have the audacity to ask for more,” she boasted.

“So I’m here to tell you today that, yes, we do have that audacity. And the reason is that, even though we got a significant raise a few years ago, our wages have not kept pace with inflation.”

“Our members aren’t trying to buy one house in San Pedro and six houses in Florida,” Van Winkle added.

“They’re just trying to afford rent in the district in which they teach. We’re being priced out of the district we serve.

“And so, yeah, we do have the audacity to ask that our salaries are enough to allow us to live where we work, and, yes, we are going to keep demanding more resources for our students.”

On Feb. 27, the LAUSD Board voted 7-0 to place Carvalho, who was previously superintendent for Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida for 14 years, on paid administrative leave. 

He went into hiding following the raids but later broke his silence, speaking through his attorneys, to declare his innocence and that he “has always acted within the bounds of the law” and the feds found nothing incriminating.

Carvalho’s other home in Miami was also raided by the federal agents in connection with a corruption investigation over the failed schools AI program AllHere.

“We hope the school board reinstates him promptly to his position as superintendent,” his lawyers said in a statement.

“Mr. Carvalho respects the rule of law and the investigative process and has always acted in the best interests of students and within the bounds of the law.

“While the government’s investigation remains ongoing, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors supporting any allegation that Mr. Carvalho violated federal law.”

They added “Carvalho is a dedicated public servant committed to the students and families of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“The achievements and success of the students, teachers, and staff of Los Angeles Unified remain his foremost focus, and he remains deeply committed to continuing the work of supporting students and families across the district.”

However, the Post has reported that former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has slammed beleaguered Carvalho over an alleged misuse of tens of millions of dollars in arts funding.

He “willfully and knowingly violat[ed] the law,” by misusing $77 million in state arts education funding to backfill gaps in the district’s $19 billion budget, Beutner wrote in a letter to the district and obtained by the California Post. 

“This is not only a clear violation of the law passed by more than 7 million voters, it’s morally bankrupt because it deprives hundreds of thousands of students in LA schools the benefits they would receive by participating in arts and music at school.”