2019 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers' strike

Last updated
2019 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers' strike
Part of the 2018–19 education workers' strikes in the United States
Little Tokyo UTLA Strike Day 2.jpg
Educators in Little Tokyo during the second day of the strike.
DateJanuary 14–22, 2019 (2019-01-14 – 2019-01-22)
Location
Los Angeles, California
Methods
Resulted in
  • 6 percent pay raise
  • Reduction in class size by 4 students over three years
  • Guaranteed nurse in every school
  • Guaranteed librarian for all middle and high schools
  • Establishment of 30 community schools
Parties
AFT
CTA
NEA
UTLA
AALA
Lead figures

Randi Weingarten
Lily García
Alex Caputo-Pearl

Number
30,000 teachers

More than 30,000 public-school teachers of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) went on strike from January 14 to 22, 2019. [1] Protesting low pay, large class sizes, inadequate support staffs of nurses and librarians, and the proliferation of charter schools, the teachers went on strike for the first time in the district in 30 years. The strike was authorized by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).

In August 2018, under the leadership of progressive UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl, [2] 98% of UTLA members authorized a strike following months of contract negotiation disputes. [3] Though teachers were also striking to highlight issues like demands for pay raises, public discussion became predominantly focused on the union's opposition to charter schools. [4] Though one in five LAUSD students attended a charter school at the time of the strike, [5] UTLA argued that largely highly-performing charter schools were siphoning money from underperforming unionized schools. [6]

A fact-finding report failed to resolve matters and UTLA stated that a strike would proceed on January 10, 2019. [7] The school district attempted to stop the strike on legal grounds, but a judge allowed it to proceed. [8] On January 14, 30,000 teachers walked out of class and onto the picket line in what became the first such strike in LA in 30 years, [9] affecting nearly 500,000 students in the second largest school district in the US. [10] Schools remained open during the strike, with skeleton staffs of administrators and employees not on strike; two-thirds of students did not attend. [11]

Following six days of crowded rallies, [12] UTLA and the school district reached a new contract deal on January 22, ending the strike. [13] The contract included teacher pay raises, full-time librarians for middle and high schools, a commitment to provide full-time nurses for every school, and the establishment of 30 community schools in the model of Austin, Texas and Cincinnati; UTLA failed to impose a binding cap on charter schools. [11]

Day 1, Jan. 14, 2019. UTLA teachers converge in downtown, Los Angeles. Day 1-UTLA Strike-Jan. 14, 2019, Cars.jpg
Day 1, Jan. 14, 2019. UTLA teachers converge in downtown, Los Angeles.
(Jan. 22, 2019, Downtown, LA) With the strike over, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and union officers thank strikers and supporters. Alex Caputo-Pealr.jpg Strike Celebration.jpg
(Jan. 22, 2019, Downtown, LA) With the strike over, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and union officers thank strikers and supporters.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Goldberg</span> American politician and teacher (born 1944)

Jacqueline Barbara Goldberg is an American politician, activist and former educator currently serving as a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education for District 5, a position she has held since 2019. Previously serving as a board member from 1983 until 1991, Goldberg has also served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council and the California State Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham High School</span> High school in the San Fernando Valley

Birmingham Community Charter High School is a charter high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was founded in 1953 as a 7–12 grade combined high school and became solely a senior high school in 1963. The school has a Van Nuys address and serves Lake Balboa, parts of Encino, and Amestoy Estates. It is within the Los Angeles Unified School District but operates as an internal charter school.

Jordan High School is a public comprehensive four-year high school in Los Angeles. Until October 2020, the school was named David Starr Jordan High School, after eugenicist David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University. The school colors are Royal blue and white and the mascot is a bulldog.

Alain Leroy Locke College Preparatory Academy is a Title 1 co-educational charter high school located in Los Angeles, California, United States, and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District/Green Dot Public Schools. It is named after Alain LeRoy Locke.

Alliance College-Ready Public Schools is one of the largest nonprofit public charter school networks in the nation, operating 26 high-performing, public charter middle and high schools that educate nearly 13,000 scholars from Los Angeles’ most underserved communities. The mission of the organization is for 75% or more of the scholars to graduate from a four-year college or university.

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is the main trade union for certified, non-administrative staff in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The union was incorporated in 1970 by the merger between the (AFT-local) Los Angeles Teachers Alliance and the (NEA-local) Classroom Teachers of Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies</span> Public, magnet, college-prep school in Los Angeles, California, United States

The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies is a public university preparatory secondary school located on 18th Street between La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the Faircrest Heights district of Los Angeles, California, on the former site of Louis Pasteur Middle School.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States, with only the New York City Department of Education having a larger student population. During the 2022–2023 school year, LAUSD served 565,479 students, including 11,795 early childhood education students and 27,740 adult students. During the same school year, it had 24,769 teachers and 49,231 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County after the county government. The school district's budget for the 2021–2022 school year was $10.7 billion, increasing to $12.6 billion for the 2022–2023 school year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools</span> Public school in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, called the RFK Community Schools, is a complex of public schools in Los Angeles, California. This was formerly the site of the Ambassador Hotel, the site of the June 1968 assassination of presidential candidate United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

A parent trigger is a legal maneuver through which parents can change the administration of a poorly performing public school—most notably by transforming it into a charter school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Beutner</span> American businessman

Austin Michael Beutner is an American businessman who served as Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent from May 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021. He previously served as the first deputy mayor of Los Angeles from 2010 through 2013, and briefly ran in the 2013 Los Angeles mayoral election. Prior to entering politics, Beutner was an investment banker and would later become the publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018–2019 education workers' strikes in the United States</span> Withdrawal of labor by US teachers, 2018

The 2018–2019 education workers' strikes in the United States began on February 22, 2018, after local activists compelled the West Virginia state leadership of the West Virginia branches of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association into holding a strike vote. The strike—which ended when teachers returned to their classrooms on March 7—inspired similar, statewide strikes in Oklahoma and Arizona. It also inspired smaller-scale protests by school staff in Kentucky, North Carolina, Colorado, and led to a school bus driver strike in Georgia. Additionally, around this time, adjunct professors at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia protested over pay.

City Charter Schools is a charter school operator in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of 2018 it operates two schools: City Language Immersion Charter and The City School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle King (educator)</span> American educator (1961–2019)

Michelle King was an American educator. She was the first black woman to serve as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest school district in the United States. She was appointed in January 2016 by the Los Angeles Board of Education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Los Angeles elections</span>

The 2020 Los Angeles elections were held on March 3, 2020. Voters elected candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with runoff elections scheduled for November 3, 2020. Seven of the fifteen seats in the City Council were up for election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District</span>

The Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District is the chief administrative officer of the District selected by the District's Board of Education. Portuguese-American educator and former superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Alberto M. Carvalho, has been serving as the District's superintendent since February 14, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John E. Deasy</span> American politician

John Edward Deasy is an American businessman who served as a superintendent for multiple school districts from 1996 until 2020. He first served as superintendent for Coventry Public Schools, the Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District, and Prince George's County Public Schools. Deasy became the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District on April 15, 2011, succeeding Ramon Cortines. He served until his resignation on October 15, 2014, at which point Cortines was appointed as his successor. He later served as the superintendent of Stockton Unified School District from 2018 until 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Melvoin</span> American educator and politician

Nicholas James Melvoin is an American attorney, former teacher, and adjunct professor serving as member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education for District 4 since May 16, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Melvoin is the second youngest member of the board after Kelly Gonez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ref Rodriguez</span> American politician

Refugio Rodriguez is an American educator and politician, who served as President of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in 2017. He served as a member of the Board from 2015 until his resignation in 2018, and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Santa Ana College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Gonez</span> American politician

Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez is a former science teacher and current member and former president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. She was elected as a board member in 2017 and as president in 2020. Prior to her election, she had previously served as an education policy advisor for the Obama administration.

References

  1. ↑ Blume, Howard; Kohli, Sonali (22 January 2019). "LAUSD teachers' strike ends. Teachers to return to classrooms Wednesday". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "Starved of resources and respect | UTLA". www.utla.net. Archived from the original on 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  3. ↑ "UTLA members vote overwhelmingly to authorize strike | UTLA". www.utla.net. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  4. ↑ "Possible LAUSD Strike Would Be First Since 1989 – Los Feliz Ledger". www.losfelizledger.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  5. ↑ "L.A. teachers union rallies supporters with call for cap on charter schools". Los Angeles Times. 2018-12-22. Archived from the original on 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  6. ↑ "Op-Ed: Alex Caputo-Pearl: Why Los Angeles teachers may have to strike". Los Angeles Times. 2019-01-06. Archived from the original on 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  7. ↑ Blume, Howard (19 December 2018). "L.A. teachers strike appears more likely as a key report fails to bring the union and district together". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 18 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  8. ↑ "Judge denies L.A. school district's bid to block teachers strike". Los Angeles Times. 2019-01-05. Archived from the original on 2020-03-10. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  9. ↑ "LA Teachers Go On Strike For First Time In 30 Years". KCAL 9 Los Angeles. January 14, 2019. Archived from the original on January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  10. ↑ Stokes, Kyle (Aug 29, 2018). "Why LAUSD's 30,000 Teachers Have Gone On Strike". LAist . Retrieved Aug 11, 2024.
  11. 1 2 Blume, Howard; Kohli, Sonali (22 January 2019). "LAUSD teachers' strike ends. Teachers to return to classrooms Wednesday". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  12. ↑ Silva, Daniella; Johnson, Alex (14 January 2019). "'Escalate, escalate, escalate': L.A. teachers' strike to head into its second day Tuesday". NBC News. Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  13. ↑ Medina, Jennifer; Goldstein, Dana (22 January 2019). "Los Angeles Teachers' Strike to End as Deal Is Reached". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.