Los Angeles Teachers Strike for More Pay and More Help

The strike affects roughly 500,000 students at 900 schools in the district, the second-largest in the nation. The schools will remain open, staffed by substitutes hired by the city, but many parents have said they will not send their children across picket lines.

The impact of the walkout is likely to ripple across California and the rest of the country. Teachers mounted large-scale strikes in six other states last year to protest low pay and demand more money for public education.

The decision to walk off the job came after months of negotiations between the teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Although educators on all sides agree that California should spend more money on education, the union and the district are locked in a bitter feud about how Los Angeles should use the money it already gets.

— Why Are Teachers Striking?

Union leaders have complained about large classes, which have grown to more than 40 students in some of the district’s middle and high schools, and have said the system needs many more nurses, counselors, librarians and other support staff as well as teachers.

Although district officials have agreed to come closer to meeting some of the union’s demands, they say fulfilling all of them would bankrupt the system, which is already strained by rising health care and pension costs.

District officials have tried for weeks to avert the strike, putting political and legal pressure on the union to stop teachers from walking off the job. Instead of encouraging a walkout, district officials argued, the union should direct its energy and its frustrations at the state government in Sacramento, which determines the district’s annual budget.

— On the Picket Line in Koreatown

At Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, a large campus in Koreatown, hundreds of teachers and supporters held signs declaring “We demand respect” and “Striking for our students.” The picket line was a sea of umbrellas, with many covering their signs in plastic wrap to protect them from rain.

The teachers’ union has urged parents to walk the picket line in support of the strike, and it was unclear how many of the 500,000 students would show up at schools, which will have only a skeletal staff on campuses.

By 8 a.m., dozens of students and parents had gathered along the sidewalk to support the teachers, but there was also a steady stream of students entering RFK, which houses several small schools on its campus.

Once the students entered, they were shuffled inside to the campus library, cafeteria or another large gathering area. It was unclear whether any instruction would be given.

Sophie Chiang, a 10th-grade student, arrived well before the 8:20 a.m. first bell.

“Oh God, it’s really happening,” she said as she approached the line of teachers in red ponchos shouting “Whose schools? Our schools!” She was momentarily worried that she would be stopped from entering, but nobody on the picket line stopped her. And the campus security guard who is usually at the entrance was not at his post.

— Three Ways This Strike Is Different

At first glance, Monday’s massive strike in Los Angeles looks like a continuation of the teacher protests held across the country in 2018. While some of the issues — stagnant salaries and low classroom funding — are similar, this urban strike is far different from the recent statewide walkouts in conservative and swing states. Here’s why:

1.These teachers are picketing their bosses, not politicians. The six state walkouts in 2018 featured teachers traveling to state capitols to lobby legislators and governors for higher taxes and more school funding. In contrast, the Los Angeles action is a traditional strike in which teachers are protesting against their bosses: the district’s superintendent and Board of Education.

2.The Los Angeles union is strong. In the six walkout states, teachers’ unions were weak and the majority of teachers in many districts were not members. That’s not the case in California, a strong labor state where public employee strikes are legal. The president of United Teachers Los Angeles, Alex Caputo-Pearl, is part of a group of more strident local union leaders who have, for years, been criticizing school-reform priorities such as the expansion of the charter school sector — a major issue in Los Angeles — and the growth of standardized testing. These issues were simmering in the nation’s second-largest city for years before the West Virginia walkout that began in February 2018.

3. Los Angeles is trying to keep schools open. It is unusual for a district to keep all schools open during a strike in which all teachers are expected to participate, but that is what Los Angeles Unified is trying. This allows the district to continue serving meals and providing child care to its high-needs student population, 82 percent of whom come from low-income families. But with far fewer adults than usual, there probably won’t be much traditional instruction going on. Students may be grouped together in cafeterias and auditoriums, perhaps watching movies or playing games.

— The Decision to Stay Home

Some parents who chose to keep their children at home said their reasons included not wanting to cross a picket line and also being concerned about their children’s safety.

Lucas Rivera said that his 6-year-old daughter would not be going to school at Toluca Lake Elementary for as long as the strike was happening. He said that he and his wife were told that children would be sequestered in four areas, including some that were outdoors, with three people supervising them at most. Students were advised to bring extra books for entertainment, he said.

“That was unacceptable to us,” Rivera wrote in an email. “It will be chaotic, and likelihood of any education occurring will be minimal.”

Janae Bakken, a television writer whose son is in fifth grade, said that it was important to stand in solidarity with fellow union members.

“I support the teachers wholly in their endeavor and I will not cross that picket line,” she wrote in an email. Bakken works from home for now, but she said that could change quickly if she was called in to work on a show. “In that case I’d have to rely on the kindness of friends,” she said.

— The District, by the Numbers

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.

The district is overwhelmingly low income; some 82 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Latinos account for roughly 72 percent of enrollment, whites make up about 10 percent, African-Americans about 8 percent, and Asians about 6 percent.

About one-fifth of all students in the district are English-language learners — more than 90 percent of those students are native Spanish speakers, but there is also a significant population of Korean, Armenian, Tagalog, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian speakers.

Overall, 92 languages other than English are spoken in the district’s schools.

— Making Noise for Teachers

Outside the James A. Foshay Learning Center, a K-12 school in Exposition Park, scores of striking teachers sloshed through puddles in ponchos as a music teacher blasted tunes from his silver trumpet.

Eric Brown, an 11th-grader at the school, brought a frying pan and a kitchen spoon to picket alongside his mother, Vanessa, who teaches elementary students at Foshay and was toting a cowbell.

“I did give him the option of going to school,” Vanessa Brown said.

Eric decided to join the picket line and had tried to recruit his friends to the cause.

“The teachers are putting their heart and soul into teaching these kids — because they’re the future,” he said. “And they need to get paid more.”

Isabel Ventura, 47, who arrived with her daughter Kimberly, said the teachers “were not just fighting for their rights, they’re fighting for ours.”

Still, Kimberly, a ninth-grader at the school, was going to class Monday, though her mother had considered allowing her to stay home to support the teachers.

“We’re going to be the ones suffering, because we won’t have a teacher, and we’re going to get behind in our studies,” Kimberly said. “But if they don’t win, we’re just going to lose more of our studies.”

She said she expected to just sit all day in the auditorium. She did not anticipate it being much fun.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.