There is a better way forward, but first we need to back up with some history. The Los Angeles Unified School District began offering health benefits to its employees starting in the 1940s, and it added coverage for qualifying retirees and their spouses beginning in 1966. Soon after, the district eliminated employee contributions toward those benefits, leaving LAUSD on the hook for any future rise in health care costs.

Rather than renegotiate that promise as health care costs skyrocketed, the district has decided to trim costs only by narrowing its definition of a qualifying retiree. In the 1970s, any retiree with five years of service qualified, but now there are six more tiers of membership, depending on when the employee began working for the district. Employees hired as of 2009 qualify only if the sum of their age and years of service equals 85 or more, plus they must serve at least 25 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement.

These decisions have done nothing to reduce the underlying cost of the benefits, and they have effectively prioritized comparatively well-off retirees with stable work histories over more transient workers who might need the benefits more. In the meantime, the district has saved only $145 million for promises that are valued at $13.6 billion, and without further changes, current and future teachers will bear the burden of making up that difference.

These trends are unavoidable, unless district leaders start thinking more creatively.

This is where the federal Affordable Care Act comes in. Obamacare provides subsidies on a sliding scale to individuals to purchase health insurance, regardless of age; in 2018, a two-member household earning less than $65,840, or 400 percent of the federal poverty level, would qualify for assistance. If we assume that retirees have no income sources other than their pension (teachers in California do not have Social Security), publicly available data suggest that 87 percent of LAUSD retirees could qualify for Obamacare subsidies.

Even if we assume that many retirees are in dual-income households, more than half would be eligible for federal supports. Another way of saying this is that the district’s retiree health benefits are largely redundant for at least half and up to five-sixths of all current recipients.

To be sure, the Obamacare subsidies and a “basic” health plan are not as generous as what the district currently provides, but that brings up a question of priorities: Should the district continue to bankrupt itself to provide Cadillac benefits to a smaller and smaller group of workers, or should it focus its investments on the workers and retirees who need it the most?

That question leads us into how the district’s current benefits are regressive, which is a little more complex. Still, it’s worth unpacking who exactly would lose out if LAUSD switched all future employees to the Obamacare exchanges. Remember, as of 2009, the only new workers who will qualify for benefits will be people who work for the district for at least 25 consecutive years immediately prior to retirement. That means they can’t be short-term workers; they can’t take a year off, say, to care for family, and they can’t work for the district for the first part of their career and then pursue something else. And again, we’re talking about households earning $66,000 a year even as they’re technically considered retired by the district. Across all Los Angeles households, 72 percent earn less than that, and most have to work for that income.

Of course, the district could also pursue a middle ground by recasting its benefits to work with Obamacare subsidies instead of providing a standalone benefit. There is precedent for this. When the district created its retiree health benefits in the 1960s, Medicare existed but wasn’t available to state and local government employees like L.A. teachers. In the 1980s, Congress extended coverage to state and local government workers, and the district began requiring retirees over age 65 to apply for Medicare coverage. Today, the district still offers some benefits to retirees over age 65, but Medicare covers the basic costs and the district’s benefits are more of a perk than a standalone offering.

The district should now do the same thing with Obamacare. Its leaders can no longer ignore the benefits of a federal, means-tested program that would be cheaper and more equitable than what it’s currently providing.

Chad Aldeman is a principal at Bellwether Education Partners and the editor of TeacherPensions.org.

Fast-forward 11 months, and the board members, again, voted on an expensive contract that locks in future liabilities that the district can’t afford. The approved agreement between the district and the teachers union that ended the recent six-day strike adds to the payroll new teachers, nurses, counselors, and community schools coordinators, all of whom will be eligible to qualify for the lifetime benefits approved last February.

An ominous letter from the Los Angeles Country Office of Education delivered just prior to Tuesday’s board meeting confirmed what nearly everyone knew already: the agreement put LAUSD at risk for state takeover without cuts elsewhere even though the district is already slashing funds earmarked for low-income, English learner and foster youth to pay for new salaries. Still, the agreement passed unanimously with nearly no discussion.

The district’s board members (current and past) have made head-scratchingly bad decisions forever, it seems. Somehow, years of declining enrollment have corresponded with the creation of more district schools, an increase in administrative positions, and a loss of teaching positions. There is no evidence the district has a coherent plan for administrative staffing at the central office or the school sites. For the third year in a row, the district has counted among its “cost savings” the ability to save $35 million by getting the state to not impose fines for having too many administrators. Every neutral fiscal observer has expressed serious doubts about the district’s ability to meet its current financial obligations without significant future cuts or revenue increases.

Into this mess steps Alex Caputo-Pearl, who ran for union president on a strike platform and openly admitted that his plan was to foster a “state crisis” to protect his members’ benefits. Mission accomplished.

Caputo-Pearl led a strike that cost his members millions in lost wages, cost the district approximately $150 million in lost revenue it can’t afford, and committed the district to obligations it has no concrete plans to pay for. Hundreds of thousands of students lost six days of learning time, and families were faced with the choice of sending their kids to school that was little more than daycare or miss work. A district in desperate need of Superman got Captain Chaos instead.

Caputo-Pearl hammered away at the district with the lie that it was actually in fine financial shape and could afford to pay more to current members and hire a lot more right now. He sold his members on the idea that they were entitled to a bigger raise than the other unions, and that he was going to get it for them.

At the end of the day, the strike Caputo-Pearl led yielded many teachers nothing more than the pay raises they had been offered before — the same 6 percent the other unions received — since the additional promise of incremental class size reduction applies only to certain subjects and schools and leaves out special education classes altogether. The union’s Facebook page was inundated with unhappy union members who thought they were spending a week on strike to fundamentally change the district, only to see modest differences when the details of the deal began to emerge. Supporters of the settlement openly questioned why a strike was necessary for the modest achievements it brought. For a huge district drowning in red ink, however, even small increases in short- and long-term obligations can bring about dire consequences.

Yet Caputo-Pearl, who most speculate has his eyes set on a state or national union leadership position, will be the ultimate winner in this whole sad affair. What better political platform to run on than to be the union leader who bullied a broke district into hiring more union members in a post-Janus world? The district is in desperate need of more funds. If it gets more money than needed to meet its current financial obligations, then Caputo-Pearl succeeded in locking that surplus into union priorities. It was a stunning display of bare-knuckled political power.

It will also likely mark another retreat for the district board from its own promises to “do better” to improve the district’s financial condition. The euphoria and credit-taking for this deal will soon meet the reality of the district’s still-tenuous financial position. If it gets worse, there is real risk the district could lose the ability to govern itself. Who will want to take credit then?

Chris Bertelli is the founder of Bertelli Public Affairs, an education public affairs consultancy based in Sacramento. He specializes in working with clients focused on improving educational equity in California public schools.

*Updated

The 40-page tentative agreement reached between L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles in the early hours of Jan. 22 has a lot of details and dense contract language. Teachers did not have much time to read and digest it before they had to vote, and most of Los Angeles was happy just to get them back to work.

Whether the contract is a good or bad deal for one side or the other is a value judgment that is now moot. Both sides agreed to it, and now we all will have to enjoy or live with the result.

UTLA members last week ratified the agreement, and the school board unanimously voted to ratify it Tuesday afternoon.

Behind the broad claims of what the contract does are some facts that haven’t been clearly highlighted in the reporting. For example, there are actually two tentative agreements.

This is important because of its effect — or more accurately, lack of an effect — on the current school year. The two sides signed a half-page agreement covering the 2017-18 school year and the current 2018-19 school year. It has only one new provision, which is the two pay increases on the salary schedule, three percent for last year and another three percent for this year. All the remaining language from the 2014-17 collective bargaining agreement remains unchanged.

UTLA deemed the removal of the class size limit exemption (Article XVIII, Section 1.5) necessary for the future of public education. The union did get it removed in its entirety, but that refers to the new contract. Section 1.5 is still in effect and will remain so until the new contract begins in July.

UTLA created a graphic to promote its achievement of reducing secondary English and math classes from a maximum of 46 to 39. “This is effective immediately,” it says. But that provision also belongs to the new contract and won’t apply until next school year. Teachers with 46 students will still have 46 students until then.

The new contract runs from 2019-20 through the 2021-22 school year. It reduces class sizes incrementally from their current maximums. Those maximums, however, were set through the use of Section 1.5, spelled out in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) the district and union signed in August 2017. In short, it will take until 2022 to institute the same class size limits bargained in 2015.

The first tentative agreement addresses salary but not class size. The second one addresses class size but not salary. There is no guarantee in the new contract for any salary increases for the next three years.

Either side can reopen negotiations on salary in January 2020 and January 2021, and we can fully expect UTLA to do so. Either side can also reopen two other provisions in the contract. It is much less likely, but the district could reopen class size.

The union received two joint committees, two task forces and the appointment of a “co-location coordinator” with input into the charter school co-location process. None of these has any special powers or veto authority.

The tentative agreement includes an MOU that allows 30 schools to apply to transform into community schools, which are schools that also provide a host of social services. The district will contribute an additional $400,000 in funding for each school over a two-year period. Part of that funding must go to hire a community schools coordinator, who will be included in the UTLA bargaining unit.

A key provision of the MOU is that community schools will be protected from reconstitution and charter co-locations, new or renewed.

We’re at the bottom line, so let’s mention the bottom line. By its own estimation, L.A. Unified will spend $403 million to hire additional employees during the three-year term of the contract.

*This article has been updated with the school board unanimously voting to ratify the contract.

But lost in the conversation is the most important question: Who is sitting at the table to represent what is best for the children?

I have personally experienced the Los Angeles Unified School District at its best and at its worst. When I was growing up, my mom was a teacher’s assistant in the district, where she was proudly represented by the Service Employees International Union. She also helped to guide hundreds of other Latina moms to advocate for their children — knowing firsthand how easy it can be to lose kids in a complicated system.

As a student in the district, I was also able to see the system at its best — while sitting in Mr. Rangell’s English class in sixth grade.

Unfortunately, though, sitting in that English class was the last time I remember learning in my entire K-12 experience. The years that followed gave me a front-row seat to the worst of LAUSD.

All these years later, I can still remember what it felt like to complete 10 classes for credit by simply filling out a packet of worksheets that passed for “learning” in Watts, in the heart of South L.A. Dozens of us, black and brown students, were left to feel stupid and frustrated and to blame ourselves for failing to grasp the material literally being dropped in our laps.

I also remember what it felt like to be one of 4,000 students crammed into a school built for 1,000. I remember feeling unsure if I would graduate until my last day as a senior in high school — even though I was the student body president and had been labeled as gifted. I was not alone. Of the 1,500 who started ninth grade together, only 490 graduated.

We didn’t thrive and blossom in the district — we were lucky to survive our experience. And the consequences continued for so many of my classmates who ended up unprepared for college-level work and faced futures filled with poverty, menial jobs, incarceration, struggles with addiction and even death.

So as I watched the teachers union tenaciously battle for its members’ working conditions and generous pensions, I wondered, why can’t better opportunities for students have a place at the bargaining table?

If we’re going to be answering to the demands of a powerful political force like United Teachers Los Angeles, we need to know what our kids and families are getting out of it.

Can we also demand that more than three out of 10 black or Latino students be prepared to pass their English or math tests? Or that English learners, who make up nearly a quarter of students in the district, see more than zero growth on their scores?

Can we demand that Latino and black students not be two to three times more likely to be taught by the least effective teachers than their white and Asian peers?

Can we demand that students of color receive proper social-emotional support and cultural recognition to avoid being overdisciplined and tracked toward the school-to-prison pipeline?

Can we demand that hundreds of thousands of graduates not be shepherded into remedial college courses because they didn’t get the basic educational foundation they were promised with a diploma?

Of course, it’s important to pay teachers well and give them supportive environments. But telling us that increasing teacher pay and supporting their lifetime benefits will help students is kind of like saying bigger tax breaks for big businesses will trickle down to the rest of us. It doesn’t work that way.

Meanwhile, our collective failure to address the real education crisis happening in the district has real consequences — ones we have been turning a blind eye to for far too long. My mom had the same experience in the 1950s and ’60s that I had in the ’80s and ’90s. The folks who have been sitting at the bargaining tables for so many decades continue to come up with excuses about why kids can’t learn, or why teachers can’t teach them. And things won’t change until someone is held accountable for getting results for our kids.

I know I don’t stand alone in this call for justice. More than 40 Latino leaders signed an open letter calling for a serious commitment to improving schools for our children. I work with dozens of Latina women organized through the La Comadre network who are asking hard questions about how the politics serve our kids.

And yes, our visibility in calling for accountability makes us targets. But as civil rights activist Audre Lorde taught me, my silence will not protect me. Our collective silence will not protect the children.

We need to push now, because change doesn’t come quick or easy. We are just now seeing the arc bend toward justice in criminal justice reform and in the fight for gay rights after decades of pushing the status quo.

The L.A. walkout won’t be the last teacher strike in 2019. Denver teachers are already cued up, as are teachers in Oakland and probably many other places.

But if teachers around the country decide to walk out of the classroom to hold their districts and states accountable for adequate funding for public schools, we need to demand that they also hold themselves accountable for giving our children the high-quality education they’re promised.

Alma V. Marquez, founder of Del Sol Group, has over 25 years of experience in finding solutions to complex problems and a vast network of allies locally and nationally. Before founding Del Sol Group, she was vice president of external and government affairs for Green Dot Public Schools.

Oscar Cruz, president and CEO of Families In Schools, with parents at Wednesday’s news conference outside City Hall.

While tens of thousands of Los Angeles educators and families on Wednesday celebrated the end of the six-day teacher strike, about a dozen parents held their own news conference outside City Hall to make sure their voices were heard too.

Wearing white to signify neutrality, they said they felt that parents, particularly those in high-needs schools, were sidelined during the negotiations and the strike. Now that the teachers contract is settled, they want to make sure they are included in the local decision-making at their schools. They want to advocate for more school funding and be able to give input on how it’s spent. They hope they don’t have to experience another strike, but if there’s another protracted disagreement between the teachers union and the district that so significantly impacts their children’s education, they want their voices to be represented at the table.

“We are here, parents from traditional district schools, charters and other public schools, to say that we are independent, that we want to be included in the conversation between the two institutions that decided to be on strike and didn’t pay attention to us,” Ana Carreón said in Spanish to the small circle of journalists and television cameras that numbered nearly as many as the parents.

“Some of us felt intimidated during the strike to support one side or the other, and that was not fair. We’re now grateful for both parties that they ended it, but we want parents to be included in future negotiations. This is not the end, this is just the beginning,” said Carreón, mother of a senior at Foshay Learning Center near downtown.

“This is not the end,” echoed Evelyn Alemán, who has a child at Grover Cleveland Charter High School and who is a member of the LAUSD Parent Advisory Committee. “We’re ready to continue advocating, working closely with the district, with the state, with the teachers union to improve our schools, but we need transparency. We don’t want just to be spectators. We want to be part of the action.”

Alemán emphasized that the parents’ position on the strike was “neutral” and that it’s time “to work toward healing the fractured school relationships as a result and avoid further disruption to school communities, student instruction and learning.”

She said they wanted to represent low-income students, those who are homeless and in foster care, English learners and immigrant students and their families, who “should never be asked to endure another strike. Their stories were largely unnoticed, but their stories need to be told,” Alemán said. “As parents representing our children, we are here to make a call toward unity, healing and action.”

L.A. Unified serves nearly half a million students, 82 percent of whom live in poverty. More than 17,000 experience homelessness. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 students has a parent who is an undocumented immigrant. And nearly half are or have been English learners, so they don’t have access to the more rigorous courses that are required for access to the state’s public universities.

The parents said they were grateful for the leadership of L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles as well as Mayor Eric Garcetti for reaching an agreement so educators could return to their classrooms. They also said that during the last 10 days of negotiations they felt “largely ignored” and they now want to collaborate with both parties to ease the impact of the strike’s aftermath for the most vulnerable students in the district.

“The last 10 days were very difficult for all district families. They felt forced to choose sides, they felt left out of the conversation, and most importantly, they felt concerned about the impact that the strike would have on their child’s education,” said Oscar Cruz, president and CEO of Families In Schools, an L.A.-based parent advocacy nonprofit that serves about 5,000 L.A. families a year and helped the parents organize Wednesday’s news conference.

“When we hear everything is back to normal, we know that’s not the case. We have a lot of work to do ahead of us,” Cruz said. “We know that when schools partner with parents, student outcomes increase. Parents are the most important advocates for their children, so when parents have a voice in local decision-making, schools are better and become more equitable environments.”

Cruz told LA School Report that because of the strike, people from his organization who assist parents and seniors with their college applications were not able to provide that help.

“We provide that service to families at school sites, so because of the strike our staff had to be away from schools last week. So more than 100 high school families missed about an hour of college counseling and mentorship. That’s 100 hours of service that got lost,” Cruz said.

Agreement Reached! LAUSD Parents Glad Strike Is Over Call for Unity, Healing, and Action https://t.co/5tYczqrIGD pic.twitter.com/aiUazGZ6kc

— Families In Schools (@FamsInSchools) January 23, 2019

On Tuesday, Garcetti, who acted as mediator in the last days of the contract negotiations, called the agreement “good news” and “a new day for public education in Los Angeles.” But he also said that the strike was “painful and had a cost.”

During the six days of the strike, L.A. Unified reported a gross revenue loss of about $150 million from sharply lower attendance.

“Definitely the strike had a cost. I guess the good news came when the governor announced his new budget and there’s more money than we were expecting. But at the same time we lost all this money,” said Kathy Kantner, an L.A. Unified parent who spoke Wednesday and sits on a district parent committee.

“There’s also a lot of concern about the loss of instruction, and that’s a cost as well,” Kantner said.

“We ask state and local leaders to commit more investments in our public schools. Particularly, we urge the teachers union and the district to include us in the decision-making process that impacts those investments that affect our children’s academic achievement. We can be active participants in our children’s education. We don’t want to be sidelined, we want to be part of the action,” Maria León, a parent from East Los Angeles, said in Spanish.

Mayra Pacheco said she was there to speak on behalf of charter school parents. Her three children attend Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, a charter school in Pacoima in the east San Fernando Valley. She said one of her main concerns now is that she heard the new agreement would limit options for other parents like her who are just looking for a better school option.

“We don’t think of schools as traditional, magnets or charters. We just look for good schools for our children. If the union asked the district to limit those options, that would hurt families like mine and that makes me sad,” Pacheco said. “If we look for other options, that’s because we were not seeing good results in our traditional schools.”

Just 42 percent of L.A. Unified students met reading standards this year on this year’s state tests, and 32 percent met math standards. Among Latinos, who make up three-quarters of district enrollment, 36 percent met English standards and 25 percent met math standards. English learners were the student group with the lowest proficiency rate: 96 percent didn’t meet reading standards, and 95 percent didn’t meet math standards.

Hilda Ávila, whose son attends Fries Avenue Elementary in Wilmington in south Los Angeles, said she didn’t send her son to school during the strike because she supported teachers on the picket lines, but she came to Wednesday’s news conference to give voice to low-income immigrant parents who had to send their kids to school and had to face hostility even from other parents.

“We need to understand each other’s stories and get to know the reasons why they had no other choice. Now it’s time to move away from our differences and collaborate. It’s time to be very involved and advocate together for more funding for our schools and avoid another strike happening again,” Ávila said in Spanish.

Alemán thanked Families In Schools and other organizations as they have helped “elevate our voices.”

“As educators and students go back to schools, parents want to be heard by the Los Angeles educational community,” Cruz said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announces the tentative deal, with union President Alex Caputo-Pearl, left, and LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner. (Photo: Mayor Eric Garcetti Twitter page)

*Updated Jan. 22

L.A. Unified and its teachers union announced Tuesday they had reached a contract deal to end the six-day teacher strike, heralding “a new chapter” in public education that district officials say will protect the district’s fiscal solvency.

The deal has to be approved by a majority of United Teachers Los Angeles’s 34,000 members. At an evening news conference, President Alex Caputo-Pearl said “a vast supermajority are voting yes, therefore ending the strike and heading back to schools tomorrow.” Vote counting would continue Wednesday, he said.

The agreement focuses largely on lowering class sizes and adding support staff. United Teachers Los Angeles members — which include teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors — would get a 6 percent raise, and the district would invest $403 million in class size reductions and new staffing over the next three years.

The district’s latest offer before Tuesday was $130 million, a sum its county overseers had already indicated might be more than the district could afford. L.A. Unified officials have repeatedly said the district is spending $500 million more each year than it takes in and that it will be out of cash by 2022.

The county has to sign off on the proposed contract, then the L.A. Unified school board. The county has 10 days to do so but said it would answer “as soon as possible” after the details were received, according to a Tuesday statement.

In its summary of the contract agreement, UTLA’s first item also announces that L.A. Unified’s school board will vote at their next meeting on a resolution calling on the state legislature to cap the growth of charter schools in the district while the state studies policy changes. However, the actual contract document does not address any such resolution.

The tentative contract agreement was reached after Mayor Eric Garcetti stepped in to mediate, and after more than 50 hours at the bargaining table since negotiations restarted last Thursday. Both sides met for about 12 hours Thursday and 21 hours straight Monday into early Tuesday morning. Superintendent Austin Beutner and Caputo-Pearl spoke to that collaborative spirit at the City Hall news conference, exchanging a handshake toward the beginning.

“I have to give full disclosure, [we] have not slept one bit,” Garcetti said. “This district and this union have brought their passion, their persistence and their commitment to talks here at City Hall.”

The pending agreement would run from 2019 through 2022 and separately addresses the pay raise for last year and this year. Here are the highlights:

1. Salary raise

Union leadership accepted the district’s offer of 6 percent, which the district’s other employee unions have also secured in the past year as they settled their contracts. Beutner called it “a fair 6 percent increase to all who work in schools.”

UTLA members would get a 3 percent raise retroactive to 2017-18 and 3 percent this year. The union was asking for a 6.5 percent raise retroactive to 2016-17.

2. Lower class sizes

Class sizes in grades 4 through 12 would be reduced by one student in each of the next two years and by two more students in 2021-22. That would bring class sizes back down to what was agreed to in the previous UTLA contract, which covered 2014-17.

Class sizes would be further reduced by an additional two students each year at 75 “targeted high needs” elementary schools and 15 middle schools.

English and math classes in middle and high schools would also be capped at 39 students each year. The current cap is 46 students, according to UTLA.

Class sizes have ticked up, into the 40s in some schools, as the district has struggled financially. Under the current contract, the district’s “fiscal distress” allows it to surpass previously agreed-to caps. The clause which allows that, called Section 1.5, will be “removed in its entirety,” the new contract states. UTLA had signed off on that clause in every contract for at least the last 18 years.

3. More support staff

The deal would hire 459 nurses, librarians and counselors, according to the district. That is more than 50 percent over what the district previously proposed. L.A. Unified says its prior offer this month had outlined 305 positions. The positions, which fall under UTLA representation, would be phased in over the next three and a half years.

The bulk of the new positions would be nurses: 300, with 150 positions added in each of the next two years.

Caputo-Pearl told reporters after the news conference that there would be “permanent funding” to guarantee “a nurse in every school, though it won’t happen immediately.”

About 80 percent of district schools don’t have a full-time nurse on campus right now. The district’s previous offer was to hire 176 nurses for elementary schools, according to a Tuesday news release.

Library positions would increase in every secondary school, up 41 slots in each of the next two years. The district’s last offer had been for 43 new positions next year in middle schools.

The number of new counselors is lower than the district’s last offer of 86 new positions next year, however. The tentative agreement would add 17 counselors next year, none the following year and then 60 in 2021-22.

This would bring the ratio up to one counselor for every 500 students. The current ratio is 700 to 1. The national average is 464 to 1 based on 2015-16 data, the latest available, according to the American School Counselor Association. The organization recommends a ratio of 250 to 1.

The cost of class size reductions and new staffing would be $175 million in the next two years and $228 million in 2021-22 — more than triple the prior offer of $130 million.

4. Charter accountability

The agreement invests in “existing schools” and would increase accountability and regulations for charter schools, Caputo-Pearl said. This has been a central talking point for union leadership, who say charter schools are channeling millions of dollars annually away from L.A. Unified.

Caputo-Pearl said the pending agreement would give district neighborhood schools “a voice” in the co-location process, which is when charter schools are allotted unused classroom space on traditional school campuses under state law.

The tentative contract adds these provisions, but it does not give the union veto power over co-locations.

• Every time a charter visits a district school to scope out a co-location opportunity, a UTLA chapter chair would have to be invited to participate
• By Dec. 1 and Feb. 1 every year, L.A. Unified would have to send UTLA a list of all campuses that have been identified for possible co-location
• UTLA would have the right to designate one employee to serve as a “co-location coordinator” on every campus with a co-located charter school

L.A. Unified will work “to strengthen the voice of educators and provide more opportunities for collaborations for all who work in our schools,” Beutner said.

5.  Other issues

Other key points included:

• Improvements to special education services

The contract would set class limits for students receiving special education services depending on disability. For example, it would set a maximum class size of 10 for students with autism.

It also would ask L.A. Unified to “make a reasonable effort to integrate students with disabilities in the general education program” and to create a “Workload/Caseload” task force with both L.A. Unified and UTLA members that would meet quarterly to discuss and recommend how to “make assignments more equitable.”

• Standardized testing

The contract calls for a “District Assessment Committee,” a group of four L.A. Unified members, four UTLA members and four parents who would review all current district tests and recommend how to halve the number of administered assessments at each grade level.

• Transfers to magnet schools

UTLA members would be allowed a vote when a school converts from a traditional program to a magnet program. It does not grant the union a veto over those conversions, though.

• Plans to expand green space on campuses

• A pilot program that ends random searches of students would be expanded to 28 schools.

More outside funding sources

Caputo-Pearl said the negotiating parties “were able to have several phone calls with state leaders to start that process” of exploring new funding sources.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2019-20 budget already bumped K-12 education funding by $2.8 billion and would provide $3 billion statewide in one-time relief for pension costs. State voters will also have a chance to approve a tax referendum on the 2020 ballot, which, if passed, would generate about $1.4 billion annually for L.A. County schools.

The county last week approved $10 million toward district mental health services. The city is intending to step in as well, Garcetti said Tuesday — including helping with anti-violence work through its Gang Reduction and Youth Development programming.

“There are a lot of pieces to come from different places,” Garcetti said.

Beutner told the media Tuesday that the district is putting “every nickel” it has toward the deal, addressing a question about whether the financially strapped district can afford the new demands. The district is projected to blow through most of its reserves by 2020-21.

The county last week sent fiscal experts to L.A. Unified to help correct its finances, and county superintendent of schools Debra Duardo has said the county could strip the district of fiscal decision-making power if its contract with UTLA put its reserve levels irreversibly in the red.

“We made sure … the regulators who look at the work we do understand what we’re doing, the risks we’re taking, how we’ve stretched, how we found every nickel we could,” Beutner said Tuesday. “We’re confident they’ll support this.”

Duardo in a statement Tuesday afternoon called it “wonderful news that LAUSD and UTLA have reached a tentative agreement, and that students and staff can return to school.” She added that the county does, however, have “the legal obligation to review and provide comments [on the agreement] before the LAUSD governing board takes action.” It has 10 days to do so.

The district’s most recent offer to UTLA on Jan. 11 had proposed $130 million to lower class sizes and hire almost 1,200 new staff, including educators, nurses, counselors and librarians — a considerable hike from L.A. Unified’s initial proposal of $30 million. Its proposed teacher salary raise of 3 percent for two years remained stagnant.

The teachers union rejected these prior offers, noting that the proposal only lowered class sizes by a few students and didn’t ensure a full-time nurse at every school. UTLA leadership had also denounced L.A. Unified’s contract provision to add two years to how long it takes new employees to become eligible for free lifetime health benefits. That provision was removed from Tuesday’s contract, but the district intends to re-address it in future talks, the contract states.

The agreement follows six days of financial tolls on both the district and its teachers. Attendance in the 486,000-student district fell more than 60 percent below normal levels each day, costing L.A. Unified $151 million, according to the district. On Tuesday, attendance was up, but still cost the district about $26 million in lost revenue for the day.

L.A. Unified has saved about $10 million a day, however, from not paying striking teachers, alleviating part of that burden. Striking teachers have lost seven days of salaries so far, including the federal holiday on Monday.

“The strike nobody wanted is now behind us,” Beutner said. “We welcome back with open arms and warm hearts our educators, and look forward to a new day of learning for all of our students. Today and tomorrow when school opens begins a new chapter in every classroom and every school in Los Angeles Unified.”

Once UTLA members approve the deal, “we will all be back at school tomorrow,” Caputo-Pearl said. “Teachers want to be with their students.”

*This article has been updated with an evening news conference on the UTLA vote on the contract. 

It had to happen this way.

The strike had to happen because without it the district would not have made the concessions it did. What made that happen wasn’t the direct effect of the strike on Superintendent Austin Beutner and the school board, but on L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, the county Office of Education, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature.

L.A. Unified’s finances are a legitimate mess, so what Beutner needed was reassurance that the city, county and state wouldn’t let a more generous deal sink the district. Persuaded that there would be no takeover of the district and that proposed money in the governor’s budget will become actual money, Beutner bent far enough to reach an agreement.

The strike had to happen because UTLA was not going to accept a deal without one. The strike was in the works for more than two years, even though career educator Michelle King was superintendent. UTLA invested lots of money and staff time into assuring the rank-and-file supported a strike. The authorization vote was overwhelming. Agreeing to anything less than a perfect deal prior to a walkout would have led to internal union turmoil. Had this exact tentative agreement been offered two weeks ago, the union would have rejected it.

UTLA brought pressure through marches, rallies and the fact that up to 81 percent of the district’s normal enrollment of 450,000 students stayed home.

L.A. Unified brought pressure by keeping the schools open, which meant that striking teachers were losing pay each day they stayed out — something that isn’t always the case.

Teachers lost 1.5 percent to 3 percent of their pay during the strike, depending on whether you compute it for a calendar year or a school year.

The district endured a net loss of $150 million in state funding due to the decreased attendance.

Students lost six days of instruction, probably a bit more since it will take some time to get things back to normal.

All parties declare this a victory — and will devote considerable resources to promote that view with the public. It may well turn out that way, if the economy continues to grow and tax revenues don’t falter.

If there is a downturn or a recession, or even a continued decline in enrollment, the rosy assumptions that made this deal possible will weigh like an anchor on district operations and staffing. All those teachers, counselors and nurses that are about to be hired will be the first laid off, thanks to seniority provisions. To avoid that, UTLA members may have to make considerable financial sacrifices.

If you think that can’t possibly happen, well, I’m sure those who went on strike in 1989 felt the same way.

Regardless of the way it pans out, both UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and (probably) L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner will be elsewhere by then. A new group of people will have to hash out future disputes, and we can all pretend that this month’s events didn’t lead us there.

Mayor Eric Garcetti visits a recreation center on the first day of the teacher strike. He has promoted to students that recreation centers and other facilities have been open to them during the strike. But LAUSD has urged students to be in school. (Credit: Mayor Eric Garcetti/Twitter)

*Updated Jan. 18

With pressure building to end the Los Angeles teacher strike, Mayor Eric Garcetti is now mediating contract negotiations between L.A. Unified and its union — a move education pundits say is welcome but possibly complicated by his prior disconnect and his actions this week backing educators.

Education observers say Garcetti, elected in 2013 with United Teachers Los Angeles’s support, has been largely absent from the public education sphere and from the nearly two years of fruitless contract negotiations. This leaves him without a “tremendous amount of history or credibility” when it comes to engaging with L.A. Unified leaders, Ben Austin, executive director of the advocacy group Kids Coalition, told LA School Report.

The mayor has also undercut the district’s claims of being in dire financial straits while praising the strike as “electrifying” — which some education watchers chalk up to political pressure from seeing other Democratic politicians, including high-profile national figures, chiming in this week to support striking teachers. Several of those heavyweights have already declared 2020 presidential runs, a field Garcetti is said to be looking to join.

Though the mayor has no actual power over the contract negotiations, observers like Austin say he should be using his bully pulpit to support his constituents, namely students and parents. Nationwide calls also have arisen for Gavin Newsom, the state’s new governor of one week, to backstop Garcetti. Newsom has reportedly been in ongoing talks with both sides and faces the specter of more strikes from other financially strapped districts around the state. On Friday, a few hundred teachers in Oakland held an unauthorized walkout to jolt stalled negotiations there.

• Read more: ‘Painful truth’: 9 numbers haunting LAUSD as strike continues

Pressure is mounting for a solution as the L.A. strike exacts sizable financial tolls on the district — a net $75 million as of Friday afternoon from student absences — and on teachers, as well as ongoing educational losses for district students, who have now cumulatively missed a million and a half instructional hours. Attendance plummeted sharply Thursday, with only about 84,000 of the district’s 486,000 enrolled students coming to school.

Add to that the principals union urging the district to close the schools over fears about their own safety — the district refused — and sympathy strikes by service workers this week. On Friday, their union, SEIU Local 99, announced those strikes will expand when school resumes Tuesday if there is no deal, with more than 600 workers walking out at 24 schools. That could shut down all services there, from food to maintenance to bus transportation.

Bargaining teams from UTLA and LAUSD had a productive day of contract negotiations. The discussions concluded at 12:04 AM. Negotiations will resume Friday at 11:00 AM, facilitated by the Mayor's Office.

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) January 18, 2019

Garcetti met with  Superintendent Austin Beutner and UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl at City Hall on Thursday as talks resumed for the first time in nearly a week. The mayor was joined by the new state superintendent, Tony Thurmond. Negotiators for both sides, along with the mayor’s office, then met for about 12 hours. Talks are expected to last through the three-day holiday weekend, and both sides have said they will remain at the table until a deal is reached.

But the union will continue its strike until then.

‘That’s what leadership is’

Observers say Garcetti has made a concerted effort to stay out of education and L.A. Unified since he became mayor.

This serves as a stark contrast to previous mayors, such as Richard Riordan and Antonio Villaraigosa, Garcetti’s immediate predecessor. Riordan actively backed reform-minded school board candidates, and before becoming mayor he had been a founding member of LEARN, a school reform effort that called for system-wide decentralization of L.A. Unified. Villaraigosa had tried unsuccessfully to bring the school district under mayoral control — then created a network to try to improve the most underperforming district schools, called the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

“[Garcetti’s] predecessors have historically rolled up their sleeves and taken responsibility for the schools because public education is a core component of any great city,” Austin said. “That has been the role [Garcetti’s] not just shied away from, but I think almost shunned.”

The mayor’s office disputed these observations, pointing out that he has played an outsized role in student education by jumpstarting Los Angeles College Promise, expanding L.A.’s BEST afterschool program and launching the city’s 16 FamilySource “College Corners,” where peer mentors provide college planning and application assistance to students and their parents.

A Garcetti spokeswoman said by email Friday that the mayor has consistently supported students and “will continue to have his office facilitate negotiations” to get kids back in classrooms.

“Mayor Garcetti believes that there is more that unites than separates both negotiating parties, and that is ensuring the safety and opportunity to succeed for each and every student in Los Angeles. He believes that our children deserve smaller classes, more support staff, and community schools and he believes we must maintain the fiscal stability of our school district.”

Some statements made by the mayor in the past week, onlookers say, suggest a lack of in-depth understanding of the school district’s fiscal turmoil and its relationship with UTLA.

L.A. Unified will likely have to take “at least a hop of faith” and commit more funds to secure a deal, Garcetti said at a Monday news conference. Beutner responded indirectly Tuesday, saying, “This isn’t about faith and hope, this is about the reality, unfortunately, of the limits that we have.” The district is facing billions in long-term debt, rising health care and pension costs and declining enrollment.

Garcetti also stated that the two sides “are not talking very far away from each other” — an optimistic take on nearly two years of heated disputes largely centered on money, class sizes and charter school restrictions. Caputo-Pearl himself said Thursday morning it would be unrealistic to expect any results on the first day of negotiations given years of contention.

“There’s probably some fact” to the two sides not being miles apart, “but to what degree?” said Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at California State University, Los Angeles.

“He may know something that we don’t,” he said of Garcetti.

Regardless of any prior level of engagement, the mayor has a responsibility to intervene when there’s a controversy affecting nearly half a million students and their families, said Michael Trujillo, former campaign consultant for Villaraigosa. And that’s what he’s done.

“When kids aren’t getting their instructional hours, when kids aren’t getting two hot meals a day, when parents have to figure out other means to get their child to childcare — that is a big impact on everyday people’s lives. And as a mayor you should be involved,” Trujillo said. “That’s what leadership is. It’s using your bully pulpit to get in the middle.”

The district and union this week have embraced the mayor’s involvement. An L.A. Unified statement on Thursday thanked Garcetti “for arranging these discussions.”

Today, for the first time since last Friday, we met with UTLA as they have returned to contract negotiations. We are back in contract negotiations and thank @MayorOfLA for arranging these discussions. We need to resolve this as soon as possible… pic.twitter.com/lQDxBjV14d

— L.A. Unified (@LASchools) January 18, 2019

Garcetti stepping in as a mediator doesn’t mean he’s neutral though, Austin noted. Some of the mayor’s public statements and social media posts in the past week have appeared to back the union’s strike efforts. He’s publicized alternate school options like recreation centers, posted a picture of himself having lunch with striking teachers and tweeted that he’s “awed by [teachers’] courage to stand strong for excellent schools.”

My greatest priority is the safety of our children. I’m closely monitoring our City recreation centers and all of the services we’re offering to support our students and families during the strike. You can find more information at https://t.co/9gJ7QAD7qJ. pic.twitter.com/LIRYur4zw5

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) January 14, 2019

I had lunch with teachers striking today — they are making incredible sacrifices and I wanted to hear directly from them about their commitment to the education of our young people. pic.twitter.com/YiPVeh6g7z

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) January 15, 2019

Austin said rather than praising teachers, Garcetti should provide public assurance that he’s focused on students, a group both the union and L.A. Unified say they’re fighting for. He added that the mayor could resurface topics — such as teacher quality and increased accountability on all schools, not just charters — that are not in the contract negotiations and are now buried by what has become a politicized fight over salary, class size and charter caps.

Garcetti engaging in these talks “as an agent” of special interests wouldn’t “be productive, or, frankly, statesman-like,” Austin said. “But if the mayor wants to engage as the mayor of all residents in his city … and engage on behalf of the children of Los Angeles, who don’t have a seat at this table, then I think that type of engagement [is] welcome on all sides.”

While UTLA did back Garcetti for mayor in 2013, Regalado, the Cal State LA professor, doesn’t think Garcetti feels pressure to appease UTLA in a quid pro quo arrangement. Rather, Regalado sees Garcetti’s stepped-up involvement largely boiled down to politics.

There have been widespread whisperings that the mayor is eyeing a White House run in 2020, making it “unwise,” Regalado said, to stay mum on a nationally watched teacher strike. Various other Democratic powerhouses — U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, to name a few — have espoused their support for L.A.’s educators on Twitter.

“It’s an issue forced upon him, and one that he didn’t want to seize by the horns,” Regalado said. “All other Democrats he could be running against nationally have come out in support of the union. … He’s trying to be bold; trying to get the thing done.”

Who’s next?

This building pressure to get things done has called into question Newsom’s and Thurmond’s roles as well in bridging the divide as soon as possible. Education pundits diverged slightly on whether they thought state-level leaders should serve more as a backstop to Garcetti or more proactively enter the fray.

Beutner has repeatedly called on the state for help, saying last Friday, “We need [the governor] to step in … keep us in a room, lock the door and throw away the key if he has to.”

Newsom, after having brokered informal talks with both sides last weekend, addressed the stalled contract negotiations in a statement Monday. “This impasse is disrupting the lives of too many kids and their families,” he said. “I strongly urge all parties to go back to the negotiating table.”

Thurmond tweeted Thursday that he had met with Garcetti and both sides’ leaders and had been “in communication with all parties since taking office to resolve disagreements.”

As the L.A. Times’ editorial board pointed out, Newsom and Thurmond are also union-backed, so “their interpretation of the district’s financial situation and their pressure for the strike to end should carry some weight with United Teachers Los Angeles.”

The state is also the central bank. It provides 90 percent of L.A. Unified’s funding, so “it makes sense to have the source of that money in Sacramento be lobbied to try to help solve this,” Trujillo said, referencing Newsom.

Newsom has already allocated greater K-12 funding in his proposed 2019-20 state budget: a $2.8 billion hike in Proposition 98 funds and $3 billion to assuage growing pension costs burdening school districts statewide. L.A. Unified would see more than $40 million in added general fund dollars next year if that budget passes, a district spokeswoman told LA School Report last week. The union believes Newsom’s budget plan would bring in $140 million, according to the L.A. Times.

But the $3 billion, at least, is a one-time investment, which L.A. County overseers have warned against as the district works to correct its finances long term. Newsom also has other education priorities competing for his attention, such as early education expansion.

• Read more: LAUSD could lose control of its finances if it agrees to a teachers contract that depletes reserves, county warns

“One-year infusions won’t help,” Regalado said. “This is a long-term strategy [the governor] needs to be thinking about and talking more publicly about.”

The possibility of copy cat strikes looms, starting with Oakland Unified School District.

State leadership is “nervous” about the unrest, Regalado said. “They don’t want this to spread like wildfire.”

So it’s about strategy. “Right now L.A. is the big cheese … it’s the one on the news,” he said. “But if, in fact, Newsom does step in with additional funding for LAUSD, then he’s going to have to make sure that this plays to urban and rural districts across California statewide. But LAUSD, because of its size and political importance, would get the largest chunk.”

Austin hopes that whatever resolution emerges — whether outside political involvement forces it or not — is a meaningful step forward for students’ education.

“The goal here should go beyond ending the strike,” he said. City and state leadership have “the political leverage to force a deal, but that’s only half [the battle]. The deal has to actually put kids first.”

*Updated Friday afternoon with Beutner reporting instructional hours lost and the cost to the district for lower attendance. 

(Photo: L.A. Family Housing)

The Los Angeles teacher strike has now lasted a full week, and the work stoppage is compounding stress and uncertainty for students and families who rely on schools for meals, childcare and stability, especially for those experiencing homelessness.

More than 17,000 students in L.A. Unified are classified as homeless, and the strike comes amid a federal shutdown that is threatening to cause additional crises for their families.

The district is encouraging all students to continue to attend school, and campuses will continue to provide a welcoming environment and three meals a day, said Denise Miranda, the district’s director of student health and human services.

“We’re going to continue business as usual and ensure that the students’ needs are being met — that’s our primary focus,” Miranda said.

The district reported that attendance levels were more than 60 percent below normal levels on the first four days of the strike. Superintendent Austin Beutner noted in a news conference Tuesday that two schools serving high proportions of students experiencing homelessness and poverty, Telfair Elementary and Virgil Middle School, had higher attendance than many others on the first day.

At Telfair Elementary, where about 22 percent of students are experiencing homelessness, attendance hovered between 42 percent and 50 percent this week, according to data provided to LA School Report by Principal José Razo.

As an alternative to schools, the City of Los Angeles increased staff and extended hours at 37 recreation centers to help with childcare. The centers are also providing lunches and snacks for children. The mayor’s office said about between 550 and 1,100 students came to the centers each day.

1. The district is encouraging children to come to school.

Schools are providing three meals a day to students who show up, and school buses will continue to run for students who ride them. Substitute teachers and school administrators are supervising students who come to class.

Though many of the staff who regularly work with students at schools are on the picket lines, Miranda said people will be on hand to identify students as homeless. Once students are identified, they will be able to immediately enroll in school, as required by federal law, and get tokens for public transportation if they need it.

Families can also get support from coordinated entry sites and wellness centers throughout the county, Miranda said.

2. Routines are disrupted, leaving parents conflicted.

The strike adds an extra layer of anxiety to the trauma associated with childhood homelessness, said Kimberly Roberts, senior director of stabilization at L.A. Family Housing, a nonprofit that helps families transition out of homelessness.

“Any sort of disruption in routine has a significant impact on children experiencing homelessness,” Roberts told LA School Report. “For many of the children that we work with that are students at LAUSD, their school site is one of the only consistent things that they have on a day-to-day basis. Going to school, having it be open at the same time, closed at the same time, having their teacher there — is something that they really seek to have in a day-to-day routine.”

Additionally, schools are also the main source of meals for many children, so keeping them out of class can add to parents’ stress, Roberts said.

Razo, the Telfair principal, said his students’ parents seem to be split about whether to bring their children to school during the strike.

“Parents are conflicted,” he said. “They support their teachers, but they want them back” in the classroom too. Razo has been teaching while his teachers are out, and while the students might “get a kick out of it, it’s never going to take the place of their teachers.”

Nevertheless, teachers at Telfair have been greeting their students and giving them high fives each morning without crossing the picket line.

“My kids go outside and give [their teachers] hugs. The relationship continues,” Razo said.

• Read more: Beneath the LAUSD teacher strike, the quiet anxieties of parents facing a multitude of fears
  

3. Teachers, counselors and social workers — whom homeless students rely on — are all on strike.

Teachers, social workers, counselors, school nurses, psychologists and others are members of United Teachers Los Angeles, and most if not all are out of the schools this week. All of these professionals work with students experiencing homelessness on a regular basis. Central office staff, who arrange transportation and oversee the homeless services, are still working.

Miranda added that the strike shows that schools in the district are “more than just instructional settings” because they provide healthcare, counseling and other necessities for students. More than 80 percent of students in L.A. Unified are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and Miranda said 17,039 students are classified as homeless.

One of UTLA’s demands is an increase in counseling services and for every school to have a full-time nurse.

Juliana Leon, a student-teacher and a parent in the district, acknowledged that disrupting students’ routines can be harmful but said the teachers’ activism will ultimately improve conditions for the most vulnerable students.

“While I agree that the strike impacts children’s daily routine, I think a greater impact has been lack of mental health services, access to health services via school nurses, overcrowded classrooms, etc.,” Leon told LA School Report in a message on Twitter.

“Although students are missing instructional days, it’s important to fight for these services now. Teachers aren’t able to support their students if these services aren’t in place,” she added. “A full-time school psychologist, a full-time school nurse can provide students with the support they need to focus on their schoolwork.”

The Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to give L.A. Unified an additional $10 million to increase mental health staff and services in schools. The district accounted for the additional funding in its most recent offer to the union.

4. The federal shutdown is another looming crisis for families who are struggling.

So far, Roberts of L.A. Family Housing said, the families she knows haven’t felt the effects of the federal government shutdown. But they could be coming. States, including California, are urging families who receive food assistance to budget their February payment — which they will receive on or before Jan. 20 — as it could be weeks before the next payment comes if the shutdown drags on, Politico reported. (The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are now known, is a federal program administered at the state level.)

“There are some signs that there are some looming crises pending” because of the shutdown, Roberts said. She mentioned the limits on food assistance and uncertainty around housing voucher programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

If it continues into March, the federal shutdown could also threaten funding for school meal programs, Politico reported.

5. Where can parents get information?

The following resources are available for families experiencing homelessness:

• To learn more about district resources and services, visit the Homeless Education Program website.
• For services and resources specific to families experiencing homelessness, such as food bank locations and questions about enrollment and transportation, call the homeless education program: 213-202-7581.
• For information about the strike, call the district strike hotline: 213-443-1300.

*Updated Jan. 18

L.A. Unified reports losing a net $75 million in the first week of the teacher strike from low student attendance, stretching its finances further as the district struggles to remain solvent.

While the district tries to satiate the teachers union’s demands, it’s teetering on a proverbial “fiscal cliff” — shouldering more than $15 billion in future retiree health benefits, rising pension costs and rapidly declining enrollment. Its reserves are projected to be nearly depleted by 2020-21. This latest funding blow from the strike is likely to shrink the pot of money available for paying off debt and for reaching a settlement that would end the now weeklong walkout.

“Nobody wishes more than I” that the district could meet all the demands of United Teachers Los Angeles, Superintendent Austin Beutner told reporters this week. “But the painful truth is we just don’t have enough money to do everything UTLA is asking.”

UTLA resumed negotiations Thursday with a 12-hour session. The two sides met again Friday and were prepared to meet through the weekend.

“We need the district to … get us an agreement, so we can re-establish some normalcy in the city,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said Wednesday.

As the talks continue, here are some big-picture numbers to know:

1. $75 million

An estimate of lost district funding stemming from drastically lowered attendance the first week of the strike. Beutner announced Friday that the district has lost $125 million, but he says the district is saving about $10 million a day from not paying striking teachers, alleviating part of that burden.

Attendance in the 486,000-student district has been more than 60 percent below normal levels each day. The number of students in class every day dictates the amount of state funding California school districts get. L.A. Unified receives $68 per day per student.

Here’s the breakdown provided Thursday, without savings from teacher salaries deducted:

• Monday: 156,774 students present. A $22.8 million loss to the district.
• Tuesday: 171,480 students present. A $21.7 million loss to the district.
• Wednesday: 134,724 students present. A $24.4 million loss to the district.
• Thursday: 84,160 students present. A $28.2 million loss to the district.
• Friday: 85,274 students present. A $28.1 million loss to the district.

Credit: L.A. Unified

Attendance is normally around 450,000 kids, Beutner said this week.

2. $135 million

An estimate of what L.A. Unified could lose — considering average lost funding over the first five days — if the work stoppage runs for nine days, the length of the 1989 teacher strike.

Striking UTLA members would also lose about $90 million in salaries.

3. $130 million

L.A. Unified’s offer currently on the table to lower class sizes and hire almost 1,200 new staff, including educators, nurses, counselors and librarians. This does not include salary.

This offer spiked dramatically within a week, with L.A. Unified’s base proposal of $30 million rising to $105 million on Jan. 7 and to $130 million on Jan. 11. The union rejected both.

The latest proposal to limit class sizes and add staff is $40 million above the high-end of what a neutral, state-appointed fact-finder recommended in December. Read more.

4. $755 million

The total “rainy day” reserve the county projects L.A. Unified to have by the end of the 2018-19 school year. If L.A. Unified uses these reserves as a backstop to lost attendance funding, about 10 percent of it will have already been lost.

The reserve this past year was nearly $2 billion. The district, however, says the bulk of that money has already been earmarked for costs such as federal and state-required programs for low-income students, anticipated teacher pay raises and more staff hires.

Credit: L.A. Unified

Los Angeles County, which oversees L.A. Unified, projects the district’s reserves will drop about 90 percent between this year and 2020-21, placing it slightly below the minimum mandated reserve level.

The county already sent fiscal experts to the district this week and could install a fiscal adviser with the power to rewrite budgets, overturn school board decisions and invalidate upcoming labor deals if an agreement with UTLA lurches reserve levels further in the red. Read more.

5. $19.6 billion

The district’s unrestricted net deficit, or money L.A. Unified needs to pay out in future years with future revenue. This debt takes from funds available for classroom spending, experts say.

Erasing that debt would take $4,180 from every man, woman and child in the district, according to an L.A. Daily News op-ed by state Sen. John Moorlach. Read more.

6. $314 million

Projected retiree benefit spending for 2018-19 alone. The district offers free, lifetime benefits for retirees, employees and their dependents — a generous perk few workers get.

Some other retiree health care-related numbers …

• The total cost of the district’s promises to provide future retiree health benefits is $15.2 billion.
• The annual cost of retiree benefits equates to $12,500 in district spending per teacher, says Chad Aldeman, a senior associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners.

From 2001 to 2016, LAUSD increased:

– Overall spending by 55.5%
– Spending on salaries and wages by 24.4%
– Employee benefit spending by 138% pic.twitter.com/sprEG74EHZ

— Chad Aldeman (@ChadAldeman) January 7, 2019

And on the general health care package….

• $2,300 of the roughly $16,000 L.A. Unified received per student for 2018-19 goes toward funding the district’s health care package. Read more.
• Employee benefit spending spiked 138 percent between 2001 and 2016.
  
• Health care benefits, along with rising employer pension contribution rates, are expected to consume half of district spending by 2031-32. Read more.

7. $1.4 billion

What the district could be spending yearly on pensions by 2021-22 — 19 percent of its general fund revenue. That figure is calculated with L.A. Unified’s current budget of about $7.5 billion.

Employer pension contribution rates are regulated at the state level and are rising. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a one-time $3 billion infusion in 2019-20 to assuage those costs statewide.

8. $800 million

How much UTLA’s current demands would add to annual district spending, Beutner said this week. UTLA contract demands include a full-time nurse in each of the district’s 1,100 schools, smaller caseloads for special education teachers and a 6.5 percent pay raise retroactive to 2016-17.

The current salary offer on the table from L.A. Unified is 6 percent: 3 percent retroactive to 2017-18 and 3 percent for this year.

9. $630 million

The estimated loss in district funding annually from student chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10 percent or more of the school year.

L.A. Unified is also losing millions as at least 12,000 students leave the district annually. While charter school growth plays a role — about 35 percent of students who leave the district are going to charters, according to a Reason Foundation study — the decline is attributable as well to lower birth rates, dropouts and transfers out of the district. Read more.

Source: L.A. Unified

About 1/2 of the loss of students is due to increased enrollments in charter schools, but about 1/2 due to decline in the birth rate as well as students dropping out of school or transferring to other school districts.

— Robin Lake (@RbnLake) January 15, 2019

An optimistic number that could be coming down the pike, though ….

$1.4 billion

The amount of annual funding that Los Angeles County schools, including L.A. Unified, could receive if California voters pass the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act, a tax reform initiative that will be on the November 2020 ballot.

UTLA and the district school board have both backed this measure. Union members are also leading a “20 x 20” campaign — which the district also supports — to raise per-pupil spending statewide to $20,000 by 2020, up from $10,291, adjusting for cost-of-living.

L.A. Unified received about $16,000 in per-pupil spending for 2018-19, significantly lower than New York and Chicago.

*This article has been updated with Thursday’s and Friday’s attendance numbers and costs.

The strike follows a tumultuous 2018 for teachers unions. If union leaders could invent a time machine, they would likely go back to Nov. 8, 2016, and find a way to secure Hillary Clinton another 43 Electoral College votes. The aim would be to dodge President Trump’s Supreme Court appointments and ultimately forestall a June 27, 2018, 5-4 vote in Janus v. AFSCME. The mandatory collection of fees from non-union members is now prohibited throughout the United States, and non-union members can benefit from union services for the cool price of zero dollars.

But the Janus decision could invigorate the unions it intended to incapacitate, with the recent spate of strikes, including the ongoing situation in L.A., as evidence that this may be the case. The defeat in the nation’s highest court further legitimized a cause for unions to rally around and gave them the opportunity to listen to and direct the frustration of a profession toward making real improvements for teachers. Succeeding in this effort could be the key to their survival.

The Janus ruling came down at a time when frustration in the teaching profession was already at a boiling point. National polls suggest that less than half of teachers are satisfied with their salaries. Fifty-nine percent have worked a second job to make ends meet. Subject-area teacher shortages and poor teacher retention around the country make diminishing morale and appeal of the profession even more problematic. In large urban districts, just over half of teachers remain in the classroom after five years — and the pipeline for new hires could be shrinking. Only 46 percent of Americans would recommend becoming a public school teacher to their child, down from 70 percent just 10 years ago.

The spring 2018 teacher strikes and protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado, and Arizona demonstrated this frustration and sent a shock wave through the profession. The #RedForEd movement was a self-proclaimed protest against legislatures’ underinvestment in education postrecession, the symptoms of which are low teacher pay and understaffing.

With rising discord among teachers last spring, the June ruling in Janus presented unions with a challenge and an opportunity. Because non-members could now get services for free, teachers unions would have to provide enough value to justify the full cost of membership — and they have a stronger case to make when an enemy stands right outside the castle walls.

As a teachers union leader in San Jose, California, put it, “In a world where every local constantly has to be prospecting for membership, it’s easier to organize around a crisis and fear — against a villain.”

In some ways, the Janus case magnified the cause of the spring walkouts. The case was bankrolled by well-funded union antagonists and ultimately decided by a Trump appointee who serves as part of a new conservative majority on the high court. In short, unions could message the Janus defeat as a continuation of the same “attacks” carried out by red-state legislatures, with the teaching profession, a properly funded education system, and students again as the victims. Their prevailing rallying cry to their membership: “America needs unions now more than ever.”

Since Janus, teachers have walked out of classrooms in several districts in Washington state and in charter schools in both Chicago and Los Angeles, and now they have taken to the streets in Los Angeles, disrupting operations in a district that stretches 710 square miles, employs more than 30,000 teachers and support staff, and instructs some 640,000 students.

While there would be no L.A. teacher strike without the local budget politics that plague the district, there also likely wouldn’t be a strike without the organizing momentum provided by #RedForEd and the Janus case.

United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl has, on multiple occasions, drawn connections to the spring walkouts and Janus, and he has made the pitch that the union is the best shot for gaining increased school funding and greater respect for education and for teachers. With momentum already building from job actions in Washington and Chicago, the court case may have served as more of a wake-up call than a death knell.

If the L.A. strike leads to real improvements for its members, it will once again showcase the value of unions and ensure their survival and relevance in a post-Janus world — and the baton will pass to the next group of dissatisfied educators and teachers unions eager to prove their worth.

Bradley D. Marianno is an assistant professor of educational policy and leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Some of the 21 African-American pastors who signed the letter include, from left, Pastor Torrey Collins of St. Rest Friendship Church, Pastor Al Johnson of Divine Direction, Rev. K.W. Tulloss of Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church, Bishop Harrington McFrazier of New Beginnings Church and Pastor Nathaniel Haley of United Christians Missionary Baptist Church. (Photo: Rev. Danone Williams)

*Updated Jan. 16

Nearly two dozen African-American pastors urged United Teachers Los Angeles to return to the negotiating table because “the fortunes of African-American children do not improve on a picket line.”

The letter, dated Tuesday, was addressed to UTLA’s President Alex Caputo-Pearl and released by L.A. Unified on Wednesday.

“While we support the exercise of your member’s First Amendment rights and utilization of the protections afforded employees under California law, negotiators should be at the table crafting a solution to end the strike,” the letter states.

Late Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that both parties will resume negotiations at noon Thursday at City Hall. A UTLA official stated that new State Superintendent Tony Thurmond also had been in touch with both parties and offered support. The Los Angeles Times reported that Caputo-Pearl called for the strike to continue and for members to rally Friday in downtown Los Angeles.

The letter is signed by 21 pastors at churches, mainly located in South Los Angeles, including Grace Temple Missionary Church and United Christian Missionary Baptist Church, and Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church in Boyle Heights, whose pastor, K.W. Tulloss, this week was elected president of the Baptist Ministers Conference Los Angeles.

“We just want folks to come together,” Tulloss said Wednesday.

Tulloss stressed that “we’re on the side of both,” adding his own children are not crossing the picket lines. “The reality is there are no sides. We’re on the side of the students and the teachers. We believe the teachers deserve what’s best and what’s right for them to receive. People are protesting a lot of different issues that we shouldn’t even be focusing on.”

Parents are suffering, he said, “because they don’t want to cross the picket line but need childcare. “It’s all coming at the expense of the kids. Kids are losing out on valuable education.”

The Rev. John Cager of Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church, who wrote the letter, said Wednesday, “We are not opposed to the strike. I think we all agree that the teachers’ goals are admirable. What we question is the strategy of not negotiating while you’re out on strike because you can’t solve any problems by not talking.”

He said before writing the letter, he spoke with teachers in the church “and all of them agree that the strike was necessary, and all of them agree that the union should go back to negotiations.”

Cager said his community’s main concern was who would take care of the students and the loss of learning.

“We want our schools to work better. Los Angeles should be a model school district, and we want the parties to do whatever is necessary to get both sides talking again and get a resolution,” said Cager, who grew up in Cleveland but whose now-adult children, and his wife, attended L.A. Unified schools. When one son needed special education services, Cager said it was so difficult to get an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for him that he had to go to Sacramento to fight for it.

In the letter, the pastors expressed their concern about how the strike would impact African-American students’ achievement.

“How are seniors transitioning out of school, 8th graders going to high school, 5th graders going to middle school, kindergarteners going to 1st grade, special needs students, and parents with children in state preschool going to make up time lost in a protracted work stoppage of their instructors?”

L.A. Unified serves about 38,500 black students, making up 7.7 percent of district enrollment. Last year their graduation rate rose to 76 percent, higher than the district’s average of 73.6 percent, but their state test scores continued to lag district averages. On the state tests, 31.7 percent of blacks met or exceeded reading standards, compared to 42 percent for all L.A. Unified, and only 20 percent met math standards, compared to 32 percent districtwide.

Based on the 2017 California School Dashboard ratings for L.A. Unified, an analysis by Parent Revolution, an L.A.-based parent advocacy nonprofit, found that only five schools in the district earned a green or blue rating for African-American students in both English language arts and math. The dashboard is the state’s accountability tool for schools and uses colors ranging from blue at the top end to red at the lowest end.

“African-American children are at the bottom of most when it comes to testing and things of that matter,” Tulloss said. “There is a concern, and ultimately I think it’s going to take the community, teachers, district all coming together trying to develop some real strategic plan to help raise test scores and the success of African-American students throughout California.”

Aurea Montes-Rodriguez, executive vice president of Community Coalition, which advocates for educational equity in Los Angeles, said, “When I read the letter, I saw a declaration from black clergy that they’re concerned about the education of our children. And we really believe that it is important to call out that African-American students are suffering from poor-quality education and that when you look at the achievement gap at the LAUSD, black children are the ones that are the most greatly impacted, which is why we want to see a resolution quickly.”

Concerns about learning loss were also raised in a letter Wednesday addressed to Caputo-Pearl from the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business advocacy organization in the San Fernando Valley.

“As the teachers’ strike enters its third day, VICA is increasingly concerned about the harm being done to our students as they miss critical instruction. This time of year is of utmost importance to students whose start in life and their careers depends on succeeding at school and in their exams.”

Faith Wroten, a black parent who has two high school students in ninth- and 10th-grades at Jordan High School, said she appreciates the pastors’ push for renewed negotiations between the union’s leadership and the district so the strike can be ended because it’s been “upsetting” for her.

Wroten is in the process of getting her teaching credential while working full time and has not sent her kids to school since the beginning of the strike because she said she knew “they will be learning nothing.”

“I am all for the end of the strike. This is no longer about the kids,” she said. “I understand that teachers need to get paid better, they have to eat. However, it shouldn’t be at the expense of the kids,” Wroten said.

She said her main worry is how far her kids are falling behind academically, especially because they are high schoolers and the learning time lost will not be recovered and could impact their preparation for college. “Do you know? Because I don’t know how they will make up for all this time the students have not been learning anything,” she said.

“They’re supposed to be learning and they’re not. They’re already in a deficit by being in an inner-city school. Every minute they’re in school learning something counts,” she said. “I hate that it has been already three days! I’m having a hard time understanding how the heck they’re going this far.”

Cager said, “For many of us, I know at my church and at most of the churches of the pastors who are listed we have special prayer, for the South L.A. pastors in particular. We are impacted more by the strike than most of the areas of the city because largely the students who are in L.A. Unified are students of color, they’re not from the highest-income neighborhoods. And the strike impacts the families of our church.”

Tulloss said, “Ultimately, our children are suffering, but we’re not crossing that picket line, so when it comes down to it, we have a lot of services being provided from the city and things of that matter, but it’s nothing like getting down and getting a good and decent education from our world-class teachers in LAUSD. We want to continue to support all of our teachers, but the reality is we need members of all parties at the table.”

*This article has been updated with talks resuming Thursday.

Outside Sunrise Elementary on Monday morning, Mariana, left, said she supported the teachers but had to take her daughter to school. “But apparently I’m not doing what I was supposed to do.”

*Updated Jan. 16

On the first day of the Los Angeles teacher strike, the sights and sounds were loud and flashy: Teachers with picket signs at a thousand schools. Car horns honking their support. At least 20,000 people shouting and marching downtown. Reports on every newscast.

Under the radar were the parents of 140,000 students who crossed the picket lines to take their children to class — because they said they had no choice, because they thought their kids might be better off at school, might be safer, might be able to keep from falling behind in their schoolwork.

‘I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing’

At Sunrise Elementary in East Los Angeles, some of the parents of the 120 students who attended school Monday kept their heads down to avoid eye contact with their teachers as they arrived. They protected their children from the rain, but also from a situation that some did not fully understand.

Josefina Gil walks her third-grade daughter into Sunrise Elementary on the first day of the strike.

“I don’t know what to think,” said Josefina Gil, mother of a third-grader at Sunrise. “I don’t want to talk because I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing. I want to support my daughter’s teacher, but I have to go to work and she’s better here in school. I have no choice,” Gil said in Spanish, her voice shaky.

She lingered, looking toward the campus for support. One staff member had to assure her that her daughter would be fine. “We will walk her to the classroom, don’t worry,” the woman told her.

Another parent tried to be on both sides of the picket line. Mariana, who didn’t want to give her last name, said she was in support of the teachers but had to take her daughter to school.

After dropping off her daughter, she picked up a poster in one hand, balancing her baby girl and an umbrella in the other. She stood next to a woman who said she didn’t want to talk. Mariana was also hesitant to speak but explained that she’s just trying to do her best to help the teachers. “But apparently I’m not doing what I was supposed to do,” because she had brought her daughter to school.

“I know I wasn’t supposed to take her, but I know she will be better in school. I don’t want her to have absences. But on the other hand, I want a nurse in the school and I want smaller class sizes, so I want to support the teachers in their demands,” Mariana said in Spanish. “I will be here with them for a little while.”

For Juan Garcia, the strike was totally unexpected despite all the news coverage leading up to the teachers walking off the job.

“I didn’t know anything about it. He is my girlfriend’s son. She asked me to take him to school so I’m just dropping him off. I didn’t know about the strike,” he said.

Sunrise’s enrollment this year is 340 students, and school officials said about a third attended Monday. That was roughly the same percentage reported districtwide for the first day of the strike. Attendance rose to 163,384 students on the second day of the strike, the district said, up from 143,993 students on Monday. Total enrollment is about 480,000 in traditional K-12 schools. 

‘Mami, let’s go back home.’

Cesia Cedillo said Tuesday that she felt bad for her fourth-grade son when they crossed the picket line at Roscoe Elementary in Sun Valley, in the east San Fernando Valley. “When he heard his teacher asking for support, he got sad and said, ‘Mami, let’s go back home.’ I had to explain he had to stay at least yesterday.”

Cedillo said she is in full support of the teachers — “They do good things for our kids” — but she’s also afraid about the consequences of parents not taking their children to school during the strike.

“I’m worried that as a result of too many kids being absent from the programs after and before school, they may terminate them because there won’t be enough funds. I need the before-school program because it helps me get to my work on time because I can leave my son 10 to 15 minutes before school starts.”

Cedillo was also concerned for other parents, like single moms at her school who rely on those programs. “It’s not just me, but many other moms who will be affected if we lose those programs.”

On Tuesday, the second day of the strike, she said she will go day by day. “Today, I decided to keep him home, and tomorrow too, but I have a job, I won’t be able to keep up at this pace. I really hope they get to an agreement soon.”

‘I’m confused. I’m divided. I don’t know what I should do.’

Parents at charter schools that share the same school campus with district schools had been warned they may face disruption and hostility, though on the first day, none was reported.

Crown Preparatory Academy and 24th Street Elementary share the same entrance, where two school police officers were stationed Monday.

A family shows their support for teachers outside 24th Street Elementary on Monday.

A parent who didn’t want to give her name said she was afraid to talk. She looked visibly uncomfortable, looking down and trying to hide under her umbrella as she chose to wait behind the line of teachers picketing rather than cross it to pick up her daughter after school.

Then one of the teachers told her, “Talk to the reporter, tell her how you feel.”

So she said, “I don’t want to talk because I’m confused. I’m divided. I don’t know what I should do. Teachers tell me one thing, the school staff tell me another thing, I hear other things in the media, I don’t know who I should believe. I am sad because of what’s happening. I hope this is over soon.”

Juventino Vargas was waiting for his seventh-grader outside Crown Prep. “Now everything looks calm, but I’m not sure if it would start affecting us.” Then he paused. “Well, it’s already affecting us. We are here, standing far away from the entrance waiting for our kids because we don’t feel confident to get closer. We don’t want to get in the way of the teachers’ demonstration. We don’t want to get in trouble.”

‘If it goes beyond three days, a week, I will be worried.’

Sandra Sanchez’s son attends Bryson Avenue Elementary in South Gate in Southeast L.A. She said she debated all last week about what she should do. Over the weekend she was still undecided, but on Monday after learning that the students would be supervised by just a few people in the school’s auditorium or cafeteria, she decided that “having my mom watch him was the best option.”

“I will go day by day, depending on how things are developing and based on what I can hear from other parents’ experiences,” Sanchez said. “I’m concerned. If it goes beyond three days, a week, I will be worried.”

Sanchez said she believes the teachers are fighting for better conditions in schools for students and she appreciates that. “I will try to go to support them on the picket line after school.”

The downside of the strike for Sanchez is that her son will miss school for the first time this year.

“He was having perfect attendance this year, so he’s losing that. But in the end, I think it is for a good cause.” She added, “What I’m really grateful about is that my son’s teacher gave her students homework to be working on during the strike. He’s been busy working on it.”

Parents’ fears about attendance

Attendance has been one of the main concerns among parents.

L.A. Unified’s Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson, who taught several classes at El Sereno Middle School on Monday, said that seniors’ absences during the strike wouldn’t keep them from graduating. “We are making clear for our families that we will be very flexible. It won’t be a challenge for graduation.”

L.A. Unified’s Chief Academic Officer Frances Gipson, who taught several classes at El Sereno Middle School on Monday, said that seniors’ absences during the strike wouldn’t keep them from graduating.

Schools remain open during the strike, and district officials have instructed all students to attend regularly. Any absences are to be marked as unexcused. But a district spokesperson said that any consequences for missed classes would be at the discretion of the principal. According to California law, a student who has more than three unexcused absences is considered truant, and further corrective actions may be taken by the school district, including mailing truant notifications and requesting documentation to justify the absence.

In response to parents’ questions about absences, the district stated late Tuesday, “While state law does not excuse absences in case of a strike and students are expected to attend class, principals will work with students and families on attendance. At the moment, schools will not be notifying parents of absences, but will continue to monitor student attendance and provide support to students on an individual basis.”

Pia Escudero, the district’s executive director of student health and human services, told Univision on Wednesday that absences during the strike will not affect students with perfect attendance and that they will still receive their recognitions once classes resume.

Virginia Justice, a parent in the San Fernando Valley, said her fourth-grade son’s safety was her primary concern, more than facing consequences for his absences. He attends Stonehurst Elementary, an L.A. Unified magnet school in Sun Valley.

She decided not to send her son to school because she said he wouldn’t be learning anything — and because “it wouldn’t be safe for him to be in a school while only a few people will be watching dozens of students.”

She had two children of neighbors and friends at home with her as well.

“I committed to taking care of them for the whole week if the strike continues. My husband and I both work from home, so we thought we could support other parents that must go out to work by taking care of their children,” Justice said. “I decided to keep my son home because I am in full support of the teachers and I prefer to have him home than in an auditorium learning nothing.”

For more information on student attendance, please see letter below. https://t.co/KSgs04X9Hj pic.twitter.com/GlHSYiIWNM

— L.A. Unified (@LASchools) January 16, 2019

‘I’m just disappointed’

Cecilia Posada’s main concern during the strike was that her three children would miss out on instruction, so she said it was an easy decision for her to send them to school Monday. Two of them attend Roscoe Elementary, the other Stonehurst. She said Roscoe’s principal told parents that the students would continue their regular classroom instruction and that they should be at school learning.

But Posada said that did not happen Monday. Her kids told her they just watched movies and did some physical activities. Now, she said she’s worried they won’t be learning and they will not be safe. So she kept two at home on Tuesday. But the other wanted to go to school.

“My son with special needs was mixed with other students, not only special ed students, and he needs special support. I cannot continue sending him to school if that’s the case. I don’t even know the people who are watching them. I have never seen them before. I’m just disappointed,” Posadas said.

“It is sad because he loves going to school. Today, he was crying because he wanted to be there. But I’m afraid he’s not safe. Tomorrow, I will take him with me to the picket line to support the teachers,” she said. “Teachers are on strike because they need more support to serve our kids better. I hope the district gives them what they ask and this can be over soon.”

Poll shows support for teachers

A survey among Los Angeles County residents released Tuesday by Loyola Marymount University showed majority support for teachers in the strike.

The survey of 425 residents, which is still ongoing, was started before the strike began. Among the respondents so far, 53 percent said they “strongly support” and 24 percent “somewhat support” teachers striking to achieve their demands. Among parents with children at home, just 18 percent opposed the walkout.

“We may see a different response to this question if the teachers remain on the picket lines for an extended period of time and the realities of the work stoppage hit home,” Brianne Gilbert, one of the survey’s researchers, said in a news release. “But for now, it’s clear that L.A. stands with its striking teachers.”

Parent resources

L.A. Unified’s strike hotline for parents and guardians is 213-443-1300. A family resource guide is also available here. Families In Schools, a parent advocacy community organization, on Monday launched a “Strike Watch” campaign to provide parents and community members with links to resources and information about the strike, including parents’ legal rights.

*This article has been updated with L.A. Unified’s latest attendance figures and guidance on attendance.

The collective bargaining agreement contains a table with maximum class sizes, but Article XVIII, Section 1.5 states, “It is recognized that the class size restrictions of this Article may not be achieved due to circumstances such as state funding limitations, changes in the student integration or other programs, or statutory changes.”

Calling Section 1.5 “at the core of our struggle,” UTLA Secondary Vice President Daniel Barnhart wrote, “It’s not hyperbole to say that the future of public education in Los Angeles may depend on whether we get rid of that sentence in our contract.”

That is, without doubt, hyperbole.

Section 1.5 is not something L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner created, nor is it something that was only recently added to the teacher contract. That sentence has remained virtually intact since at least the 2001-03 collective bargaining agreement, signed off by the last five UTLA presidents, including the current one, Alex Caputo-Pearl.

The 2001-03 contract reads, “It is recognized that the class size restrictions of this Article may not be achieved due to circumstances such as state funding limitations, teacher shortages, changes in the student integration or other programs, or statutory changes.”

The latest iteration of the contract eliminated “teacher shortages” from the reasons the class size limits could be waived, suggesting neither side considered it a non-negotiable item.

The 2008-11 contract contained a special provision to address the class size issue, including the creation of a joint class size task force with an equal number of representatives from the district and UTLA.

By the 2014-17 contract, that one sentence in Section 1.5 had a few companions:

“It is recognized that the class size restrictions of this Article may not be achieved due to circumstances such as state funding limitations, changes in the student integration or other programs, or statutory changes. Prior to implementing any variation from the class size restrictions of this Article, the District shall provide UTLA with a written notice of intent, including a written rationale and a summary of applicable facts. Upon request of either party, the District and UTLA shall meet and discuss the intended variation from the class size restrictions prior to implementation. Neither the District’s budget development process and/or the issuance of layoff notices shall be deemed ‘implementation.’ Alleged violations of any terms of this section are subject to the grievance procedures of Article V.”

In fact, L.A. Unified and UTLA did meet in August 2017 to discuss “the intended variation from the class size restrictions.” The meeting produced a memorandum of understanding in which “the two sides agreed” the computed class size variations were in accordance with Section 1.5. That MOU was signed by Alex Caputo-Pearl.

L.A. Unified’s current bargaining position is that it is willing to eliminate Section 1.5, but it wants something to replace it. The independent fact-finder suggested that a new MOU could get the two sides back to the original class size limits “within a couple of years.”

When districts try to remove something from a contract that has been previously bargained, unions slam them for it, calling such attempts “takebacks.” As things now stand, it is UTLA demanding a takeback, which the district is unwilling to surrender in its entirety. The solution, as always, is bargaining. It will happen in this case, too, but only after UTLA gets its parade.

Teachers and supporters march from City Hall to LAUSD headquarters in Los Angeles on the first day of the strike. (Photo: Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

*Updated Jan. 15

Teachers went on strike Monday in Los Angeles for the first time in 30 years, driving down attendance at many schools as parents wrestled with whether to bring their children past picket lines — if they could afford the choice to keep them home.

Thousands of protesters weathered heavy rain to picket outside schools before heading to a march in downtown Los Angeles. Union leaders continued to call for bolstered classroom investments, while L.A. Unified re-emphasized its “desire to find a solution to the UTLA strike as soon as possible.” Online, the Twitterverse — including political figures such as Democrat U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris — seemed to largely side with the union’s efforts.

United Teachers Los Angeles on Friday rejected the district’s latest offer, which would invest $130 million to lower class sizes and add 1,200 new staff members — teachers as well as nurses, counselors and librarians. The district is offering a 3 percent raise retroactive to 2017-18 and 3 percent for this year. UTLA wants a 6.5 percent retroactive raise, a full-time nurse in every school, more special education teachers and expanded charter school oversight, among other demands.

Here’s how Day 1 of the strike unfolded in the nation’s second-largest school district.

1) Attendance fell sharply. 

L.A. Unified stressed that all schools were open and students were safe and receiving instruction. But attendance was down sharply.

“All 1,240 K-12 schools are open,” Superintendent Austin Beutner said at a midmorning news briefing. “Some schools are well attended, some are less than well attended.”

In an evening news release, the district reported that 141,631 students attended. That’s less than 30 percent of enrollment. L.A. Unified this year enrolls about 480,000 students in its traditional K-12 schools.

California school districts receive state funding based on student attendance. L.A. Unified gets $68 for each student per day.

During UTLA’s nine-day 1989 teacher strike, nearly half of the district’s then-650,000 students were out of school at points.

One L.A. Unified student said she would be joining her teachers on the picket line Tuesday because she felt like she was “wasting [her] time” in school on Monday.

felt like i was wasting my time in the auditorium today; so i’m striking with the teachers tomorrow. #UTLAStrike

— Micah Alexandria (@micaaaaah__) January 14, 2019

At one school on the city’s heavily Latino east side — El Sereno Middle School — only about 25 percent of its 1,200 students were in attendance, school officials told LA School Report.

LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country. It serves just under 500,000 students.

Schools don’t know how many students will show up. This morning someone at RFK Community Schools’ gate told me she saw less than 100 students come in. pic.twitter.com/rS4c6HcnFh

— Steve Saldivar (@stevesaldivar) January 14, 2019

Los Angeles teachers strike in the rain, as some parents walk their kids into auditoriums, while others join the picket line. Attendance appeared to be sparse at some schools. pic.twitter.com/w19ZlZXOIG

— Speak UP (@SpeakUpParents) January 14, 2019

@LASchools you messed with the wrong Mama Bears…WE will not give up on our kids and expect you not to either! We are showing you as only 15% of our school was in attendance today @jennibloom @UTLAnow #utlastrong #educationisaright pic.twitter.com/ZxWoR740A5

— Kara Schertz (@kschertz) January 14, 2019

While some parents kept their kids out of school to support teachers, others said they didn’t have that luxury. “I want to support the teachers, but I have to work and my daughter has to come to school,” said Josefina, who didn’t want to give her last name, as she dropped off her daughter at Sunrise Elementary, another east side school.

Another parent arriving at the school said he didn’t know there was going to be a strike.

Standing with #LAUSD teachers today by keeping my kid home (cause I can). I support #publiceducation, I support better pay, I support parents, I support students, I support #LAUSD and #UTLA. #LAUSDStrike

— Carolina H. Malone (@CarolinaHMalone) January 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/sandimendoza__/status/1084833682270183426

I stand with Teachers. 2 reasons I had to shamefully cross the picket line today; my daughter is concerned about her attendance (she's in 2nd grade), and because I'm a working parent with no one to watch her. Please @LASchools, listen to our teachers. @UTLAnow

— Vanessa (@LA_woman3) January 14, 2019

I was out there with about 150 others. And only about 20 kids (out of 460) attended school. We parents are dug in for our teachers. #LAUSDStrike pic.twitter.com/mV6sk8KCpS

— Jessica Craven (@Craven7Jessica) January 14, 2019

Virginia Justice, who has a fourth-grader at Stonehurst Elementary, an L.A. Unified magnet school in Sun Valley north of downtown, said she decided not to send her son to school because she knows he wouldn’t be learning anything — and because “it wouldn’t be safe for him to be in a school while only a few people will be watching dozens of students.”

She had two children of neighbors and friends at home with her as well.

“I committed to taking care of them for the whole week if the strike continues. My husband and I both work from home, so we thought we could support other parents that must go out to work by taking care of their children,” Justice said. “I decided to keep my son home because I am in full support of the teachers.”

2) There were about 20,000 participants in UTLA’s downtown march.

LA School Police early Monday afternoon estimated the number of demonstrators who gathered at Grand Park in downtown at about 20,000.

According to School Police Chief Steven Zipperman, information from their District Operations Center and a LA City Fire Department source, the estimated number of demonstrators who gathered at Grand Park was about 20,000.#UTLAStrike pic.twitter.com/JPCe1s7kEv

— LA School Police (@LASchoolPolice) January 14, 2019

At the morning news conference, Beutner said about 3,500 people were participating in protests at schools — a number UTLA disputed. The union represents more than 30,000 teachers and other district staff. 

“To me, this strike isn’t about the pay raise; it’s about the lack of respect for educators,” said Erin Sopapunta, an English teacher at Francis Polytechnic Senior High who Educators for Excellence-Los Angeles cited in a Monday news release on the strike. “No other career has such high expectations and such little resources.”

UTLA members have decried the state’s per-pupil funding — which ranks in a range of 37th to 41st to 43rd in the nation, depending on the source — and current district policies that allow class sizes to top 40 students.

.@UTLAnow A teacher sent this letter to me written by a veteran LAUSD teacher. I don't know who wrote it, but it's a powerful message on why we are striking for our students. #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #RedForEd pic.twitter.com/qMUxeGy4Z4

— Lester Vasquez (@MrLesterVasquez) January 14, 2019

I am public school teacher in Los Angeles. Tomorrow I will be going on strike. It was not an easy decision, but public education in Los Angeles is failing students. Our schools need support. My students deserve better. #stopStarvingOurPublicSchools #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady #LAUSD

— megan alva (@AlvaMegan) January 14, 2019

L.A. Unified hired about 400 substitute teachers to fill in for striking teachers and purchased more computer-based education programs. District 4 board member Nick Melvoin told LA School Report last month the district has about 2,000 credentialed staff, such as counselors and people from the central office, who can also step in.

Frances Gipson, the district’s chief academic officer, returned to El Sereno Middle School on Monday, where she had been principal.

“We know that our teachers are the heartbeat of the school district, and we are so grateful for what they do each and every day for our students,” Gipson said. “That’s how I’m teaching today — to help support our students, our teachers, our district leaders, our parents. That’s what I’m going to do today because at the core I’m a teacher.”

#LAUSDStrike at the Metro Station! pic.twitter.com/TD12uIhiBJ

— It's All Good (@godfreyland) January 14, 2019

Biding time on the picket line! Welby Way Elementary educators, parents, students, and community supporters are out here to win the best possible public schools for L.A. students.#UTLAStrong #redfored pic.twitter.com/2BkcPwUOgE

— United Teachers Los Angeles (@UTLAnow) January 14, 2019

3) There were no safety issues reported.

Beutner said that picketing “to our knowledge has been peaceful.”

“Students are safe and learning,” he said.

Regarding safety precautions, the district told LA School Report last week: “Los Angeles School Police will assign an officer to every secondary school during the school day. LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement partners will coordinate with School Police to provide an officer at every elementary school during arrival and dismissal times. School Police will continue to provide support throughout the District, as needed.”

One tweet, however, showed strikers blocking a truck at the entrance to one school.

Strikers block a LAUSD truck from entering Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, and force it to leave. #kpcc #LAUSD #laist pic.twitter.com/ROeZ5Lcx40

— Jose Salvador (@chavatweets1) January 14, 2019

4) Charter schools were a central talking point.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl in a morning news conference re-upped his call for a cap on charter schools and stronger charter transparency and accountability. “We need to throw privatization schemes … into the trashcan right now,” he told the crowd outside Marshall High School.

There are 249 independent charter schools operating in L.A. Unified serving nearly 119,000 students. The union has repeatedly rebuked charters for luring students — and, therefore, millions in state funding — away from traditional public schools. Caputo-Pearl on Monday said funding lost to charters equates to about $600 million a year.

The call for a cap is not part of the formal union contract negotiations, but UTLA’s proposed contract does call for union involvement in the co-locations process, which is when charter schools are allotted unused classroom space on traditional school campuses under state law.

Independent charter schools were open Monday, including co-located charters. At least one, however —  Excelencia Charter Academy — closed for professional development.

Tomorrow UTLA members at LAUSD-operated schools will strike. District schools will be open.

All independent LA-area charter schools will be open open, staffed, and focused on student, employee, & family safety. We hope for a quick resolution.

More here: https://t.co/OAKwKCcfXD

— Cassy Horton (@Cassy_Horton) January 14, 2019

The California Charter Schools Association said there were no significant disruptions affecting charter school campuses. “Independent charter public schools will remain open and focused on maintaining stable, high-quality learning environments throughout the strike,” CCSA said in a statement. “The safety of students, parents and staff is our top priority. We hope that LAUSD and UTLA are able to come to a quick resolution so we can shift our collective energy to the priorities that unify us. We should be marching together in Sacramento on behalf of all public schools to increase statewide funding for our most vulnerable students.”

In related news, three UTLA-affiliated charter schools, The Accelerated Schools, could start a strike of their own on the second day of UTLA’s strike. If they do, it will be the first charter school strike in L.A. and the second nationally since educators at Chicago’s Acero Schools charter network went on strike in December.

About 80 LA charter school teachers say they’re hitting the picket line January 15th if they don’t have a new contract agreement by then with the #Accelerated Schools @KNX1070 pic.twitter.com/TktGwEOfdP

— Karen Adams (@KarenKNX1070) January 10, 2019

“UTLA is seeking a radical change in the relationship between teachers and TAS, a school that was created 24 years ago to provide an alternative to parents who wanted a different schooling experience from the traditional public schools in their neighborhood,” TAS Co-Founder and CEO Johnathan Williams said in a statement. TAS “continues to hope for a reasonable resolution to negotiations that puts kids first.”

5) Politicians, celebrities & students chimed in — many supporting UTLA.

Striking teachers received support from across the United States, both in person and online.

Two prominent national teacher union leaders joined Los Angeles educators on the picket lines Monday: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García.

Hanging with teachers and parents and students at John Marshal HS this am on the picket line .. #UTLAStrong #WeAreLA #red4ed pic.twitter.com/qJigdxdHMS

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) January 14, 2019

So proud to be here with all the @UTLAnow educators, parents, students and allies braving the pouring rain and fighting for the funding students deserve and need. #RedforEd #WeAreLA #UTLAStrong pic.twitter.com/Z62LwGSYIX

— Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA) January 14, 2019

Support also poured in via Twitter from numerous celebrities, progressive organizations and politicians — including a few Democrats said to be mulling presidential runs in 2020. Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement of support, “I stand with the Los Angeles teachers.” Many teachers and union leaders also shared photos of themselves wearing red in support of UTLA.

Standing in support and solidarity with Emily Reyes, another local Los Angelina and proud member of @laschools on strike for a modest wage increase but more importantly, SMALLER CLASS SIZE! Honk in support! pic.twitter.com/bgfstQM55y

— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) January 14, 2019

UFW President Teresa Romero and thousands of UFW members stand in solidarity with @UTLAnow and their strike for a fair union contract. #SiSePuede #UTLAStrong #UTLAStrike #StrikeReady pic.twitter.com/6rBt5O1qcq

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) January 14, 2019

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1084912346823385088

I stand in solidarity w/ @UTLAnow teachers in their fight for fair pay, smaller classroom sizes & stipends for materials and supplies. Teaching is one of the most valuable and indispensable professions. We need to treat educators with respect and dignity.https://t.co/NKrqvxXO3e

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 9, 2019

I support @UTLAnow & LAUSD teachers who are for fighting for better pay, smaller classes, & better resourced schools for our kids. When we fail our public school teachers, we fail their students – and we fail our future. I’m with our teachers all the way. https://t.co/jDY8wWv10u

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 14, 2019

Los Angeles teachers work day in and day out to inspire and educate the next generation of leaders. I'm standing in solidarity with them as they strike for improved student conditions, such as smaller class sizes and more counselors and librarians. https://t.co/WcUdrSOk7D

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 14, 2019

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently released a proposed 2019-20 budget boosting K-12 education funding, gave a more measured statement on Monday, warning that the strike was “disrupting the lives of too many kids and their families.”

“I strongly urge all parties to go back to the negotiating table and find an immediate path forward that puts kids back into classrooms and provides parents certainty,” he said.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted a similar message on the eve of the strike, urging “both parties to keep working to reach an agreement as soon as possible so teachers and students can get back to the classroom.” He didn’t join the picketers Monday, but tweeted out a photo with children, saying he was closely monitoring recreational centers that were offering support. Garcetti is also considering a run for the White House.

My greatest priority is the safety of our children. I’m closely monitoring our City recreation centers and all of the services we’re offering to support our students and families during the strike. You can find more information at https://t.co/9gJ7QAD7qJ. pic.twitter.com/LIRYur4zw5

— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) January 14, 2019

New State Superintendent Tony Thurmond tweeted support for the teachers late Monday. The California Teachers Association backed him, as well as Newsom, when they were elected last fall.

Day 1 of the LA Teacher’s strike. pic.twitter.com/hAs8N6HQBu

— Tony Thurmond (@TonyThurmond) January 15, 2019

Students also chimed in on social media to back educators Monday:

https://twitter.com/BerningGreen/status/1084816030763966464

Thank you to all my teachers that got me to where I am for protesting today. Thank you for the continuous sacrifices you make every single day for your students. Thank you for standing in the rain today to fight for change within LAUSD. Your hard work never goes unnoticed.

— catalina m. (@catalinamaureen) January 14, 2019

Hey everyone, LAUSD student here. I'm a junior in high school and I wanted to say that we (this includes all my peers) absolutely support our teachers! They're fighting for things like smaller class sizes and full-time nurses, things that help us more than them! (1/3)

— Avery Average (@OhStewThis) January 12, 2019

.@utlanow We interviewed LAUSD John F. Kennedy HS student Mia Medina who was fired Friday from her job doing the school's morning announcements after 3 and 1/2 yrs on the job. Why? Because she stated her support for L.A. Teachers going on strike Monday. #strikeready #UTLAstrong pic.twitter.com/UK4mQoIuxA

— MTEA (@MTEAunion) January 13, 2019

“Thank you to all my teachers that got me to where I am for protesting today,” one wrote. “Thank you for the continuous sacrifices you make every single day for your students.”

*This article has been updated to add attendance figures and Tony Thurmond tweet.

L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner updates reporters after Wednesday’s contract talks. (Photo: Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

*Updated Jan. 14

L.A. Unified could lose control of its finances if it signs off on a heftier contract agreement with its teachers union that drains its reserves past the mandated minimum level, County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo told LA School Report.

“If [L.A. Unified and UTLA] did come to an agreement that was going to put them so much more in the red, then [district officials] would have to show us — and [I’m] not saying they can’t negotiate a higher rate — they just need to show us what cuts they’re going to make” to meet minimum reserve requirements, she said. Otherwise, the school board and its superintendent could lose financial decision-making power, and a county-appointed adviser would have the power to invalidate any prospective labor contract.

Late Friday, United Teachers Los Angeles rejected a new offer from the district and refused to continue negotiations. Teachers began their strike Monday morning.

The county announced Wednesday that it is sending a team of fiscal experts to the district “immediately” to help craft a new Fiscal Stabilization Plan after L.A. Unified’s updated December budget showed reserve levels at 0.96 percent of its total expenditures in 2020-21. California school districts must submit budget updates twice a year to their county office of education outlining their financial projections for three years; in these updates, minimum reserve levels must sit at 1 percent or more of the district’s total expenditures. If not, county overseers are required to step in. L.A. Unified projects its reserve for 2020-21 at $70.8 million. It needs to be at about $75 million to hit that 1 percent marker.

Duardo said the team will likely be four people, led by L.A. Unified’s former chief operating officer Jim Morris, arriving at L.A. Unified next week. She noted they will only play an advisory role and would “absolutely not” be involved in contract negotiations with United Teachers Los Angeles.

“They’ll be in the district [full-time] and sitting down with [officials], starting with reviewing their current budget, looking at their current fiscal stabilization plan, and working with them on a daily basis,” Duardo said. “They’ll be there hands-on, not just popping in and out.” The new Fiscal Stabilization Plan is due to the county Office of Education by March 18.

If that report “doesn’t meet our expectations,” Duardo said — or if L.A. Unified reaches an agreement with UTLA and can’t account for a 1 percent reserve for 2020-21 — “we can [decide to install a fiscal adviser] in a matter of days.” Duardo refrained from expanding on what kind of cuts she would like to see to the district’s budget.

A county-appointed fiscal adviser would have “stay and rescind power,” meaning he or she could rewrite budgets and overturn school board decisions. A fiscal adviser can also “stop [labor agreements] that are upcoming,” LA Unified’s chief financial officer, Scott Price, told LA School Report in August. “There’s quite a bit of power that a financial adviser has.”

Imposing a fiscal adviser would be the county’s last step, with a state takeover being the last resort to restore the district’s financial stability.

Duardo emphasized that while it’s the county’s job to ensure districts “are fiscally sound and healthy,” a takeover isn’t the end goal. “We’re hoping that the fiscal experts can go in there and be able to work with the district … and be able to come up with a plan that we’re satisfied with,” she said. The county installed an adviser at neighboring Montebello Unified School District in November 2017 after a state audit found poor financial management.

The county’s timing with the announcement, however —  it came the day before the initial Jan. 10 strike date — has fueled union allegations that the county is politically aligned with the district and sheltering it during the negotiations process. UTLA accused the district in December of writing county chief financial officer Candi Clark’s statements to L.A. Unified in August that warned of the district’s impending fiscal insolvency.

Duardo told LA School Report it “was very upsetting for us to hear people making those types of allegations because it’s absolutely not true. …We’ve been working with LAUSD and had concerns with their budget for years.” Nick Schweizer, California’s deputy superintendent of public instruction, joined Clark at her second appearance before the L.A. Unified school board a month later, in September, backing up her warnings.

• Read more: ‘LAUSD is not too big to fail’: School board members alarmed by LA County official’s dire financial projections — and warnings of the possible appointment of a ‘fiscal adviser’

Addressing the timing of the county’s decision to step in, Duardo explained that under state education code, the county had 30 days — equating to a Jan. 14 deadline — to respond to L.A. Unified after the district submitted its Fiscal Stabilization Plan in mid-December. She added that with strike-related news in constant flux, the particular day of the county’s announcement shouldn’t carry any weight.

“I know when things get heated sometimes people can get suspicious or get more sensitive,” she said. “But we’re just doing what we do with every other one of our 80 districts in keeping with the timeline for ed code.”

UTLA REJECTS DISTRICT OFFER, ENDS TALKS

The union is set to strike on Monday. It rejected a new contract offer Friday from the district and refused to continue negotiations.

“We are extremely disappointed that United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) has rejected Los Angeles Unified’s revised offer without proposing any counter offer,” a district news release stated. “UTLA has refused to continue contract negotiations. More than 48 hours remain until Monday when UTLA plans to strike, and we implore UTLA to reconsider. A strike will harm the students, families and communities we serve, and we have a responsibility to resolve the situation without a strike.”

The district had presented its revised offer at a news conference Friday allotting $130 million to reduce class sizes and hire almost 1,200 more nurses, counselors and librarians — up from its Monday offer of $105 million and its earlier offer of $30 million. The salary offer was unchanged, with the district proposing a 3 percent raise retroactive to 2017-18 and a 3 percent raise for this year with “no contingencies.” (Read the changes here.)

(Section of new L.A. Unified contract offer)

“This represents the best we can do, recognizing that it is our obligation to provide as much resources as possible to support our students in each and every one of our schools,” Superintendent Austin Beutner said Friday. He added separately, “If they want a strike, they’ll have a strike. But we’re doing everything we can to avoid it. We don’t want it.”

The district is “formally asking [Gov. Gavin Newsom] to get involved,” he told reporters. “We need him to step in, bring the parties together; keep us in a room, lock the door and throw away the key if he has to.”

The district’s new offer followed the release of Newsom’s proposed budget, which includes a one-time $3 billion sum toward pension relief and a $2.8 billion boost to annual K-12 spending. That proposal would add more than $40 million to L.A. Unified’s general fund, a district spokeswoman wrote in an email to LA School Report. Beutner said Friday the district is also eyeing $10 million in county funding for mental health professionals and nurses.

UTLA officials said in a news conference that L.A. Unified had unveiled its new proposal to the media before the union and that Beutner did not show up to the negotiations.

Union leadership has remained dug in on their demand for a 6.5 percent annual raise retroactive to 2016-17, largely on the grounds that L.A. Unified is simultaneously attempting to delay new employees’ eligibility for lifetime health care benefits. It’s also decried that the additional funding for staff hires is only for next year.

The county warned in its Wednesday letter that it does not “view any potential one-time revenues from the State as an ongoing solution.” A reported 86 percent of new spending in Newsom’s proposal are one-time investments, and the new governor has expressed wanting to invest more in expanding early education. The proposed funding also isn’t guaranteed — the budget has to be approved by the state legislature and won’t be adopted until June — and newly retired Gov. Jerry Brown reports the state may already be in a recession.

Rather than relying on Sacramento, the county’s statement Wednesday called for erasing the district’s annual deficit. L.A. Unified spends about $500 million more a year than it gets and is hemorrhaging money from declining student enrollment, a stubborn attendance problem, growing employer pension contribution rates and free lifetime health benefits for all employees, retirees and dependents.

• Read more: Experts: Crippling long-term debt isn’t leaving L.A. schools much wiggle room to avert a teacher strike — and may doom the district to takeover

The district estimates that half of L.A. Unified’s budget, which was $7.5 billion this year, will be spent on health care and pensions by 2031-32.

Moody’s Investors Service, touching on these points, wrote in a report that while a strike “is unlikely to have a significant financial impact on the district, the parties’ inability to reach an agreement adds to lingering credit negative challenges for LAUSD.”

*This article has been updated with teachers beginning their strike Jan. 14. Other updates include L.A. Unified’s Friday afternoon offer and UTLA’s rejection of the offer and refusal to hold further talks. 

Teachers and students march in December in Los Angeles. (Photo: Mark Ralston /AFP/Getty Images)

*Updated Jan. 14

A series of massive teacher walkouts rocked six states in 2018, drawing national attention to teacher pay and working conditions. While not all of the teachers had the same concerns — West Virginia teachers mostly wanted a pay raise, while those in Kentucky wanted to reverse a change to their pensions — the Red for Ed movement captured the public imagination and created a sense of solidarity among public school teachers.

Union leaders in Los Angeles, where teachers began their strike Monday, have embraced the connection with the wave of strikes by adopting the Red for Ed name and some of the talking points from those movements, even though the situation in America’s second-largest school district is quite different.

“Although the circumstances in different states vary, the common theme across the country is a lack of investment in public education and the threat from the aggressive privatization and charterization movement,” Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times.

The National Education Association, America’s largest teachers union, has also called UTLA’s action part of the Red for Ed movement.

➕ California to the growing #RedforEd movement. We’re with you @OaklandEA and @UTLAnow educators ✊ https://t.co/zSArrkK2tE

— NEA (@NEAToday) January 3, 2019

However, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, tweeted, “This is not about a strike wave – this is a specific fight for the kids & public schools of LA.”

This is not about a strike wave – this is a specific fight for the kids & public schools of LA… They deserve better than classrooms with 40 kids in them and schools that have nurses and counselors only a few days a week. @UTLAnow #UTLAStrong #StrikeReady https://t.co/f7xm6xx6Dw

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) January 10, 2019

Whether the strategy will be effective in Los Angeles is yet to be seen. The results of the 2018 strikes, which some dubbed a “red-state revolt,” were mixed. West Virginia teachers got the pay raise they were seeking, and Kentucky voters ousted one of the legislators who introduced the plan to change public employee pensions that teachers were protesting, electing a high school teacher instead. Arizona teachers did not get everything they wanted, but they did win a significant salary increase after five days out of the classroom.

Educators in Oklahoma notched their biggest win, a salary increase, before walking off the job, but they did not accomplish much more with their nine-day strike. When calling for an end to the strike, Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, urged teachers to continue their advocacy at the ballot box.

Arizona teachers chant in support of the #RedForEd movement as they walk through downtown Phoenix on their way to the State Capitol in April. (Photo: Ralph Freso/Getty Images)

On the whole, the Red for Ed movement seemed to fizzle by Election Day, and only about a quarter of the teachers running for state legislative seats won their races, according to Education Week.

Portraying the action in Los Angeles as a continuation of the Red For Ed movement is an “advantageous strategy” for the union, said Bradley Marianno, a researcher at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who has studied UTLA. Additionally, the combination of the Red for Ed movement and the Supreme Court ruling last year in Janus v. AFSCME offer an avenue for UTLA to show what it can offer members, he said. The Janus decision states that public sector unions cannot collect dues from nonmembers, a change that is expected to weaken teacher unions by reducing their income.

“The negotiation comes … on the heels of the Red for Ed movement and the Janus case, where there’s a lot of political momentum for teachers unions to stand up and demand more in funding and class sizes and salaries from school districts and from state legislatures,” Marianno said. “It’s a time for the union to showcase their benefits to their membership, and so there’s certainly a bit of that at play within the UTLA negotiations.”

Here’s how the strikes would be similar:

• Pay and staffing levels: L.A. Unified teachers want pay raises, smaller class sizes, more school funding and more school support staff. Teachers in West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma had similar demands. (See UTLA’s demands here.)
• Similar talking points: UTLA has used many of the talking points from the red state walkouts to garner support from teachers and from the public, noted Michael Hansen, an education researcher at the Brookings Institution. The messages focus on the importance of public education and argue that state and local governments have failed to invest enough in schools since the 2008 recession.
• Visuals: Teachers are using the color red and the #RedForEd hashtag to show solidarity across district and state lines. Educators across California and throughout the country have used the slogan to show support for UTLA.

And here’s how they would be different:

• State vs. local: In L.A., the union is using a strike to attempt to force the district to make concessions in their contract negotiations. The 2018 Red for Ed demonstrations were state-wide walkouts intended to change state budgets and legislation.
• Union politics: Los Angeles has traditionally had a strong union and a powerful Democratic party — including newly inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom — aligned with the union. Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia — which all experienced statewide multi-day walkouts in 2018 — are right-to-work states, which means the unions have less power to negotiate and collect fees from teachers.
• Differing labor laws: California workers are legally allowed to strike. In many of the red states that experienced teacher walkouts last year, teacher strikes are illegal — though the teachers there did not face any formal repercussions for their walkouts.
• Formal process followed in L.A.: UTLA and L.A. Unified have been in contract negotiations for almost two years, starting before the red state walkouts. It was an intense process that involved multiple offers from the district, a formal fact-finding procedure, and specific demands from the union. In an August vote, UTLA members authorized their leaders to call a strike at any time. Most of the organizing in the 2018 walkouts came from teachers at the grassroots level and was directed at legislators, not district officials.
• Schools will remain open: L.A. Unified has said schools will be open throughout the strike and has hired about 400 substitute teachers to supervise students, which will put the district at just 8 percent of its usual staffing levels. Many of the states that experienced strikes last year were forced to cancel school during the walkouts, leaving parents in the lurch for as many as nine days.
• L.A. Unified could lose funding: State law says that California schools receive state funding based on daily attendance, so every day a student misses class, his or her school loses money. That means the strike hurts the district financially, adding to its existing financial woes.
• Post-Janus landscape: Because of the Janus ruling, “there’s a certain degree of trying to rally membership on the part of the union, and the strike is one way to do that,” the researcher Marianno said. The 2018 strikes happened before the ruling and affected states where unions were already weak.

Public opinion about the pending strike is difficult to gauge, but the editorial boards from the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times spoke out against the strike. Parent reactions are mixed. Some are worried about special needs students being neglected if schools are short-staffed, while others have said they feel stuck “in the middle” of the conflict.

In contrast, last year’s teacher statewide walkouts sparked a wave of sympathetic media coverage, featuring teachers who work second jobs to make ends meet and spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket to meet their students’ needs. While UTLA is demanding a salary increase, most of its message has focused on smaller class sizes and funding for more support personnel like counselors and school nurses, as well as more oversight of independent charter schools and a cap on their numbers.

Despite having some parallel goals and similar talking points, the L.A. strike is more akin to previous district-level strikes “that we see every year” than to the large-scale Red for Ed walkouts of 2018, which included teachers from multiple districts in states with weaker unions, said Hansen, the Brookings researcher.

“It’s those distinctions make the Los Angeles case feel like much more like a return to the status quo prior to the strikes rather than a continuation of the strikes,” he said.

*Updated Jan. 14 with strike starting.

• Read more:

New nationwide poll: Most people support teachers’ right to strike, but less than half believe their unions improve the quality of education

How Big a Bite Could the Supreme Court’s Janus Ruling Take out of Teachers Unions? The NEA Is Expecting to Lose $50 Million — and Possibly 300,000 Members

The bottom line is, if a strike happens, students, teachers, parents and communities will all suffer. There will be no winners.   

As a former public school teacher and current district parent, I understand the frustration of teachers in Los Angeles. Class sizes are too large, support staff are too few, and parents are asked to raise dollars for arts, music and basic supplies like crayons and whiteboard markers.

That said, the district, the school board and the teachers union need to set aside their own political objectives and find common ground that puts kids first.

Right now, we have district leaders who have made misleading statements in order to bolster their position. We have union leaders who ignore fiscal realities and deceive their members in order to maximize their negotiating leverage. And, we have a school board whose members have kicked the can down the road on difficult budget decisions for decades.

It’s time for all of us to tell them all of them to knock it off. They’re all to blame. They’re all hurting our kids. As parents, we cannot allow our children to be collateral damage in a dispute over adult special interests.

First, the district: when a neutral fact-finding panel issued its report in December, Superintendent Austin Beutner falsely claimed that the union “agreed” with the conclusion that the district’s salary offer was appropriate. UTLA did no such thing, and Beutner’s false statement only added more toxicity to an already toxic debate.

But the union has also done its share to provoke a catastrophic strike. It has refused to concede the very clear fact that their demands would bankrupt the district, and it has consistently misled its members about the facts. When one side refuses to accept reality, that too is a recipe for disaster.

Meanwhile, the school board fails to articulate a vision for our kids and show teachers they are valued, and it hasn’t taken the steps needed to improve our schools.

The union’s demands are unaffordable, as the third-party fact-finder recently reported, but again, the district and the school board have done their share to contribute to the problem. In 2015, an independent financial review panel wrote that “if the District desires to continue as a going concern beyond FY 2019-20, capable of improving the lives of students and their families, then a combination of difficult, substantial and immediate decisions will be required. Failure to do so could lead to the insolvency of the LAUSD, and the loss of local governance authority that comes from state takeover.”

In the three years since the report was released, virtually none of the recommendations have been acted on. Most prominent was the recommendation to create a voluntary early retirement program for senior staff, which would have saved $400 million a year, enough to fund many of the items currently in dispute between the district and UTLA.

In the meantime, the looming strike has served as a huge distraction from why we all care about public education: the opportunity to positively impact kids. Right now, only 12 percent of LAUSD grads will go on to graduate from college. We have to do better for our kids. There are no simple answers, but arguments between adults and a loss of instructional time certainly will not help.

This has to stop.

Kids have to come first. We have to put their lives … their opportunities … their futures … and their well-being ahead of everything else.

Get in a room. Prioritize kids first, show teachers they are valued, go to Sacramento together to advocate for more funding and get it done. There is too much at stake not to.

Allison Bajracharya began her career as a high school teacher and has spent the past 18 years working in public education. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and has a master’s degree from USC in public policy. Allison lives in Los Feliz with her husband and their two children, who both attend their neighborhood public school. She is a candidate for the LAUSD Board District 5 election on March 5.

The looming teacher strike in Los Angeles, no matter how it’s sliced, comes down to money — but not the salary raises and cost of new hires that have kept the district and its teachers union apart during nearly two years of contract negotiations.

The real money problem, experts say, lies with the district’s skyrocketing long-term debt.

Experts warn that for the district to stay out of bankruptcy, it must slash its billions in long-term liabilities, much of it tied to massive retiree health benefit costs.

Their prescriptions ranged from making employees and retirees pay premiums to offering early retirement incentives. Most agreed that a local solution is needed to right the ship as California faces — or could already be in — a recession, meaning state taxpayers may be unable to bail out the district.

But United Teachers Los Angeles has rejected the district’s proposal to shave off costs by adding two years to how long it takes new employees to become eligible for free lifetime health benefits — something other L.A. Unified unions have already accepted. Union officials dispute the district’s claim that it is cash-strapped, and says it is “hoarding” nearly $2 billion in reserves.

L.A. Unified’s full contract offer includes a 3 percent teacher salary raise retroactive to last year and 3 percent for this year. The district this week also offered $105 million next school year toward UTLA’s demands for lower class sizes and more nurses, counselors and librarians, and officials met Wednesday with California state legislators to “advocate for a larger investment in public education.”

UTLA, which represents more than 30,000 educators and other district employees, has offered concessions too, but union officials said Wednesday that L.A. Unified’s contract offer is still “a drop in the bucket when it comes to our students’ needs.” President Alex Caputo-Pearl said after Wednesday’s bargaining session “we did not see seriousness” from the district. Talks are set again for Friday.

A court ruling Thursday cleared the union to begin its strike on Monday. Both sides said last-ditch talks may continue through the weekend. It would be the first L.A. teacher strike in 30 years and would affect more than 480,000 K-12 students across more than 1,000 schools.

“If you’re the union, your job is to argue for more benefits for your members,” said Andrew Crutchfield, director of the political philanthropy network Govern For California. But “I think there’s some legitimate questions [as] to what degree the union is representing the interests of current workers.”

A health care plan L.A. Unified ‘can’t afford to pay off’

L.A. Unified’s proverbial “fiscal cliff” has been years in the making and is the fault of the district and political leadership, Crutchfield said.  While other public school systems across California are also facing insolvency, L.A. Unified dug itself a deeper hole beginning in the late 1960s, when it started granting eligible employees, retirees and their dependents free lifetime health benefits — including full medical, dental and vision — without requiring them to contribute to the cost. Retiree health benefits alone are costing the district a projected $314 million in 2019.

History of changes to employee benefits. Source: L.A. Unified

The district, stated simply, has a health care plan it can’t afford to pay off, said Chad Aldeman, a senior associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners. “LAUSD has valued their retiree health promises at $15.2 billion, but [has] only saved $244 million,” Aldeman said.

Money that could be spent in the classrooms is therefore being siphoned off. The $314 million cost of retiree health benefits is equivalent to about $12,500 in district spending annually per teacher, Aldeman said. “That’s money that’s not going to teachers, either through salary increases or hiring new teachers.”

From 2001 to 2016, LAUSD increased:

– Overall spending by 55.5%
– Spending on salaries and wages by 24.4%
– Employee benefit spending by 138% pic.twitter.com/sprEG74EHZ

— Chad Aldeman (@ChadAldeman) January 7, 2019

L.A. Unified’s health care benefits package — which school board member Nick Melvoin has called one of the most generous in the country — also eats up about $2,300 of the $16,000 the state paid L.A. Unified in 2018-19 for every student it serves.

By 2031-32, the district estimates that half of L.A. Unified’s budget, which was $7.5 billion this year, will be spent on health care and pensions. Part of that is out of L.A. Unified’s control: All California school districts are facing higher employer pension contribution rates — rising from 8.25 percent in 2013 to 19.10 percent in 2020.

Health care benefits for retired employees are determined by a local Health Benefits Committee. But of its nine members, only one is a district representative; the remaining eight represent each of LAUSD’s various employee unions.

This setup, which “essentially means the district can’t control its health care benefits,” is fairly unique to L.A Unified, Crutchfield said. “[It’s] kind of madness.”

Health care benefits are negotiated separately at L.A. Unified from the salary and workplace conditions now at issue in the pending strike. A three-year health benefits contract was approved last spring, so the next opportunity to negotiate them won’t be until 2021, when the district is expected to already be running a deficit. The unions did agree in last spring’s benefits contract to use a reserve fund to cover increases in health care costs, which are projected to rise 6 percent this year.

Over time, these long-term obligations have contributed to what is now a $19.6 billion unrestricted net deficit — “obligations that a district must pay out in future years using future district revenue,” which would take away from “things such as teacher salaries and supplies,” Aaron Garth Smith, an education policy analyst with the right-leaning Reason Foundation, explained.

To put that number in context, it would take $4,140 from every woman, man and child in L.A. Unified to erase the deficit, state Sen. John Moorlach wrote in a December op-ed for the Los Angeles Daily News.

Considering its long-term debts, “LAUSD doesn’t have two nickels to rub together,” Moorlach told LA School Report. His research ranked the district’s per-person contribution cost as one of the highest among California’s 944 public school districts.

That reality is especially “crazy,” Crutchfield noted, when considering that the district received increased funding from the state over the past four years.

The state’s school funding mechanism — the Local Control Funding Formula — rolled out in the 2013-14 school year, generating over $1 billion a year in district revenue, a Reason Foundation study reported. That annual boost in funding is now winding down, however.

“The alarms should be sounding,” Crutchfield said.

Reason Foundation

Aldeman said the district’s attempt to shift the lifetime benefits eligibility back two years is a small step in the right direction, adding that another solution — though it would require agreement by the unions — could be to have employees, retirees and dependents start paying premiums. He added that having retirees “with moderate incomes” get health care coverage through Obamacare or Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, should be on the table as well.

“The district should not be a health care provider when there are either statewide or national solutions that could take a lot of the [financial] risks off the table for the district,” he said.

Righting L.A. Unified’s financial ship

Most experts interviewed agree that the responsibility largely lies with the district to fix the financial picture, though.

To that end, L.A. Unified in November announced a 15 percent reduction to its central office this year and next, saving an estimated $86 million. The school board and state voters have also green-lighted a 2020 ballot measure to bolster statewide education funding — but even if voters pass it, it would roll out just as the district projects it will become insolvent. Board members on Tuesday passed a resolution as well directing the superintendent to develop a three-year plan to increase district revenues, which could include a parcel tax, school bonds and property tax reform.

Moorlach also recommended offering early retirement incentives — though when a San Diego area school district board voted in December to do that, it prompted the San Diego County Office of Education to take away its decision-making control.

“You see who you can encourage to leave, maybe a year or two or three before when they wanted to,” he said. “There’s a cost to that, but maybe you can fill in those vacancies with newer, younger teachers [who are paid less].”

UTLA teachers are paid an average base salary of $70,141, with an additional average $14,562 in health and welfare benefits, a district spokeswoman told LA School Report. The state average base salary was $77,179 in 2016-17.

Center for Education Reform CEO Jeanne Allen is one expert who thinks state involvement will be inevitable, however.

“[L.A. Unified] could be radical and innovative: they could break up schools, they could try to create new schools, they could close schools; but fundamentally, if they don’t change the way they hire, retain, reward or pay educators, there’s not going to be a lot of change,” she said. “The district could do that, but they’re not going to. … There’s too many moving pieces. Too many vested interests.”

Those vested interests are why the district and union can’t even agree on where the district stands financially.

Accepting all of UTLA’s demands, which include a full-time nurse in every school and more special education teachers, would add $813 million each year to the deficit and wipe out L.A. Unified’s reserves this school year, the district has said.

“If we had said yes” to all the union’s demands, “we would be bankrupt right now. We’d be under state receivership,” L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner told Speak Up in August.

L.A. Unified says it’s spending about $500 million more a year than it’s taking in, and estimates its reserves will drop from $755 million this year to $70.8 million in 2020-21.

County and state officials warned L.A. Unified in the fall that they would step in and take over if reserves dip too low. The county Office of Education took that first step Wednesday, appointing a team of fiscal experts charged with helping L.A. Unified craft an updated Fiscal Stabilization Plan by March that would aim to bring the district’s 2020-21 reserve projections above 1 percent of its expenditures, County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo told LA School Report on Thursday.

Experts “will be in there hands-on,” she said. “We don’t have the authority to tell LAUSD how to spend their money; at this point, we’re just going in as collaborators, as people with real financial expertise … [who] can help them come up with a clear plan.” The fiscal experts will start working with the district full-time as soon as next week, she said.

A more severe next step by the county — which could feasibly happen in March or earlier, Duardo said — would be to install a fiscal adviser, who would have what’s known as “stay and rescind” powers. That person would essentially take over all financial decisions, taking away control from L.A. Unified’s superintendent and school board.

The final step would be state takeover, which happened in neighboring Compton in 1993 and Inglewood in 2012.

Reason Foundation

UTLA continues to dispute the district’s statements about its finances, however, pointing out that L.A. Unified has been wrong in the past about how soon it would run out of money. The district’s 2016 budget, for example, projected it would run out of cash by this year. The union also believes the district is “intentionally starving our schools,” hoarding nearly $2 billion in reserves “so that cuts can be justified.” L.A. Unified had about $1.86 billion in reserves at the end of the 2017-18 year, but it maintains the bulk of that money has been designated for teacher salary raises, funding for at-risk students, debt payments and other expenses.

Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at California State University, Los Angeles, said he understands UTLA’s skepticism with district leadership’s data and propositions.

“I don’t think any school district [administration] over the past score of years has ever been entirely truthful,” he said.

He added that while he recognizes the need to have a reserve, “if I’m a teacher and in with the kids and seeing that my class size has expanded, I’m not getting much help with teacher aides, I’m still paying out of my own pocket for certain things … then I really understand that as well.” Class sizes can climb into the 40s.

Aldeman believes district politics play a role in the current divide. “There’s a lot of education that needs to go on in terms of educating UTLA members about what the actual situation of the district is and what are the drivers of that, and how to get out of that [fiscal] hole,” he said.

And one particular point, Crutchfield said, needs to hit home.

“Tackling the long-term liability is what needs to be done,” he said. “Other measures, while they may have merit and may save meaningful amounts of money, are somewhat like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

*This article was updated with Wednesday’s negotiations ending with no deal, a court ruling that the strike can begin Monday, the county assigning a team of financial experts to the district and comments by the county superintendent. It was updated Jan. 14 to adjust the district’s expected level of reserves. 

• Read more:

LAUSD is now diverting $2,300 per student to cover health insurance costs — 36 percent more than just five years ago. Now the school board is rushing to avert a ‘fiscal cliff’

LAUSD’s plan to stave off financial ruin and a potential county takeover: Cut 15 percent of central office staff and save $86 million

LAUSD’s ‘signs of fiscal distress’ trigger two new warnings, including risk of going broke within three years

‘LAUSD is not too big to fail’: School board members alarmed by LA County official’s dire financial projections — and warnings of the possible appointment of a ‘fiscal adviser’

It gets worse for LAUSD: This week both the county and the state showed up to say, ‘Get your fiscal house in order or else we’re taking over’

UTLA is poised to strike for the first time in three decades.

LAUSD leadership is launching a new initiative to “reimagine” public education while simultaneously attempting to stave off bankruptcy and a state takeover.

And a March special election will heavily influence the balance of power on the LAUSD school board.

This moment in time is consequential, but not unique.

Generations of students have muddled through many chapters of bitter political churn since the last time UTLA went on strike in 1989. Over three decades, as the balance of power has shifted between teachers’ unions, charter school advocates, mayoral administrations, and other powerful special interests, not much has changed for kids. In fact, most LAUSD parents drop off their children at schools every morning that look, operate, and educate in largely the same way as their own schools did when they were students.

LAUSD often does an excellent job of preparing students to graduate into a world and an economy that no longer exists.

It is easy to forget in the midst of all the adult bluster that the purpose of public education is to serve students. That’s because students can’t vote, about 25 percent of LAUSD parents can’t vote because they aren’t citizens, and neither have money, lobbyists, or power.

An appropriate New Year’s resolution for all the adult stakeholders that claim to put “kids first” would be to translate “kids first” from a soundbite into a new civil right. LAUSD has the authority right now to define its students as a new legally protected class, empowering parents with a seat at the table to challenge policies that fundamentally don’t put kids first.

This common-sense commitment would establish similar legal protections in LAUSD policymaking as the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution affords citizens in the context of discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. If an LAUSD policy negatively impacts educational quality for a discernable class of students, it would be subject to repeal unless LAUSD can surmount a very high legal bar and justify that policy.

Even though this idea is without precedent, it is fundamentally a back to basics solution. The problem with public education is not that one side is right and the other is wrong, or that we haven’t yet invented the right “silver bullet” policy solution. It is that we seem to have forgotten why California invests nearly half its budget in public education in the first place: to serve students because children are our future.

In the midst of this great debate about the future of public education in Los Angeles, let’s make this a genuinely happy new year for the children of Los Angeles by establishing a new north star for LAUSD. We call upon parents, teachers, administrators and district leaders to make a collective New Year’s resolution to reject the false choices of the status quo, the infighting between district versus charter schools or teachers’ unions versus education reformers, and embrace the simple but radical notion of actually putting kids first.

Spencer Burrows is a Los Angeles teacher and Teach Plus California State Policy Fellow. Ben Austin is an LAUSD parent and executive director of Kids Coalition, a nonprofit with the mission to translate “kids first” from a soundbite into a civil right for LAUSD students.