Our voices echoed across the District today with our press conference at Hamilton HS with Diane Ravitch and musician/actor Steven Van Zandt walking with students, parents and teachers at Hamilton High School. Our seven regional rallies brought our members, parents, students and community supporters in droves despite the rain.
Today teachers at three south Los Angeles charter schools operated by The Accelerated Schools wrapped up their second day in what is the first ever charter school strike in California’s history. After two days of spirited picketing and an outpouring of support from Accelerated parents, fellow LAUSD educators and community members.
For a second day in a row, UTLA members and supporters took to downtown Los Angeles in a massive demonstration of solidarity and resolve. Our rally in front of the California Charter Schools Association focused the attention of the city, the state, and the nation on the runaway problem of unregulated corporate charter schools.
Los Angeles flooded with public education supporters, demanding a reinvestment in our public schools. Not just a declaration and show of support for public education and teachers, but a rebuke to Austin Beutner’s agenda to starve and privatize our schools.
There is relief for federal student loan debt available to striking UTLA members. On Tuesday, January 15 at 5 pm PT, AFT will be running a webinar for UTLA members on free federal income-driven repayment plans for federal student loans. Also, California Credit Union is offering members payroll disruption relief assistance.
As your officer team, we wanted to connect with you in this historic moment. As we prepare to strike together on Monday, we wanted to share how profoundly moved we are to be with you. We are about to do something together that will improve schools for hundreds of thousands of students.
Today, Austin Beutner presented a bargaining proposal which permanently increases class sizes up to 39 in middle school, 46 in high school and would only allow increased staffing for one year, and not at all schools. He said ‘this is the best we can do,’ not to the UTLA bargaining team, but to the media, a few floors away from where he was expected in bargaining.
Today a Superior Court judge reaffirmed what UTLA has known all along – that UTLA notified LAUSD properly and has a legal right to strike on January 14, 2019. This latest ruling follows two previous attempts to get an injunction that have also been thrown out.
While we believe we would eventually win in court against all of Austin Beutner’s anti-union, high-priced attempts to stop our legal right to strike, in order for clarity and to allow members, parents, and our communities to plan, UTLA is moving the strike date to Monday, January 14.
UTLA goes to court proactively this week to scuttle Beutner's third attempt at an injunction, based on a disingenuous claim that UTLA did not give sufficient notice of our intent to strike.
