There is one overwhelming punchline for all of us between now and June 4: We need to vote, we need to get others to vote, and we need to precinct walk to pass Measure EE. Jackie Goldberg’s 71% to 29% landslide victory on May 14 was a watershed moment.
We’ve spent our careers explaining that public education is chronically underfunded. Enough is enough. For the first time in my career, and in yours, we are on offense against underfunding. Measure EE, on the local ballot on June 4 that would bring $500 million to our schools.
Our strike empowered Los Angeles. The impacts of our collective action are not just those we can measure, like contract wins and the shifting political dynamic, but those that are more intangible, like the positive human, emotional, and spiritual effects.
Our strike won an overwhelming victory on the issues. We launched the teacher strike movement in California and accelerated the teacher strike movement nationally. We made history. But what remains etched in our brains and hearts most indelibly is the togetherness, love, pride, and creative spark we felt on the picket lines and in the rallies.
After 20 months of attempting to reach an agreement with the district — an agreement that would, after years of neglect, reinvest in our students, our schools, our jobs, and our healthcare instead of tearing them down — we have declared a strike date of January 10, 2019.
In this edition of the President's Perspective by Alex Caputo-Pearl the competing visions of Supt. Austin Beutner and our UTLA President for the future of public education in Los Angeles are discussed. Click here for more.
What is the answer to downsizing our public schools? Reinvesting. Reinvesting by recruiting and retaining educators with a fair pay increase, stopping the increases in class sizes, pushing for more per-pupil funding, giving educators a say in what tests are administered, placing commonsense regulation on charter growth.
Sisters and brothers, I’m going to start with what happened this week in bargaining. LAUSD claimed in early July that we were not at impasse. They said come back to the table because they had something substantial to offer.
We are the ones who will save public education in Los Angeles. On May 24, more than 12,000 of us gathered in Grand Park for the All In for Respect rally in the spirit of teacher rebellions happening across the country.
As youth movements catapult school issues powerfully onto the national stage, now educator strikes are ripping through the country—making this arguably one of the most important moments in U.S. history for public education.
