Los Angeles public schools have closed for a three-day strike, forcing the cancellation of classes for 430,000 students who are still catching up from pandemic-era disruptions.
(Bloomberg) — Los Angeles public schools have closed for a three-day strike, forcing the cancellation of classes for 430,000 students who are still catching up from pandemic-era disruptions.
Teachers and other employees in the nation’s second-largest school district plan to walk off the job from Tuesday to Thursday, according to Los Angeles Unified District School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. The strike comes after the district and the Service Employees International Local 99 union, which represents the 30,000 school support staff, failed to come to a last-minute agreement.
The teachers union is striking in solidarity, with marchers on Tuesday joining picket lines in the rain and rallying outside the LAUSD headquarters.
The support staff, which includes teacher aides, custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers, is asking for an at least 30% boost to salaries and more working hours. They rejected the district’s offer, which included a 23% wage increase, cash bonuses and longer hours for part-time workers.
The walkout adds to the woes of a district that has already been struggling with declining enrollment and attendance rates across its 780 schools. Observers blame a variety of factors including families relocating due to the high cost-of-living, a decline in immigration and parents moving their kids to private schools.
The action puts further strain on families, whose scramble to find childcare this week will evoke memories of months of schools closures during the pandemic when students were learning from home. To minimize the burden, LAUSD and the city are providing adult supervision of students at some schools and recreation centers, but no classroom instruction, along with distributing Grab and Go meals.
“I will make sure the wellbeing of LA students always comes first as I continue to work with all parties to reach an agreement to reopen the schools and guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers,” Mayor Karen Bass said in an emailed statement. In Los Angeles, the schools are governed by an elected school board and the mayor has little authority.
Carvalho in October said that children in the district suffered “significant” losses in learning during the pandemic, with students of color and those from households with lower incomes suffering the largest setbacks. About 80% of the district’s students live below the poverty line.
Many parents in Los Angeles also remember the last teachers’ strike in January 2019 — the first in 30 years. It lasted six school days.
(Updates with comment from Mayor Bass in seventh paragraph.)
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