'A watershed moment': 31,000 Los Angeles teachers prepare to strike

The fight in Los Angeles is, essentially, a bitter family squabble over dizzying challenges and dismally inadequate resources

Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Fri 11 Jan 2019 14.00 GMT

A nationwide teachers’ revolt that last year saw walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma and other largely Republican-run states has now spread to California, where teachers and support staff in the vast, sprawling, predominantly low-income Los Angeles Unified School District are on the verge of striking.

About 31,000 members of the local teachers’ union are threatening to walk off the job on Monday to demand better pay, lower class sizes and improved student access to nurses, psychological counselors and other key services.

Their union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has been fighting with the school district – America’s second largest – for more than a year. Both sides agree that schools are underfunded and teachers underpaid, but that has not prevented trust between the two sides from eroding to a vanishing point.

In contrast to the disputes in Oklahoma and other red states, where the fight has been seen as one pitting teachers and administrators against tight-fisted conservative legislators, the fight in Los Angeles is, essentially, a bitter family squabble over dizzying challenges and dismally inadequate resources.

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