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** L.A. teachers union doesn't care about kids.
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Dear John,
As if Los Angeles families need another example of how the local teachers union couldn't care less about students, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) held rallies across L.A. County this week as a prelude to a possible strike, demanding smaller class sizes, reduced caseloads for school counselors, and that schools hire more elementary school librarians. Oh, and in addition to all that window dressing, they also want a 20 percent pay raise for teachers.
“UTLA does not care about children or their academic needs,” said Lance Christensen, California Policy Center’s Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs. “If they did, they wouldn’t be threatening to walk out on hundreds of thousands of kids still struggling to make up the learning loss from the school closures UTLA demanded.”
It’s hard to imagine UTLA, which represents teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district, having the gall to demand more money when Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is facing a trifecta of crises made infinitely worse by UTLA’s insistence on keeping schools closed far longer than necessary during the pandemic:
* Enrollment in LAUSD schools has dropped from a high of 738,000 students in 2002 to just over 422,000 in 2022 ([link removed]) . During the pandemic, many families left LAUSD for charter schools that reopened quickly or chose to homeschool their kids, and other families just gave up on L.A. and moved out of state.
* Chronic student absenteeism is at an all-time high. A staggering 50,000 LAUSD students ([link removed](KABC)%20%2D%2D%20The,LAUSD%20students%20were%20no%2Dshows.) didn’t show up for the first day of school this year.
* Student test scores released in October s ([link removed]) how ([link removed]) that 71.5 percent of LAUSD students can’t meet basic math standards and more than half don’t meet English Language Arts standards.
All this while the district spends an average of $30,514 per student this year ([link removed]) . In a class of 25 students, that’s more than three quarters of a million dollars per classroom and yet LAUSD students are tragically behind their peers academically at public charter schools and many private schools that spend far less per pupil.
This is the same union, by the way, that denied students suffered any learning loss during the pandemic and then threatened to boycott the extra "acceleration" days the district planned to help students catch up.
In any other profession, if you were failing this badly you’d be fired, but UTLA is shamelessly asking for massive raises. Why?
UTLA says LAUSD is sitting on $3.4 billion in its reserves — and the union wants a piece of it. Never mind that much of that money is from one-time COVID funding sources and is not sufficient to cover a massive multi-year pay hike for teachers. Never mind that the district has a $16.4 billion unrestricted net deficit ([link removed]) . And never mind that we’re in a recession and the economy is not expected to bounce back anytime soon.
It’s all par for the course at this point. UTLA makes outrageous demands, unleashes a well-coordinated blitz of protest rallies that garner predictable sympathetic media coverage for “underpaid teachers,” and the district caves to union demands. Is this charade ever going to end?
Yes, if parents push back, the media does its job, and our best teachers say “no more” to UTLA’s dirty tricks.
“There are many teachers in LAUSD who care about their students and are horrified by UTLA’s antics,” Christensen said. “For those teachers who simply want to teach, we encourage you to quit your union as allowed under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision.”
“You will save more than your sanity and the thousands of dollars you’re paying in dues annually. You’ll help save the futures of countless students who are being hurt year after year by the teachers unions’ exploitation of students and the system.”
To learn more about how to leave your union, visit mypaymysay.com ([link removed]) .
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** Save the Date for CPC’s Parent Union Legislative Summit in Sacramento
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Save the date for California Policy Center’s second annual Parent Union Legislative Summit in Sacramento —Parents, Not Partisans— on Wednesday, February 8 - Thursday, February 9, 2023!
Join parents, parent group leaders, education reform advocates, teachers, and school board members from around the state to build on the historic momentum of California’s parent movement to take back our schools. Attendees will hear from education reform leaders and education experts on how to:
* Activate parents in your district to hold new school boards accountable
* Stand up to the teachers unions in defending California's K-12 schools
* Advance critical education issues such as literacy and math competencies
* Make an impact in the state legislature in 2023 and much more!
BONUS: Summit attendees will visit the State Capitol with fellow advocates on Day Two to meet with newly-elected legislators and let them know that California’s parent movement has only just begun!
More information about the Legislative Summit and our speaker lineup will be coming soon. Sign up now to receive your invitation! ([link removed])
** California franchise owners want voters to veto AB 257.
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Fast food franchise owners in California submitted ([link removed]) more than one million signatures this week to put a referendum on AB 257 on the 2024 ballot. The “FAST Act” was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year and gave an unprecedented gift to the bill’s sponsor, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California.
AB 257 would force fast food workers to become wards of a new state labor council appointed by government — and stacked with union cronies — that would be charged with “negotiating” employee wages, benefits and working conditions with franchise owners.
Union leaders have consistently failed in their efforts to unionize fast food workers through their voluntary consent, so they pushed AB 257 as a way to strong-arm franchise owners into unionizing. But AB 257 will hurt the very workers that the unions pretend to protect. The law will drive franchise owners out of California, destroying jobs and raising fast food prices as much as 20 percent.
And because immigrant entrepreneurs are more likely than other groups to own fast food franchises, it will send a clear signal to these entrepreneurs that the California Dream is dead.
The proposed ballot measure to overturn AB 257 needs approximately 623,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, so organizers have a significant cushion when the Secretary of State verifies the number of valid signatures in the coming weeks.
If the referendum qualifies for the ballot, it will put the new law on hold until voters have their say on whether California should be the first state in the nation to enact such an egregious law.
SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])
New Podcast ()
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** Radio Free California #254: Fueling Envy
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On this week’s podcast with CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board member David Bahnsen: Gov. Gavin Newsom blames “Big Oil” for the high gas prices he created. Three cheers for Fremont Democrat representative Ro Khanna in l’affair Hunter Biden. And fast food businesses launch a ballot battle over AB 257. Listen now ([link removed]) . ([link removed])
More from CPC ()
** The Hypocrisy of Race-Preferential College Admissions
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California’s K-12 education system is failing many Black and Hispanic students. The teachers unions’ solution? Blame racism and push unprepared students into colleges using race-preferential admissions. CPC’s Sheridan Swanson explains why the unions’ cover-up is ultimately hurting students. Read now ([link removed]) .
** Our Devastating Education Schemes
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What do Critical Math, Social Emotional Learning, Restorative Justice and Critical Race Theory have in common? They’re all nonsense education schemes that are hurting, not helping kids. Larry Sand explains why it’s well past time to return to education basics in this week’s article ([link removed]) .
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ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER
The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians through limited government and individual liberty.
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