UTLA Strike: The Bad Reviews Just Keep Coming Part 1
Larry Sand’s commentary on the strikingly bad UTLA strike, which, in the planning stage for months, was a victory in no one’s eyes except Alex Caputo-Pearl.
Like a much-ballyhooed but awful Broadway show, the Los Angeles teachers’ strike had a six-day run and no one was happy with it. Except maybe the producers. In fact, United Teachers of Los Angeles leader Alex Caputo-Pearl called the new contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District “historic.” However, not all concerned shared Caputo-Pearl’s glee. Some used terms like “meh” and “horrible,” while many others used words that I cannot repeat in a family friendly blog.
On the plus side, the union did secure the hiring of 300 nurses, 82 librarians, and 17 counselors by 2020. But as the Wall Street Journal points out, the district had offered to add 1,300 teaching and support positions prior to the strike, so file this in the “meh” column. Also, as parent advocate organization Speak UP claims, LAUSD has been unable to fill 40 open nurse positions for which it already has funding.