Los Angeles teachers remained on strike for a fourth day Thursday, but their union and the school district returned to the bargaining table, with Mayor Eric Garcetti mediating. “We need to see a real commitment to reinvesting in neighborhood public schools,” Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, told the New York Times. “We need to see that there is really reinvestment in class size reduction, staffing issues, counselors. We want to see some regulation on the charter industry, so that it does not just keep growing without limits. We need to know they have some basic rules of engagement and accountability.” Caputo-Pearl expressed optimism and determination to CNN, saying “We are having an impact. That impact is being felt across the city. And we've just got to keep it up.”
Musician Steven Van Zandt joined a picket line earlier in the week and told Rolling Stone some of what he heard from students and teachers there:
I was on the picket line with a kid who spent last year on the floor in chemistry class. There weren’t enough desks in the room. Jesus Christ! Dozens of teachers told me they’re buying pencils and paper for their classes or starting GoFundMe campaigns for a class trip. These are things we took for granted growing up, but it’s not that way anymore. They have to pay for those things out of their $40,000-a-year salary.
Van Zandt also highlighted the problems of privatization, saying that “it’s not an equal-opportunity situation. It’s a more selection version, and who gets left out are the poor, the homeless and the handicapped. Charter schools pick who come in, and they’re taking a lot of the [public] funds and leaving behind the poorest part of our population. So it’s a philosophical question: Do you believe in the public school system or not?”
The billionaires who bought a takeover of the Los Angeles school board, installing a superintendent of schools with no education background, have answered that philosophical question with a resounding no. Los Angeles residents, who showed overwhelming support for the teachers in a poll this week, are answering with a yes.
There will be a rally Friday morning at 10:30 PT at Grand Park. Supporters welcome!