Each year around this time, Californians begin hearing a familiar story coming from Sacramento. Revolving around the state’s budget, it is a story of stalemate. California’s State Legislature consistently fails to pass a working budget by the established deadline. It is an ideological deadlock: the political Right would like to minimize taxes and government spending; the political Left would like to strengthen public infrastructure. The unique constraints of California’s Constitution (California is one of only three states that require a two-thirds vote of the state legislature to pass a budget and raise taxes), ensure that any approved budget will address in significant ways the ideological concerns of both sides.
Even before the current recession the nation is facing, California was facing a budget deficit. Since the state passed Proposition 13 in the late 1970s, the funding required for public infrastructure and the revenue collected by the state have been out of balance. In 2009, this shortfall is multiple billions of dollars. The budget being currently submitted for approval proposes to make up this shortfall by cutting approximately $10 billion in education funding.
At the state level, the ongoing budget dilemma is a crisis of ideology. At the local level, it is a crisis of practicality. California’s public schools are funded at well below the national average. California ranks 46th in the nation in per pupil spending. For many years, education spending has been one of the first areas to be cut from a budget. To balance the 2004-5 budget, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger borrowed $2 billion from education funding that has yet to have been repaid in its entirety.
As news of this new budget and its cuts to education became public, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) made clear that they would not take these cuts lying down. On Thursday, January 29th, 2009, thousands of teachers rallied in protest of the cuts to education in the budget being put forward by Schwarzenegger and the state legislature. Teachers assembled at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) district office in downtown Los Angeles and marched through the streets to Pershing Square.
Facing this perpetually deficient funding, the LAUSD adds fuel to the fire in the way that it manages the funds it receives. District employees receive perks such as car and phone allowances. Consultants are regularly used in lieu of district employees and are generally paid considerably more. According to LAUSD’s estimates, nearly 10% of State Tax Dollars do not make it to the individual school sites, but these numbers are difficult to corroborate and may be much higher. Recently, this sort of thing has been a common story when it occurs at Goldman Sachs or General Motors, but the profligacy of LAUSD management has remained largely anonymous in the traditional media. It has been some time since the District’s accounts were audited. Former Superintendent David Brewer was the highest paid School District Superintendent in the nation at $300,000 per year. When he was asked to resign early this year, he was given a $500,000 severance package.
UTLA consistently calls upon LAUSD to trim waste in the way funds are spent in the management of the district. UTLA voiced outrage at Brewer’s golden parachute. UTLA’s outrage was magnified when, facing a $10 billion cut in education funding statewide, LAUSD presented a solution to UTLA that called for the elimination of more than 8,000 jobs, the majority of these jobs being classroom teachers. As we follow the path of tax dollars from policy to practicality, the large cuts in education spending in next year’s budget resulted in approximately 5,500 Reduction In Force (RIF) notices being sent to LAUSD teachers. “The similarities to the corporate bail-outs are numerous,” says Cathy Garcia, a UTLA chapter chair at Crenshaw High School and member of the Progressive Educators for ACtion (PEAC) coalition within UTLA, “Why is CNN not talking about this? Why is no one paying attention?”
Having a left-leaning executive in the White House has changed the landscape slightly. Barack Obama’s stimulus package has sent a considerable amount of federal dollars to LAUSD. Where before, the UTLA line was “cut district waste, cut district waste, cut district waste”, UTLA is now calling on LAUSD to trim the waste in their operations and to specifically use the stimulus funds to prevent any RIF notices from being sent out. Currently, about 35% of the stimulus funds are being used to save teaching positions, mostly in math and science classes. UTLA believes that if 50% of the funds are used, every teaching position currently being downsized could be saved. LAUSD believes that this year’s budget is a harbinger of things to come and would like to save the majority of the funds to make up shortfalls in next year’s budget.
All of this discussion is still very macro-oriented. The real questions are, What do these RIFs look like at schools? What do they look like in classrooms? How do they effect individuals? Near the end of May, LAUSD announced that it would be canceling the bulk of its summer school program. According to Garcia, at Crenshaw there will be a summer school in place, but it will only be offering class that are high school graduation requirements. Students who need courses that may be required for admittance to college, but are not required for a high school diploma may find themselves out of luck. “It’s an issue of access and equity,” says Garcia.
As for the fall offerings at Crenshaw, these RIFs will cripple the school’s counseling department. Crenshaw currently has five counselors and two program coordinators serving the counseling needs of its seven small-learning communities (SLC: all students at Crenshaw are enrolled in one of seven small learning communities). Of the fourteen RIFs served at Crenshaw, four of these were delivered to counselors. This would leave Crenshaw with one official counselor serving approximately 2100 students. More likely is that it will leave four SLCs without a counselor. The counseling needs of these students (course programming, graduation progress, college preparation) will fall to the teachers and administrators within these SLCs.
Of the ten teachers receiving RIFs, seven of these are in English Language Arts and three of these are in Social Studies. The loss of these seven positions in English could drive class size as high as 46 students per class. This number bares repeating: 46 students per class. This is Crenshaw’s first year of its reform plan around taking the school to a complete SLC program. These cuts will cripple the young program, if for no other reason than by eliminating the courses that define each SLC. In the school of Social Justice, the first class to go will most likely be a popular African-American literature course.
Having held a peaceful rally and march, it became clear to many in UTLA that a more aggressive stance would be required. The PEAC coalition within UTLA, whose members include chapter chairs at many historically underfunded LAUSD schools, became a loud voice in calling on UTLA to take more direct action against LAUSD’s proposals. According to the negotiated UTLA contract, any RIF notice i.e. pink slip must be delivered to a teacher by March 15th of the contract year. The LAUSD school board was set to vote to approve these notices on March 10, 2009. UTLA assembled en masse at the school board meeting of March 10th.
Prior to the meeting, UTLA spoke to LAUSD’s school police force; if arrests would be made, they should be made by school police. The plan was to create an unauthorized filibuster. If UTLA could prevent the meeting from taking place, LAUSD would not be able to vote to approve the RIF notices and they would miss the March 15th deadline. As the meeting came to order, UTLA president, A.J. Duffy, stepped to the microphone, completely out of order. LAUSD board member, Monica Garcia, often a UTLA ally, asked Duffy to step down. “Monica,” Duffy told her, “You know I’m not leaving from this podium.” Duffy’s microphone was shut off. By this time, the School Board Chamber was filled with teachers wearing UTLA red. Teachers began chanting and singing, even taunting members of the school board. If the teachers had a say in it, this meeting would not continue.
The School Board adjourned the meeting to a private chamber. The room was told that they would be able to watch the meeting via closed circuit television in the District Office’s cafeteria. When the Board had left the room, School Police informed teachers that if they did not disperse, they would be arrested. UTLA defied the the Police to arrest them. School Police asked media present to leave the chamber. Teachers began chanting, “Let the media stay.” No media left the room. No arrests were made. In a private chamber, the School Board voted 5-2 in favor of 8,000 Reductions in Force.
As RIF notices were distributed throughout the district, plans for a next wave of action began to take shape. Many in the union were calling for a one day strike in protest of the layoffs. At the end of April, union membership authorized the strike. The day would be Friday, May 15, 2009 and it would be known as Pink Friday.
According to the contract negotiated between UTLA and LAUSD, the union can not legally strike over layoffs. Although the members approved the strike, it would be technically illegal. Based on this stipulation in the contract, LAUSD pursued and was granted an injunction. There has been some recent historical precedence of union’s striking in the face of an injunction The members of PEAC called on UTLA to strike anyway. UTLA’s leadership voted to stage a small protest of about less than a hundred protestors in from of LAUSD’s district office. About 40 union members, including A.J. Duffy and Vice-President Josh Pechtalt, were arrested for peaceably blocking traffic. The majority of union members went to work that day. Many people did a sick-out.
Jose Lara is a UTLA chapter chair at Santee Education Complex, a high school located in the historic south Central Avenue District. According to Lara, when the strike was called off, it was a big blow to union morale. “Duffy told us that the union would strike if it was necessary,” says Lara, “Everyone thought this was going to be a strike year. It’s a contract year. Our salaries and benefits are up. When the budget cuts came, chapter chairs were prepared for strike.” Teachers at Santee passed a vote of “No Confidence” in their union leadership. Teachers at Lincoln High drafted and signed a letter of “No Confidence” to union leadership.
Santee Education Complex is a young school and has always been a hot bed of action. Just a few years ago, students, teachers and parents rallied successfully for the removal of an unpopular principal. Many students had been following closely the actions of their teachers. When the strike was called off, student leaders at Santee began to organize their own actions. Early in the week following Pink Friday, students gathered in the morning outside Santee. As more students arrived, they did not enter campus. As classes began, students began marching around the campus, calling for a halt to the teacher layoffs. School administrators were finally able to convince students to enter the school with the enticement that LAUSD Superintendent Ramón Cortines would meet with students to hear their demands. When Cortines failed to show at the scheduled meeting, students upped the ante.
On May 22, 2009, approximately 400 students gathered outside Santee around 8:00 a.m. These students marched three miles to LAUSD’s District Office. Marching around the District Office, students chanted for Cortines to meet with them. Finally, Cortines came to speak to the students. In front of the District Office, Cortines commended the students for speaking up and letting their voice be heard. Later reports on local news quoted Cortines as saying he was “disappointed in the adults who may be misleading the students. Walking out and coming to the district headquarters will not affect the budget in any way or prevent the layoff of individual employees.” Similar walkouts took place at Crenshaw High, Dorsey High, Los Angeles High, Manual Arts High, Cochrane Middle and West Adams Prep schools.
In the face of large public protest, it was clear to many within the union that the actions of union leadership were not nearly enough. When a UTLA House of Representatives turned into a cacophony of arguments and complaints, a group of union activists decided to do something about the situation. This group, which included chapter chairs at Santee, Lincoln High School, Liechty Middle School, and West Adams, began brain-storming ways that the fight could be continued and expanded. The ideas that stuck were a hunger strike and a camp-out. The hunger strike began immediately. Calls were put out for volunteers to man the camp-site and the Hungry for A Better Education campaign was launched. Visit their website at: www.LAhungry4Ed.com
Launched on May 26, 2009, the campaign’s demands are simple: 1) Protect students’ education by NOT increasing class size and 2) Protect the future of education in LAUSD by NOT laying off our new teachers. Well into its second week, supporters have been camping each night around the area schools needing the most support. In response, Cortines has been quoted as saying, that he thinks their time would be better spent gaining the attention of Sacramento rather than starving themselves. Meanwhile, Sacramento is coming to the strikers. On June 3rd, State Senator Gloria Romero paid a visit to the strike and camp-out.
In the beginning, UTLA’s officers did not back the Hungry for Ed campaign. UTLA has since begun to embrace the campaign. While UTLA had a plan for a hunger strike, it was never acted upon. As media coverage expands and momentum grows, chapter chairs from around the city have been calling fasters, interested in holding their own camp-outs and solidarity hunger strikes. According to Lara, the fasters have been receiving calls from national labor and social justice organizations and even a teacher’s union in Puerto Rico. Says Lara, “The word is out about the resistance happening in LA. It is inner city schools who are being affected the most and looking for leadership the most. Every time the leadership brings up the vote, the effects on the [San Fernando] valley schools are considered first. They’ve got to take a stand and and do what it right.”
One of the most exciting aspects to the leaders of the Hungry for a Better Education campaign is that the leadership is coming from below. Jose Lara is a first year chapter chair. Julie Van Winckel is a first year chapter chair. Gladys Mazariego-Hamdi is a first year chapter chair. These young leaders have been willing to stand up for their schools regardless of what the union leadership says. “We believe that the union should be lead from below,” says Lara, “The campaign is in it until a compromise is reached. We are looking for a compromise that keeps our class sizes at their current levels and reverse the layoffs. Then we regroup, reorganize and get ready for the battle next year.”
Follow Jose Lara on twitter: @josedelbarrio
Follow Cathy Garcia on twitter: @cathodexray
Follow UTLA on twitter: @utla2009
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