UTLA/LAUSD Bargaining Update (9/08/22)

LAUSD made their first proposals on salary and class size in negotiations on September 8, followed by a news release that blatantly lies about what they are offering.

LAUSD is only offering an 8% salary increase over two years. They claim they are offering a 23% compensation package by disingenuously including the 5% raise UTLA members already received last year, along with a 3% one-time bonus each of the next two years, some stipend increases, and a few targeted increases that don’t apply to most educators. One-time bonuses and stipends are NOT pay raises. Again, LAUSD is only offering an 8% salary increase over two years.

Carvalho knows the educator shortage crisis is real and is desperate to make it look like he has miraculously solved the problem for LAUSD. An 8% raise over two years will not move the needle on recruitment and retention. With 28% of LAUSD educators working second jobs and 66% not being able to live in the neighborhood in which they teach, we need the 20% raise we proposed.

LAUSD’s proposals do nothing to move us out of the educator shortage crisis and they provide no improvement for students in all but a few classrooms.  

• The few small stipends LAUSD is proposing for some positions are far less than what staff would get from the 20% pay raise we are demanding, and the stipends do nothing to improve working conditions.
   
• LAUSD did agree to our demand to increase the school nurse salary schedule by $20,000 to boost recruitment (but they want to increase the onsite obligation to 7 hours), and they agreed to our demand to increase the Early Education salary schedule by $1,000. 
   
• LAUSD made no movement on the calendar, except now they want UTLA members to be on a committee to make recommendations on what to do on these poorly planned, wasteful accelerated days. Now that it’s become clear that the district has no plan for its arbitrary “accelerated” days, they are once again asking educators to clean up their mess.
   
• On class size, the district rejected our proposal to reduce class sizes in every grade and every school. Their proposal is to temporarily reduce class sizes in a few grades in 100 “priority schools” of their choosing (65 elementary, 35 secondary). The district’s proposal would do nothing to reduce class sizes in the vast majority of grades and schools, and it would only temporarily reduce class sizes in some schools. Every single student deserves smaller class sizes. We are committed to additional supports for schools facing more challenges — that is a part of our Beyond Recovery platform — but ALL schools need a foundation of class size reduction and student and educator supports. We are a district with 84% of students living in poverty — we will not allow the district to pit poor schools against slightly more poor schools.
   
• The district rejected all of our other economic proposals. The district rejected our proposals for greater investment in the Community Schools program and in Black Student Achievement Plan Schools. In the middle of a dangerous heat wave, the district rejected all of our climate justice proposals, including those calling for shade and more green space. The district rejected every transformative proposal in our demands, including on issues of equity for our students and ending the overcriminalization of youth. Not only did they reject our proposals, they refused to engage or offer any solutions of their own.
   

While LAUSD plays games with bad math “under the leadership of Alberto Carvalho” (as their news release stated), they sit on more than $3 billion in reserves. LAUSD knows they have a fight ahead of them, and lying about vacancies and exaggerating their bargaining proposals won’t change that. We will continue to organize at every school and build the power to force that money to be invested in students, educators, and families.