The tentative deal includes what amounts to a 6% raise for teachers — with a 3% raise for the last school year and a 3% raise for this school year. (Teachers also lost about 3% of their salary by being on strike for six days, according to the school district.)I, too, would like smaller class sizes. Smaller class sizes means that districts have to hire more teachers. Yet we're told a teacher shortage exists. So where are all these new hires going to come from, the right side of the bell curve? Sure, they'll be adequate and fully certified, but think about it for a minute....
This 6% offer had been on the table before teachers went on strike, but the walkout was always about more than salary.
The agreement, which runs through June 2022, also includes a reduction of class sizes over four years to levels in the previous contract, but removes a contract provision that has allowed the school district to increase class sizes in times of economic hardship, Caputo-Pearl said in an interview. It was not immediately clear how that issue would be dealt with going forward.
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
One Government Shutdown Is Over
If ratified by the teachers, there is an agreement between striking teachers and Los Angeles Unified, the country's 2nd largest school district:
So a bunch of new nurses and counselors and librarians will be hired. Where are they going to come from? LAUSD let them go before and went to other districts or quit the profession. You just know that these positions will be the first one cut.
ReplyDeleteOne year, when Dallas ISD was short on ESL teachers, the superintendent (without board approval) hired foreign nationals promising them a bonus for signing. To make the books balance they forced some teachers to involuntarily transfer and other long time teachers were simply furloughed with a vague promise of rehiring "sometime down the line." A teacher I knew had been very successful with her mainly Hispanic students, propelling them to lots of academic and testing success. But since she wasn't an ESL teacher (she specialized in Reading and Language Arts) they forced her to move to another school an hour further from her central Dallas home. This kind of treatment of long time, experienced teachers doesn't insure lots of applicants. News travels.
ReplyDeleteI read that the class size reduction is only 1 per the first two years then 2 the following.
ReplyDeleteI would bet most general ed teachers won't see a change at all. My classes are generally between 32-36 students.
Their issue is going to be the hiring of nurses, counselors and librarians. Where is that money coming from? There were reports stating that every accountant who looked at the numbers stated there was no money for that. I'm sure they could just funnel some of that congestion driving pricing tax (sorry fee) over to education.
I think the teachers lost this one, but hey they got new green spaces :-) https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-deal-details-20190122-story.html
Considering the strike cost the almost-bankrupt district about $100 mil in state funding, and considering the inconvenience to 600,000 students and at least that many parents, and considering how little the teachers got--essentially the deal that had been on the table for months, it seems that the strike was about little more the aggrandizing of Alex Caputo-Pearl.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what political office he has his eyes on?