Posts tagged Los Angeles Unified School District
Commentary: California Unions Prioritize Left-Wing Ideology Over Workers
April 16, 2026 // Undeterred, SEIU 1021 gave the former mayor $50,000 to fight the recall—despite the FBI’s having already raided her home. Rank-and-file members were likely stunned by the union’s support for a mayor widely rejected by the very communities whom they claim to represent. In November, Thao was recalled, with some 60 percent of voters supporting her ouster. Thao is just one of the hard-left politicians that SEIU 1021 has supported. The union also backed Oakland councilmember Carroll Fife, who ran for city council in 2020 with hopes of “eliminat[ing] racial disparities” and defunding the police. Per my earlier reporting, SEIU 1021 contributed $235,000 to her city council campaign.
Opinion Editorial Board: There is no right to strike against public schools
April 14, 2026 // Government also can’t go out of business. Demands, no matter how exorbitant, can always be paid through higher taxes, which is what’s certain to now happen in Los Angeles. A 2021 paper found that school districts under pressure from collective bargaining raise spending with no improvements in student outcomes. It’s not as though LAUSD is a cheapskate district. The average teacher earns six figures, and the district covers 100 percent of teachers’ health insurance premiums. Teachers’ starting pay for the district is higher than teachers’ median pay for the country as a whole. Average spending per student has risen from $17,798 in 2020-2021 to $29,616 in 2024-2025.
Teachers earn whopping pay raise as under-fire LAUSD folds to avert strike
April 13, 2026 // The pay hike comes even as the district’s roughly 390,000 students perform below both state and federal literacy averages. The agreement, expected to cost at least $650 million, also includes a plan to hire 450 additional support staff, including counselors, psychologists and social workers. The deal follows months of tense negotiations after the union’s contract expired last June, and is aimed at heading off a strike planned for Tuesday. But the threat of walkouts has not been fully eliminated. Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents custodians, cafeteria workers and other service staff, has yet to reach a deal with the district.
Talks Resume Today Ahead of Potential LAUSD Strike Next Week
April 9, 2026 // Even a partial agreement may not be enough to keep schools open. If one or more unions fail to reach a deal, district officials have indicated that maintaining normal operations would be nearly impossible. Right now, union leaders are projecting unity across roles that don’t always align. In a statement, UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz emphasized that educators and school staff are “ready to act” next Tuesday, if meaningful progress isn’t made.
Op-ed: Why is Government Empowering Public Sector Unions?
February 26, 2026 // Government empowers unions, and unions use that power to protect themselves. Forget any potential harm to taxpayers. The irony here is that union members are also taxpayers. So, in effect, unions are hurting their own members. But union leadership doesn’t think about that. Leadership is more interested in keeping their power and clout.
Thousands of LAUSD workers could get layoff notices. What to know
February 17, 2026 // LAUSD employs more than 83,000 people, including teachers, administrators, certificated support personnel and substitutes, according to June 2025 data. The prospect of layoffs isn't the only moving part in the overall picture: Labor unions have been in negotiations with the district related to wage increases to class sizes, and members of the United Teachers Los Angeles authorized the union to strike in late January.
San Francisco Teachers Walk Out for the First Time Since 1979
February 10, 2026 // David Goldberg, the California Teachers Association president, said that teachers have watched their colleagues win sizable pay increases by going on strike. Teachers in Richmond, Calif., across the bay from San Francisco, negotiated an 8 percent raise over two years after a nearly weeklong strike in December. “Folks, frankly, are learning from each other,” Mr. Goldberg said in an interview. “It’s something we’ve never done, and it’s a very exciting model for how to really build power in a huge state like ours.”
Opinion: As strike looms, LA schools need reform — not more spending
February 8, 2026 // Rather, only three reforms have any hope of improving performance in LA Unified: breaking up the district; parental choice; and Mississippi-style rigor. Remember that this is the teachers union that delayed school reopenings after the Covid lockdown and attached extraneous political demands to the reopening process. What the union is now demanding will leave the district unable to pay its bills within three years.
Jewish Teachers Forced to Pay Dues to Anti-Semitic Labor Union They Don’t Belong To
November 24, 2024 // The lawsuit says the EERA and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the union signed leaves the plaintiffs trapped in a union at odds with their political and religious beliefs. “UTLA inserted requirements into the CBA for adoption of model curricula for the classroom that is openly ant-Semitic, and has provided teacher training opportunities where teachers are taught how to avoid detection for anti-Israel rhetoric. UTLA also supports anti-Semitic and anti-Israel professional development classes–classes that can advance teachers’ careers.” The end result is that both “the EERA and the CBA compel Plaintiffs to associate with UTLA’s anti-Semitic speech and curriculum despite Plaintiff’s objections based on their sincerely held beliefs.
A year after Oct. 7 attack, Jewish teachers say LA union promotes antisemitism
October 8, 2024 // “UTLA has also supported professional development that teaches anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content,” the lawsuit alleges. “The UTLA-supported Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum is patently anti-Semitic, and has been adopted by LAUSD in various ways and at various schools at the behest of UTLA.” The lawsuit says those curriculum materials “denounce the idea of a Jewish homeland.” Other lawsuits have been filed challenging ethnic studies courses alleging they are antisemitic. While the lawsuit lists specific positions and actions of the teachers union, it is directed toward California’s provisions that require a sole union to represent all employees in a workplace.