L.A. teachers join U.S. movement against underfunded schools

"What you're seeing is a national phenomenon, and it's been building for decades," said National Education Assn. president Lily Eskelsen GarcÁ­a.

Jennifer Villaryo looked at the young woman through smudged spectacles and gave her this advice: “Don’t get bogged down in the party scene.”

The student, taking the 42-year-old’s “student success” night course at an adult school in Santa Monica this week, promised her those days are in her past, and Villaryo nodded approvingly.

The gig is Villaryo’s third job. She teaches second grade and coaches volleyball for the Los Angeles Unified School District. The paycheck trifecta allows her to live in what she describes as a “super crappy” one-bedroom apartment in Gardena, a city that’s often an hour’s drive south of her main job at Grand View Elementary School in L.A.’s Mar Vista community.

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