Chicago's teachers union delivered a 75-item list of contract demands, addressing issues such as overcrowded classrooms and the loss of veteran black female teachers. The current contract with the teachers union expires at the end of June.
The Los Angeles teachers union said it's heading back to the negotiating table with the school district. Talks resumed for the first time since more than 30,000 educators walked off the job this week. But while teachers demand millions more dollars in school funding, their school district has lost $69 million—and counting—during the strike.
The two words, "these kids," frustrate Superintendent Carla Santorno more than any other phrase. It's used by some educators as a kind of secret code and a flimsy excuse for academic failure among marginalized students, she says.
Union leaders have framed the LAUSD educator strike as a fight for the future of public education. But for teachers on the ground, it's about getting day-to-day help so they might be able to pay more individual attention to their students.
While the LAUSD strike is the latest installment of a trend driven by exasperated educators, various factors make it unique. The city's public-school teachers are predominantly people of color—and a plurality of them are Latino, like most of the students they serve. Numerous teachers say a sense of solidarity with their students is what's driving them to the picket lines.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said the district is offering approximately 10 percent raises to teachers this year, putting educators on a track to make as much as $100,000 annually.
School district officials said they will make a new proposal to the teachers union Friday in an effort to avoid a planned strike Monday. The offer reportedly includes additional funding to reduce class sizes and provide more support for teachers.
As the legislative session begins in West Virginia, educators have started demonstrating against a move last month by Gov. Jim Justice's PEIA Task Force. Created as part of a deal to end the prior teachers' strike, the team leaders stated the force wouldn't recommend a long-term way to fund the state health insurance program at its current benefit levels before this session.
As the federal government shutdown heads into its third week, parents in Los Angeles are also bracing for a possible shutdown of the public school system. The school district is hemorrhaging cash and students, but on January 10, the 33,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles plan to go on strike anyway, writes The Wall Street Journal.
As leaders of LAUSD and United Teachers Los Angeles remain locked in an impasse over a new contract, the district has hired close to 400 substitute staffers to replace picketing educators in the event of a potential strike on January 10. But the move has sparked outrage from the union.
