By KALYANI VASAN
LOS ANGELES, CA - “Here we are on a rainy day in the richest country in the world, in the richest state in the country, in a city rife with millionaires, where teachers have to go on strike to get basics for our students…we are in a fight for the soul of public education.” Said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).
LOS ANGELES, CA - “Here we are on a rainy day in the richest country in the world, in the richest state in the country, in a city rife with millionaires, where teachers have to go on strike to get basics for our students…we are in a fight for the soul of public education.” Said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).
This fight morphed into the first teachers strike in 30 years wherein 33,000 Los Angeles teachers and staff took to the picket line leaving 600,000 students with no classes to attend. The teachers strike as it is being popularly referred to , began on Jan 14, on the grounds of the LAUSD Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. An estimated $ 97 million was lost to LAUSD as state funding is dependent on student attendance. A large number of Indian-American teachers are participating in the strike. What are the teachers striking for? Multi-subject credentialed Pacoima Middle School Indian-American teacher, Ashima Vohra had this to say, “It is not just about the 6.5% salary increase, that has been on the negotiating table for 21 months now. We teachers have been strangled and suffocated by taking away important resources such as school nurses, librarians and most importantly-school psychologists. If you look at the socio-economic backgrounds of our students these resources are critically important. We, as teachers have doubled up as therapists, nurses, and mothers and even as janitors. UTLA is arguing that staff reductions are hurting our students as well. Money that needs to be spent on sustaining our public school identity is going in part to charter schools. Charter schools are propping up in droves and they also get funding from conglomerates with deep pockets such as Walmart.”
The Charter school manifest allows them to pick and choose students based on their school objectives such as academic excellence, sports or the arts. Public schools do not allow this kind of ‘discriminatory selection,’ they cannot refuse admission to any child that resides within the parameters of a home or feeder school. Children with special needs, learning disabilities, physical and emotionally abused children are all welcome into the public education system. “Very often the cream of the crop end up in charter schools, they have more funding, more autonomy in teacher hires also, making us holding the challenging end of the stick. We are being set up to fail,” added Vohra.
Bhavna Shamasunder and Patrick Koppula, the parents of two LAUSD students, Avni and Aisha who attend Eagle Rock Elementary School have kept their children home during the strike. Shamasunder, a college professor, decided not to cross the picket line for two reasons: first. the current LAUSD school board is very pro-charter school and money flowed into school board elections from deep pockets such as Netflix and Walmart to those who represented charter schools. Second, Both Avni and Aisha’s teachers are very experienced and dedicated teachers and they deserve to be compensated fairly. They even sent work for both my daughters for the whole week of the strike! “I am very suspicious of charter schools; LAUSD class sizes are very big in addition to the highest need and poorest students making up a huge segment of the student population. Rich families send their children to private schools where the student-teacher ratio is very low, whereas the poorest LAUSD schools get the highest student-teacher ratios. Public school teachers have to grade a great pile of work whereas charter and private school teachers do not;”
Jatinder Shante, a newly retired LAUSD teacher after a three- decade tenure explained that the strike is the fruit of years of frustration and unheard demands. When all else failed, teachers had to resort to a strike even though they did not want their students to suffer.
Manu Vohra a 2018 graduate of LAUSD and currently a freshman in UCLA credits his teachers for where he is today. He is one of the ‘lucky’ ones that thrived despite facing the hurdles of crowded classes, lack of school supplies and lack of deserved attention.
Sukhjeet Sidhu is a 27 year veteran LAUSD teacher at Chatsworth High School a General Ed teacher migrated to becoming a special needs teacher. Special needs classes are smaller in size. “To teach students and to take care of their emotional needs is near impossible. We need support from counselors and psychologists as many students are from broken homes, have to work, and are even homeless. Many students fail as they are not able to focus due to personal traumas. The average general education class size ranges from 40-45 students and this makes it hard to establish a connection with students. We love teaching but, are frustrated as we cannot give enough attention to students.”
How about supplies? Sidhu laughed and said that the funding for supplies is so minimal that teachers have to scramble for something as trivial as markers! As for the provision of technology Sidhu says she and her fellow teachers finally got laptops but, no training on the software. She had to use her personal time to learn it. She expects the strike to last another two weeks and feels sorry for parents as they need to make arrangements for their children to be supervised during the strike.
“We are tired, not from teaching but from lack of resources and support from the school system. We miss our students and sincerely hope that we at least reach middle ground in the negotiations to end the strike.”
The Charter school manifest allows them to pick and choose students based on their school objectives such as academic excellence, sports or the arts. Public schools do not allow this kind of ‘discriminatory selection,’ they cannot refuse admission to any child that resides within the parameters of a home or feeder school. Children with special needs, learning disabilities, physical and emotionally abused children are all welcome into the public education system. “Very often the cream of the crop end up in charter schools, they have more funding, more autonomy in teacher hires also, making us holding the challenging end of the stick. We are being set up to fail,” added Vohra.
Bhavna Shamasunder and Patrick Koppula, the parents of two LAUSD students, Avni and Aisha who attend Eagle Rock Elementary School have kept their children home during the strike. Shamasunder, a college professor, decided not to cross the picket line for two reasons: first. the current LAUSD school board is very pro-charter school and money flowed into school board elections from deep pockets such as Netflix and Walmart to those who represented charter schools. Second, Both Avni and Aisha’s teachers are very experienced and dedicated teachers and they deserve to be compensated fairly. They even sent work for both my daughters for the whole week of the strike! “I am very suspicious of charter schools; LAUSD class sizes are very big in addition to the highest need and poorest students making up a huge segment of the student population. Rich families send their children to private schools where the student-teacher ratio is very low, whereas the poorest LAUSD schools get the highest student-teacher ratios. Public school teachers have to grade a great pile of work whereas charter and private school teachers do not;”
Jatinder Shante, a newly retired LAUSD teacher after a three- decade tenure explained that the strike is the fruit of years of frustration and unheard demands. When all else failed, teachers had to resort to a strike even though they did not want their students to suffer.
Manu Vohra a 2018 graduate of LAUSD and currently a freshman in UCLA credits his teachers for where he is today. He is one of the ‘lucky’ ones that thrived despite facing the hurdles of crowded classes, lack of school supplies and lack of deserved attention.
Sukhjeet Sidhu is a 27 year veteran LAUSD teacher at Chatsworth High School a General Ed teacher migrated to becoming a special needs teacher. Special needs classes are smaller in size. “To teach students and to take care of their emotional needs is near impossible. We need support from counselors and psychologists as many students are from broken homes, have to work, and are even homeless. Many students fail as they are not able to focus due to personal traumas. The average general education class size ranges from 40-45 students and this makes it hard to establish a connection with students. We love teaching but, are frustrated as we cannot give enough attention to students.”
How about supplies? Sidhu laughed and said that the funding for supplies is so minimal that teachers have to scramble for something as trivial as markers! As for the provision of technology Sidhu says she and her fellow teachers finally got laptops but, no training on the software. She had to use her personal time to learn it. She expects the strike to last another two weeks and feels sorry for parents as they need to make arrangements for their children to be supervised during the strike.
“We are tired, not from teaching but from lack of resources and support from the school system. We miss our students and sincerely hope that we at least reach middle ground in the negotiations to end the strike.”
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