L.A. Teachers Must Learn A Lesson From the City Election
Tuesday was a wake-up call for public employee unions—the defeat of Measure B in Los Angeles demonstrated that the voting public is fed up with the abuses that come from the raw and unchecked use of their political power. United Teachers of Los Angeles ought to heed the warning just delivered on Measure B as it battles the school district’s student assessment tests scheduled to be administered in two weeks.
Unlike what was at stake in Measure B (guaranteed unionized jobs for electrical workers and harnessing solar power) the high stakes game that UTLA is playing is about our public school kids and their future—ultimately more critical than electrical workers’ expanded employment or when and how we decide to capture the sun’s rays.
For many years, UTLA couched its policy objectives in language that claimed they were really “putting kids first”—more money in the classroom was to benefit kids, not them, etc. But in the latest battle UTLA has abandoned any pretense about kids being their priority, it is really about, as UTLA has asserted in documents directed to their members, “building unity” and “to organize” the work site. It is also guaranteed to harm kids and their education.