This just in from the UTLA:
OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Anna Bakalis, 213-305-9654
Kim Turner, 213-305-9316
No progress made in bargaining today
LOS ANGELES — UTLA met with LAUSD officials today in the hopes that the district would finally have a meaningful proposal to settle the contract, but the district made yet another unacceptable offer. LAUSD’s latest proposal ties a pay raise to cuts in healthcare for future employees, would actually increase class size instead of lower it, and does nothing to bring more long-term nurses, counselors, and librarians to work with our students.
It’s clear we are still deadlocked over the issues and an impasse between the two parties still exists. Tomorrow, we are in court to fight another anti-union attempt to stop our strike by LAUSD. We have agreed to meet with LAUSD on Wednesday at 9 AM, and we hope that the district brings a real proposal that genuinely supports our educators, students, and communities.
For UTLA’s part, today we pulled six issues from our bargaining package that the district says are “permissive” and claims we are not able to strike over—including important proposals to reduce overtesting and give parents and teachers more decision making at schools. We are disappointed that once again the district is putting up roadblocks to cost-neutral efforts to improve our students’ learning conditions. This is another last-minute, high-priced-lawyer maneuver by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner. We disagree that these issues are “permissive” and are going to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to fight for our right to bargain over them, but for now, to protect our right to strike, we have withdrawn them.
“Austin Beutner once again reveals his disdain for the educators and parents of LAUSD by fighting tooth and nail against proposals to give parents and teachers a greater voice in how their schools are run,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl says. “These proposals have wide community support and would not have cost the district a dime.”
Meanwhile, our members were asked to send home Beutner’s letter to students today that claimed UTLA refused to bargain—this while our team was actually at the table with LAUSD. He claims LAUSD is broke, yet he is spending money on hundreds of thousands of letters with inaccurate and false information and dares to ask our members (98% of whom voted to strike) to distribute the letter. Beutner did this after telling teachers we can’t talk to parents, which is the subject of a pending unfair bargaining charge.
UTLA is planning to be in court tomorrow to fight another attempt by Austin Beutner to stop our potential strike. Last week, the federal court threw out Beutner’s attempt at an offensive special education injunction to stop a strike, and we expect PERB to dismiss his request for another injunction based on unsubstantiated bad faith bargaining claims in the next few days. This third attempt at an injunction is based on a disingenuous claim that UTLA did not give sufficient notice of our intent to strike.
We are fighting to keep our strike date of January 10 but we are ready to shift to Monday, January 14, if LAUSD’s pursuit of this technicality is allowed to stand. We wish Beunter would spend as much energy trying to reach an agreement as he does employing his high-priced lawyers to try to thwart our right to advocate for our students and strike if it comes to that.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Corporate downsizers don’t compromise. They must be forced out.
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We have posted online at FB that NO ONE should send his mendacious and worthless propaganda letter home. Dump them in the trash. The taxpayer money Beutner spent to print over 600,000 could have been better spent improving free lunches for students.
In LA we finally have a waking giant willing to strike for our students. As of today, even some charter school teachers are joining the huge strike march on Thursday. Hope all my teacher friends and colleagues welcome them enthusiastically so they go back to their schools with an informed and comfortable mindset, and not as adversaries.
Please see today’s LA Times for the amazing front section wrap around ad by UTLA…money well spent…and put the full page poster up all over town.
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Austin Beutner said in another post that the there were already plans to spend the $2 billion held in reserves. I think that means he plans to spend that money on computer programs and computers while autocrats and ignorant idiots like him, that only know how to make money to increase their own fortunes, continue to get rid of teachers, increase class sizes and implement more Eva Moskowitz style brutal bully tactics to terrorize and break the spirits of children and teachers.
Ever since Nixon declared war on recreational drugs that are often equal to or safer than alcohol and tobacco, the Republicans have moved more and more toward despicable punishments for the working class while letting the wealthy class get away with fraud, theft, and even murder.
And since Beutner is one of those autocrats building a dark dystonia for the rest of us, this should not be a surprise.
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I was thinking about that too. Why hasn’t he said how the $2 billion is earmarked?!
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He has.
I’m 100% for what the students need, but I’m really getting fed up with seeing people repeat, over and over, how there is 2 billion being “hoarded” like a bunch of Trump idiots. Don’t you even try to research both sides of an argument?
Interview with Beutner:
https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2019/01/02/64040/interview-with-lausd-superintendent-austin-beutner/
Independent study about LAUSD financial situation.
Click to access 12-18-18%20d%20fact%20finding%20posters.pdf
Original links:
https://achieve.lausd.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=4466&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=73200&PageID=1
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Wow. Okay, I am thankful for the info, although I take accounts by Beutner’s and Cortines’ teams with many grains of salt. I am not very thankful for the name calling, though.
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Also the categories on the charts are nonspecific.
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Jack, you are conflating several things…which is exactly what LAUSD wants the public to do.
First, the budget deficits are PROJECTED deficits, of the same type that have been PROJECTED by the District for…ever! The reality is that the District PROJECTS budgets, and budget deficits, but ACTUALLY ends up with surpluses…which currently amount to $1.8 billion. This has happened for the last how many years? Research it, dude.
Another thing that you point to, via your second link, is that the AVERAGE LAUSD classroom student-to-teacher ratio is fairly low. Great, glad to hear it, but you need to realize that that includes tens of thousands of disabled students, along with K-2 students, who are in very small classes…all while secondary science students have ratios of 43-to-1, secondary art classes have 50-to-1, and 3rd grade classes are 32-to-1.
Bro, get a clue and actually read up on the issues before you start calling attention to reports that were essentially written by Beutner’s advisory team.
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Looks like I’m not the only one who feels this way….
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PACE is spewing projectile vomit. There is NO similarity between Trump and the teachers strike in LA. NONE! Do you hear my roar?
BS!
It is not greedy to ask for a 6.5% raise and smaller class sizes.
It is not greedy to ask for empty positions for nurses, librarians, and counselors to be refilled with new hires.
There is zero similarity between this teachers strike and Trump.
Compared to Trump who repeatedly violates the Emollients Clause by still making money from his family business and having millions deposited into his bank accounts.
Compared to Trump who built some of his businesses with $800 million in corporate welfare and then closed those business failures after going through bankruptcy not once but six times..
Compared to Trump who has gone through 6 major bankruptcies that cost US banks about $1 billion dollars.
Compared to Trump who refused to pay hundreds if not thousands of workers and contractors what he agreed to pay them.
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I think the thing that bugs me the most about all of this is that I want to see these teachers directing their demand for change to the STATE, and, for that matter, the NATION instead of vilifying ONE GUY (who’s been in his position for less than a year). This is a nationwide problem, and not an Austin Beutner problem. Our entire nation’s education system is behind so many other countries it’s not even funny anymore. As everyone keeps touting, this is the second largest public school system in the nation. Why are they wasting their energy on one person instead of using this strike to start a state-wise or nationwide ripple? That’s what I want to see. I want to see people acting like the educated human beings they supposedly are, instead of high school bullies. Show me in your actions and rhetoric that this isn’t just about grading 10 less papers a day, (and the high cost of living in LA, which is of no fault of the school district) and I’ll join the picket lines with you.
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Thanks Steve for clarifying ‘budget deficits’ and yes, we have heard this same cloudy gibberish for years from at least the last 5 LAUSD supts, Cortines, Deasy, Cortines again, King, and now Wall Street vulture capitalist Beutner. It is the sword of Damocles that they hold over our heads to get their jaded and inauthentic way.
Last night,Beutner presented his rationale and phony math charts on the LA nightly news shows. His slouched and shifty demeanor reflects even his own shattering view of all this lying to the public. The teachers working now fully with the union are amazing. I am so proud to stand with them…with Left Coast and Jack and Steve and so many others I have met over the years on this blog too. Go TEACHERS.
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I’ve been posting as “Jack” for several years now, so I want to make clear that the above post from a different “Jack” is most certainly not mine.
I think that Left Coast Teacher might think that I I wrote t hat post, and that she is responding the me.
She’s not. (or He’s not… I don’t know Left Coast Teacher’s gender)
Indeed, I take an opposed position to the “Jack” above regarding the state of LAUSD’s budget, one best articulated in this post displaying the expert research and analysis of Red Queen L.A.:
http://redqueeninla.com/2019/01/07/once-again-with-feeling-is-lausd-really-going-bust/
Red Queen correctly shows how Beutner’s claims of LAUSD going bust, and lacking the money to pay for things such as reduced class size is all a bunch of baloney.
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Thank you, Ellen. I just sent you an email with some more personalized thanks. We have each other’s backs.
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To the real Jack:
Glad to hear that the troll was not you. The post sounded quite odd, and out of place, based upon your posts over the years. Nevertheless, the guy’s name sure confused the issue.
I doubt that the guy will post again, but if he does we can call him on it.
Peace.
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It’s fairly obvious that he plans to hand most of the money over to charter schools if his proposal to break up the district sails through. His plan calls for local regions to be given autonomy, with charters and District schools placed together, competing for money and resources. Since charter schools have active, involved parents, they will end up in control of the local funds.
If Jackie Goldberg wins the board seat in March Beutner will surely resign his position at the end of the school year. If she is elected in November, due to a run-off, he will resign by the end of the Fall ’19 semester.
If a charterist is elected instead of Goldberg, then Beutner could very well break up the District…Melvoin is right there with him, hand in hand.
Either way, Beutner will be running for some political office two years from now….probably for LA Mayor (2022).
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Not that simple. First, Beutner has 4 votes with Vladovic, with whom he has a long-standing personal relationship. And the election will not be a cake walk for Jackie. Labor is divided and the Mayor backs his own candidate (not Jackie). Charters seem to be staying out for the primary. And the strike could push voters who are tired of the charter vs Union wars toward the Mayor’s choice, who is positioning herself as a centrist and reconciler. Then there is the frustrated Latino electorate in the SE who feels their candidates are shut out of major play, with three, white, affluent women from where the vast MINORITY of children in BD5 live dominating the endorsements/presumed allegiances. No, it’s not a simple election as in the last round. That seat was redrawn to favor Latinos who are the overwhelming majority of students in BD5. The civil rights orgs are abuzz about that: It’s a Latino seat! And they will fight for it. That’s actually what won Ref the election – his close connection with Latino voters in SE. Whatever else happens with high $ electoral politics, gone are the days when white candidates can presume to speak for Latinos and not expect to be challenged forcefully.
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Mimi…you make valid points, and yes, some in the Latino community would like to see the open seat of District 5 go to a Latino(a),and yes, there are a number of ‘Latinas’, women, who have ed creds and teach in classrooms, who could do the job well.
However, I tend to hope that Steve’s scenario is the ripe one. Beutner’s history of changing jobs yearly to take rapid steps up, could be his reason for his current and very inappropriate job which earns him name recognition. He failed in his attempt to be elected Mayor of LA last time, and there are so many people in line for that job who have far more respectable and visible names, so IMO that is a non starter for him.
Jackie Goldberg is so smart and tough and has by far the best academic and job creds to sit on the BoE…and even the conniving Monica Garcia cannot silence her voice. We have to wait and see who pops up as candidates in March, but the major problem will be all the billionaire privatizer cash that will be poured in again to buy the election.
CCSA does not have to donate a cent but their uber rich supporters will endlessly try to buy the BoE as they succeeded doing with Melvoin, Gonez, Garcia, felon Rodriguez, and no mater how you slice it, Vlad who cannot be counted on to do the right thing for LAUSD and has been far more interested in feathering his own nest. I scalded Gallanter and Gruehl over the years to his benefit and i regret that.
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Mimi, I’m completely there with you. This strike could not come at a worse time, and UTLA’s most important objective should be to get Goldberg elected [tough to do, as there will be a hugh deflation after this strike is over…how do you get members riled up to months later?]
I agree with your analysis of the disenfranchisement felt by tens of thousands of residents in BD5.
We have to turn around and bust our asses again, as soon as this strike is over. That’s why I’ve been saying that this is getting very, very tiring…they’re slowly wearing the union down, bit by bit. We can’t fight an endless number of battles.
With regards to Vladovic: yeah, that guy allowed Beutner to be hired, but I don’t think he will be swayed by his friend’s arguments. He respects Beutner (a stupid thing to do), but I think Vladovic understands what is at stake and would not be overly sad if his buddy quietly left.
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The NAACP, SPLC, and the ACLU have taken action against the systemic threat charter schools pose to community and national interest.
On the other hand, there are the foundations representing rich people. They self-appoint to enact privatization. And, they fit a pattern. They describe their missions using buzz words like leveraging, scaling up, social entrepreneurship,… And secondly, the foundations’ employee and management photo arrays show either no Black people or a disproportionately low number.
Unfortunately, the anti-union foundations propping up oligarchy have $ to pull Beutner’s strings.
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