Teacher determination, solidarity and a willingness to walk the line have paid off for the 43,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). A new three-year contract ratified by teachers Feb. 14 provides double-digit increases to teachers.
Despite a contentious year in which teachers participated in demonstrations, set up informational picket lines and authorized a strike vote, ongoing negotiations resulted in a contract that focuses the district's resources on the classroom.
Under the new contract, fully credentialed teachers and special services personnel will receive an average increase of 12 percent, as will Children's Center teachers who are at the fifth step. Day-to-day substitutes, adult education teachers and Children's Center teachers through step 4 will receive an 11 percent increase. Extended substitutes will receive a 7 percent increase.
"These salaries will go a long way toward recruiting and retaining the teachers we need to educate 725,000 students. But this contract goes way beyond salaries," says UTLA President Day Higuchi. "It provides serious steps for the complex challenges that face public education - from picking assignments to eliminating shortages of books and supplies to improving reading scores."
A process was created to address shortages of books and supplies, as well as classroom conditions that are not conducive to learning. Under the process, teachers can direct complaints to the superintendent's office, and if the situation isn't rectified within an appropriate time period, it can be taken to court.
Negotiators also created a system of choosing classroom and grade assignments that preserves seniority rights for permanent credentialed teachers and allows enough flexibility to offer students an equal opportunity to learn from fully qualified teachers.
"Picking assignments wouldn't be in question if the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) had enough facilities and enough fully credentialed teachers," says Higuchi. "We fully expect this issue to fade as the district recruits and retains teachers."
The new salary schedule corrects two long-standing problems in the district, according to Higuchi. "First it will raise teachers' pay to levels comparable with the other 46 school districts in Los Angeles County. Second, it corrects a mid-career sag that drives our teachers to better-paying schools just as they are mastering their craft."
Although teachers within LAUSD remain below the median, the contract marks the largest single-year raise in the history of UTLA, thanks to a $1.84 billion increase in the state's education budget. All raises in the contract are retroactive to July 1, when the previous agreement expired. Teachers and administrators will go back to the bargaining tables for further increases for the second and third years of the agreement.
Higuchi views the new agreement as more than a contract. He is hoping it will be seen as the first step in saving public education in Los Angeles. The new contract will send a positive message to teachers, parents, elected officials and community leaders that "Together, we are tough enough to turn LAUSD around," he says.
"This could be the beginning of a partnership to end 'business as usual' in our schools."
