toastykitten

So. It looks like the strike is most likely going to happen on 1/10. I joined a bunch of FB groups to follow along with the strike, and this is what I have gathered so far:

• Negotiations are going to continue on Monday.
• Austin Beutner, current LAUSD superintendent, has been running around to various local media and claiming that they've already offered a contract to the teachers that they won't take. Note: the 6 percent raise offered to teachers is conditional on them accepting increased class sizes, in some cases up to 50 kids per class. (Ridiculous on its face.)
• Anyway, teachers are requesting: raises, more nursing/counseling staff, less testing, smaller class sizes, etc.
• LAUSD has hired 400 substitutes in anticipation of the strike.
• LAUSD is suing to stop special ed teachers from striking, which, is, like, so ironic, because “If [LAUSD Superintendent Austin] Beutner really cared about special education students, he would have responded to our proposals on special education class-size caps, which would relieve the burden of our overcrowded classrooms and overwhelming caseloads,” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “It is disingenuous to recognize the value of our teachers only in the role they play during a strike while working to undermine them as they seek better working conditions for themselves and learning conditions for their students through the bargaining process.”
• There will be an LAUSD board meeting next Tues at 9.
• LAUSD's current superintendent Austin Beutner is some finance guy with zero educational or administrative experience, and was voted in by the school board instead of elected by the city's citizens and I will never stop being pissed off about this fact.
• Also, wealthy charter school advocates keep trying to buy themselves seats in CA's government.

I will not be sending my kid to school if the teachers strike, because 1. I don't like the idea of my kid crossing a picket line, 2. I have read that LAUSD waived TB and fingerprinting requirements for the subs, which is fucking ridiculous on its face, 3. and honestly, I've been through a school strike before as a teenager, and it was pointless for any kid to be in school during that time.