Judge halts teachers' strike

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has granted a restraining order prohibiting the city's teachers union from staging a one-day strike Friday.

L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he was "elated" regarding the decision by Judge James C. Chalfant, which was issued moments ago.

"I’m hoping that this will provide the opportunity for the bargaining unit and the school district to sit down and try to work out some of the issues," said Cortines, "and to deal with the economic situation we find ourselves in, which is not going away this year, next year or the year beyond."

In its pleadings, the Los Angeles Unified School District cited student safety concerns as well as disruptions to state and advance placement testing.

United Teachers Los Angeles scheduled the strike to protest looming teacher layoffs that would disrupt faculties and lead to larger classes.

-- Howard Blume

Comments

[Zeke Quezada]

Common sense prevails. At some point everyone, even teachers have to realize that budget concerns affect us all. How can you protest layoffs when the union was in fact the culprit in creating this bureaucracy. Let's see, if we protect weak teachers and enable them to get into administrative positions, coaching positions and non classroom positions how will we be able to survive the down times? Unfortunately, good teachers will lose jobs because UTLA has long been a very strong supporter of the bad teacher. Now, people in LAUSD will be faced with staff re-entering the classroom even though they don't want to be teaching. Nobody wants larger classroom sizes but the same holds true for people who cannot do their jobs.

[Rich Gibson]

The only "illegal" strike is a strike that fails. San Diego State's Rich Gibson has documented educational labor struggles for years. He has urged job actions against concessions, against racist high stakes testing, and against the militarization of campuses. But, at the same time, he urged teachers to set up freedom schools during the job actions where teachers would be able to really teach about why things are as they are, and what to do about it.

[JC]

WALK OUT! LAUSD students are the ones who are and will be negatively effected to the cuts to education!

[Bob Johnson]

So the worthless teachers who produce a 50% dropout rate while making more money than any other teachers in the country, are going to have to actually work on Friday? Poor babies.

[JAR]

Finally! A common sense result.
I also agree 1000% with Zeke's statements above.
Teachers face it- enrollment is down and also the graduation rate is only 50%. Keep teachers on merit rather than seniority, stop rewarding the poor teachers. We are rapidly heading into a downward spiral where our children will become illiterate and our country will sink into 3rd world status. Why? Because teachers care more for themselves and their pay than for the children entrusted into their care.

[Elated Teacher]

I agree with you, Zeke 100%!!!
As a teacher in LAUSD, I was so against this strike to begin with. The entire system (including the tenure process) is a faulty one and the union, in my opinion, protects too many teachers who do not deserve protection. THANK GOODNESS THE STRIKE IS OFF!!!

[dakota]

Any teacher (or union member) who goes on strike should IMMEDIATELY lose their job. There are millions of qualified people who would love to have work. Greedy teachers (and union members) are the root of the budget mess in this state

[JC]

I keep on posting my comments in favor of the STRIKE are not being posted. The ones who are gong to suffer due to the cuts are the LAUSD students!

[Angry]

you guys are all morons. In these cuts teachers dont lose the most, students do. None of you have ever stepped into a classroom or know what its like to teach a classroom of 30+ students of today's population. FIrst off, they are cutting new teachers who have been recently trained by the new standards to keep the old ones, second, they are cutting teachers in the most needy schools, not the ones in affluent ones. Third, getting rid of teachers means increased class size and go ahead morons go and try to teach 175 students a day with all the issues facing them. i dare you that none of you will last until lunch time. Or try handling 35 8 year olds. Theres a reason you people send your kids to babysitters becaues you cant take care of your kids in your own house. try teaching them for 7 hours.

All people do is whine about teachers tryin to save their jobs. Recession is an economical issue, but obviously we value education as just another industry rather than the foundation of our society. So dont blame it on teachers when the economy goes down and you get poorly educated students. You want teachers to be immune but yet its not treated as a holy grail. You get what you pay for.

[Ed Zimmerman]

There is nothing in the Union Contract that protects bad teachers. Teachers are just foot soldiers following the commands of their superior officers otherwise refered to as administrators. When policies fail administrators need to be replaced. They came up with the policy and they implemented the policy. They deserve full credit for the failure. I really don't expect the Los Angeles Times to investigate the administrators or their Union (ALA) The Times should investigate itself. Ask your employees to rate what is left of a once first rate newspaper.

[Dave]

Are you kidding??? "stop rewarding the poor teachers. We are rapidly heading into a downward spiral where our children will become illiterate and our country will sink into 3rd world status. Why? Because teachers care more for themselves and their pay than for the children entrusted into their care."
Teachers care more for themselves and their pay!?!?!?!?!?! Do you know how much a teacher makes???? Why would a person with a four year degree take one of the lowest paying jobs for a person with a degree???? BECAUSE THEY LIKE TO TEACH AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU LIKE TO BLAME TEACHERS BECAUSE YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PARENT. SCHOOL IS 50% of a child's education the other half has to come from home... the parents are failing not the teachers... and the schools are underfunded..

[Luciano]

What's with you clowns blaming teachers for drop out rates and poor test scores? Do you think that's the teachers' fault? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to teach these days? We not only have to deal with big classes, we have to deal with insolent students who care more about the music in their iPods and their cell phones than the information we attempt to impart so that they don't wind up working at McDonalds.

The reason that 50% of teachers quit the profession within five years is exactly for these reasons. In addition we have to deal with absent parents who spend all their time working and not enough time watching their kids. They think parenting means providing money for food and tucking their kids in at night. They put zero interest in making sure that their kids take the time to study their lessons and take their education seriously. When their kids screw up they say it's the teachers fault. He's too mean, she's to strict, the work is too hard. blah blah blah

Regarding pay. Teachers don't make more than 75,000 a year until they have been teaching more than 15 or 20 years. We also have to use our own money to buy supplies. We spent untold extra hours grading after hours and developing our lesson plans. Being a teacher in many ways is a 24 hour job.

Those of you who complain just love to see your words in print, but they mean nothing. They are empty. Try being a teacher for a week in your typical high school and I guarentee that you'll be under your desk crying by the end of the week.

Enough said.

Luciano

[John Ayers]

"The educational success model that I believe in has four key components that include a Student, Teacher, Parent and Community relationship. As someone who (in the past year) has witnessed fellow parents lose their jobs, take a pay cut or simply have not worked for months, it appears that the union is not recognizing the current economic climate. Many people are financially hurting and it seems that they (the union leaders) could find a more productive approach to help our community of students. As a parent, I have very mixed emotions, because I personally value and completely support the good teachers we have, many of whom often work tirelessly to teach our children and go above and beyond their duties on a daily basis. However, I don't support the union's tactics of a walk-out with little consideration for parent's and their children. It appears to be grandstanding. The district, the board and the teachers are suppose to work out these issues in order to best serve the students... NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE STUDENTS. This strike is the wrong message at the wrong time."

[Edik]

Teachers are THE NATIONAL ASSET and Government should assist them in anyway possible, Education is the most Important part of a healthy society, without them, society will not function in this ERA.

[Ken]

Today we have witnessed the death of education reform.
Thank you Mr. Cortines for your total lack of understanding and for setting education back 20 years.

[Erika]

As a teacher, it's amazing that anyone could be stupid enough to say that all we care about is ourselves and our pay. Not one teacher EVER became a teacher because of the money. We would be protesting for smaller class size and those teachers who were laid off. JAR, the teachers who would be laid off are the young, competent and enthusiastic teachers, not the bad teachers. Maybe you should learn something before you go spouting your uneducated and uninformed mouth!!!

[Alg]

At at time when educators are advocating the passage of Propositions 1A and 1B on the May 19 ballot, it is illogical to strike since the problem with state funding come from Sacramento. The anger has to be directed to the Governor and Legislators. Local school boards are at the mercy of the "leaders" of the state. It sends the wrong message to the public.

[KM]

Worthless citizens like Bob Johnson who don't understand the issues related to education reform, are the reason our economy is in the state that it is in to begin with . Bob Johnson will have to work the rest of his life poor baby.

[Rodolfo Villasenor]

The Unions in this country are too weak to deal with the right wing establishment. The left is non-existent leaving the working class and the teachers with no rights.Down with the right wing conservative establishment.

[IDT]

This is a bogus decision by a pro-employer judge. All workers-- especially teachers, who educate young people before they become workers--should have the right to strike. If they L.A. School Board can issue layoff notices, the employees affected should be able to hit back.

If UTLA continues with the call for a strike, which I think they should, I'll be striking with them that day and I hope everyone else (students included) does too.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

[Elizondo]

"Common sense prevails" Spoken like a true republican. Of course every business has it flaws and yes including LAUSD. Has anyone spoke of the Performance Assessments? I think Not! How can LAUSD spend millions of dollars for an assessment that is not utilized by the district. It takes up class time and it already provides us with information that we already know. Rid this worthless-million dollar test and keep quality Teachers so that we can focus on student performance, drop out rate, and college readiness. Open you eyes people!

[Sonny]

This labor action is about reduced class size versus increased pork barrel spending by bad politicians. It is not about protecting bad teachers. As an LAUSD parent for thirteen school years and a California voter for thirty eight years, I dare say that the ratio of bad politicians to good ones is much higher than the ratio of bad teachers to good. Unfortunately, only an educated and aware electorate can reduce the number of bad politicians. Needless to say, the politicians will do whatever it takes to preserve and expand an ignorant electorate.

[Jose Lara]

The children did not create this financial mess, why should they have to pay for it? Why does LAUSD spend its energy of fighting its OWN teachers instead of working WITH the teachers to improve instruction?

Shame on LAUSD.

UTLA and President Duffy better not back down! Teachers must stand up for students rights. Even though test scores are not what they should be, it is the teachers who have increased tests scores every year and now they want to undo the reform we have been pushing for and increase class sizes? LAUSD Shame on you!

[amc2383]

Point of correction: LAUSD teachers are not among the highest paid teachers in the country, they are among the lowest lowest paid in California.

[LA Gringo]

We're stiking anyway amigos! Let those inept parents take care of their little brats on Friday! Strike!