Here’s Everything We Know About The Los Angeles Teacher’s Strike So Far

• The Los Angeles Unified School District lost more than $100 million over five days due to the teacher strike led by the United Teachers Los Angeles.
• The course of the week saw roads blocked, metros flooded, kids jumping fences and people getting blocked from entering school property.
• The union and district are back at the negotiating table, but strikes can be expected to continue if an agreement is not reached over the weekend.

The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union and the Los Angles Unified School District (LAUSD) went back to the negotiating table Thursday as teachers were on strike, which the district claims cost them more than $100 million over five days.

LAUSD has more than 600,000 students and district funding is based on student attendance. Close to 157,000 students attended classes Monday, but that number plummeted to around 85,000 by Friday, according to LAUSD numbers available at the time of reporting.

Some students were seen jumping the fence during the strike.

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UTLA reported more than 60,000 people – including the union’s members, community members and parents – were rallying as of Friday.

Metros were flooded with protesters.

Traffic was also shut down in parts of the southern California city due to the high volume of protesters, according to the Washington Post.

LAUSD anticipated for the massive strike by hiring nearly 400 substitute teachers and reassigning 2,000 administrators with teaching credentials to replace the missing teachers.

Video footage show multiple instances where protesters blocked others from entering school property.

“We say no to scabs because we care more about our children’s futures than a sub making them watch movies all day today,” DSA Los Angeles tweeted Tuesday.

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Another protester, whose Twitter account is now deleted, posted names of substitute teachers and said they “crossed our picket line.”

The strike is the result of UTLA and LAUSD being unable to reach an agreement on a plan that lowers class sizes, increases raises by 6 percent and addresses public schools being turned into charters. LAUSD said it did not have control over charter schools as that was handled at the state level. The district added that UTLA’s demands would cost nearly $800 million a year as LAUSD is running on a $500 million deficit.

LAUSD’s fiscal problem is contributed by an unaffordable healthcare plan that started in the late 1960’s, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The district began giving eligible employees, retirees and their dependents free healthcare without forcing them to pay. Health benefits for retired employees is estimated to cost LAUSD more than $300 million in 2019.

“The average cost of health and welfare benefits that teachers receive is $14,562,” a LAUSD spokeswoman previously told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Los Angeles union said the demands were about serving students.

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Allysia Finley suggested in a Jan. 4 op-ed that the negotiations were highly political in nature, however. Increasing staff, for example, could bring in more potential union members, which would help UTLA regain control of the school board.

The LAUSD spokeswoman said a teacher with the right qualifications could earn around $74,000 annually.

Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who worked in President Obama’s administration and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom did not support the strike because they believed it would hurt students.

The district is said to have more than 80 percent of families living in poverty and 17,000 homeless students.

Big name Democrats in support of the strike include New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Strikes can be expected to continue if a negotiation is not met between the union and district over the weekend. The last strike in Los Angeles was 30 years ago in 1989.