Even with the rain pouring throughout Los Angeles, the teachers, parents, and students of the Los Angeles Unified School District are still moving forward with their strike; picketing outside of schools after the district has failed to come to a deal after 21 months of negotiations, according to CBS Los Angeles.
The LAUSD is the second largest school district in the nation and this is the first walkout since 1989. Over 30,000 teachers represent the LAUSD with 480,000 students enrolled.
Classes at all schools proceeded as normal with substitutes filling in for the teachers. With school starting at 8 a.m, picketing from the strike began at 7:30 a.m.
“So we’re going to have a normal day at school, children will be fed, they’ll be greeted by the same principal that greets them every morning at the door, and they will be learning" LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has said.
To compensate for the missing teachers from the classrooms, the district has hired an additional 400 substitutes and sent 2,000 credentialed administrators into the schools as well. As well, the district has been more lenient on parent volunteers.
Now we wait for Governor Gavin Newsom to stop this strike. Just last week, he released a budget proposal that included $80.7 billion in funding for K-12 and community colleges. This budget increased was $2 billion more than it was for the previous school year.
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