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Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the largest school district in the nation. Naturally, they’d have their own 35,000 member strong teachers union – United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). It also shouldn’t be a surprise that UTLA is not actually interested in children, but in their own power.
The Los Angeles Teachers Union issued a research paper arguing schools in the district can’t reopen without certain policy provisions in place ranging from mandatory face masks to a “moratorium” on charter schools and the defunding of police.
Actually, the UTLA’s “research” paper is a radical-Left manifesto decorated with slick graphics and racist demands. It ostensibly talks about safety but reading just the opening paragraphs …
The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States underscores the deep equity and justice challenges arising from our profoundly racist, intensely unequal society. Unlike other countries that recognize protecting lives is the key to protecting livelihoods, the United States has chosen to prioritize profits over people. The Trump administration’s attempt to force people to return to work on a large scale depends on restarting physical schools so parents have childcare.
In Los Angeles, this means increasing risk especially in Black and Brown working communities, where people are more likely to have “essential” jobs, insufficient health care, higher levels of preexisting health conditions, and to live in crowded housing. Meanwhile, the rewards of economic recovery accrue largely to white and well-off communities that have largely been shielded from the worst of the pandemic’s effects.
… it’s clear that UTLA is engaging in deeply partisan sloganeering (profits over people!) more in line with misanthropic Marxism than with professional educators who have nothing but the best interests of children in mind.
What a surprise.
Though out the 17-page manifesto, the radical-Left jargon pops up with regularity. There are references to the Black Lives Matter movement – a radical-Marxist, racist, Jewhating organization. The trendiest of 2020 acronyms, BIPOC, makes several appearances (even though LAUSD’s student body is less than 9% Black or Native American). And, of course, you can’t be a Marxist and let parents actually have any choice in educating one’s own kids so UTLA demands a “moratorium on charter schools”. Even the risible, fact-free Defund Police mendacity makes an appearance.
Defund Police: Police violence is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people, and is a serious public health and moral issue. We must shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health.
As I covered in May, LAUSD already put out a draconian reopening plan that the UTLA manifesto regurgitates as their demand for safe reopening. A singular page statement saying UTLA concurs with that plan would have been sufficient but it wouldn’t have given the Marxists/racists in UTLA an opportunity to set forth their own political demands while using students as human shields. They want guaranteed housing, no evictions, required paid sick leave and oodles of money for illegal aliens.
Cuz, you know, that’s all about safely reopening schools, right?
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. #BanPublicEmployeeUnions
UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers
featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock, standard license
[…] Los Angeles Teachers Union Takes Children Hostage […]
Neil says: Defund teachers and divert the resources to community eductors…that’s how you make public services better, right?
A. C. says: “community eductors” – eductor is a real word and I think it does not mean what you think it means. Either it’s a typo or a very obscure pun.
grrr says: Nothing new. And it is not only teachers unions. And not only in Cali either. School admins as well are involved in this corporate ripoff of the population. Long time (~30 years) ago when my kids were in school I was told directly by local school principal that his first priority is not kids but “teachers and staff”.
Edward Lunny says: Libs are fascist terrorists in word, deed, and belief. Treat them accordingly.
This is another example.
Bevo says: I have been saying for some time that unions must be banned in the public sector.
I grew up in a union family. My Dad’s dog’s name was Striker.
When I began working it was in a union shop. I was told very quickly that I could only do so much work, not what I was able to do. It was clear that if I did I would be shunned or worse.
We have many great teachers. We also have a great number who are dumber than rocks including many “management”. Remember the “rubber” rooms for teachers who could/would not teach but could not be fired? They still exist and your children are paying the price. The cost of these idiots have resulted in the dumbing down of America AND TOO MANY STUDENTS NOT LEARNING ANYTHING OF HISTORY, ECONOMICS, AND SOMETHING ABOUT HOW OUR GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK NOT AS THE CORRUPTION WE HAVE.
Your school choice will bd taken in the near future if dems win the election. Your choices for education today are: 1. Home School, 2. Private school, 3. Charter school, 4. public school where your child gets to be indoctrinated into socialism and worse.
GWB says: We have many great teachers. We also have a great number who are dumber than rocks including many “management”.
I bet a vast majority of the teachers in the LAUSD care for their kids and really want to see them succeed. The problem is the ones who define success as “learning critical thinking skills and necessary facts to get through life” is smaller, and the others who care have been indoctrinated into the progressive religion and see success as something entirely different.
Yes, there are good teachers. There are also a lot of progressive adherents who defeat their own good intentions, and a LOT MORE administrators who are brain-dead progressives. Then the union leadership is composed of true believers and grifters.
Not a recipe for success, really.
Ampleforth says: I suspect that unionized teachers want a year off with pay. Democrats relish the idea of radicalized teachers having plenty of time and resources to campaign and organize for their candidates in an election year.
School system administrators are terrified of their students. They fear the violence of the streets will spill into their schools. Violence in the schools has been an issue for years, but the recent radicalization has taken the violence to new levels. It’s easy to suppose that school violence will be at a new, higher level in 2020-21.
The media’s recent reporting on the spike in C-19 provides cover for school administrators, who can claim that it is too dangerous for children to return to school. In metropolitan school systems it will be too dangerous for the students to return, but it won’t be because of C-19 or any other virus or bacterial infection.
Bandit says: And who sez the Dems aren’t controlled by teachers union money$$$$$$$
Russ Wood says: After just re-opening South African public schools, pressures from the teaching unions have forced our jellyfish President Ramaphosa to close them again for ‘at least’ a month. And the unions are getting very upset that the private schools (which have a no work – no pay attitude to teachers) are still open and the kids are learning. “How dare they risk the children’s lives?” is the union attitude – while the medical advisory council (who the government doesn’t listen to) says that considering all of the evidence about the virus, it should be safe for schools to open. Since all SA civil serpents (sic) are paid whether they work or not (usually NOT), then too many ‘teachers’ are regarding the three-month lockdown as paid holiday.
Scott says: Here’s an idea, deport ALL the illegals in the school district! That’ll create social distancing right there, as well as decreasing violence in schools, and the spread of COVID and other diseases… it’s win all the way around right???
And if all these illegals are such honest, upstanding, hard working people, won’t their home countries benefit greatly from their return??? Don’t all the “brown lives” in those countries matter too?
GWB says: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States underscores the deep equity and justice challenges arising from our profoundly racist, intensely unequal society.
Because…. WHAT? What exactly is it about a virus that kills old people that is affected by racism and “inequality”?
Is it that blacks are more susceptible? Because that’s an issue of genetics and health issues that are self-inflicted. (Hey, Porky, my racism didn’t make you fat!)
The Trump administration’s attempt to force people to return to work
And how are they “forcing” that? By taking away your gimme’s? By not paying you to sit on your ample ass and do nothing? What about your calling? Isn’t it vital to teach these malleable little brains?
insufficient health care, … and to live in crowded housing
So, wouldn’t getting these people jobs (where they can get healthcare and get away from that crowded situation) actually improve their situation cf Wuhan Flu?
well-off communities that have largely been shielded from the worst of the pandemic’s effects
YOu mean… like you? I guarantee the folks involved in writing this are at a minimum middle-class (I’ve never seen a union leader who was anything less than “well-off”). And I would bet that most of the union leadership is white. I also guarantee they fall into the “shielded” category, since none of their work actually requires labor or true service. They can sit on their bountiful behinds and Zoom with each other.
Though out the 17-page manifesto
They needed seventeen pages to write a hostage note?!?
moratorium on charter schools
So… they think the already crowded schools – in this time of freak-out over Winnie The Flu – should be even MORE crowded?
Police violence is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people
Ummm, no, it is not. Not even remotely
In 2017, the top 7 causes of death for blacks were (in order) heart disease, “malignant neoplasms”, accidents, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease, and assault (homicide). The deaths from homicide are listed as 9,908 (3% of total deaths). Even the weirdly high number for “People killed by security forces” can only muster 1,536 total in the US. (It’s weirdly high because the number under just “Police” is only 145, and the other breakdown columns are empty. 145+0+0+0 does NOT add up to 1,536.) Even if every last one of those listed in the high number was black, it wouldn’t rate even approaching “leading cause of death and trauma for blacks.”
Mind you, that number of 9,908 is absurdly high. We really should do something constructive about that. But “defunding” the police is NOT constructive. (FYI, the numbers for whites are 0.3%. Only the API group comes close out of the other racial groupings. I only used the numbers from the “non-hispanic” columns for blacks and whites.)
They want guaranteed housing
I’ve got just the place for ’em! PRISON. That’s the only place in this life where you’re guaranteed “housing”. Hey, they also provide “free” food and gym memberships.
These folks are anti-American, anti-education, and anti-child. We should defund THEM and let parents have back control of their children’s lives.
Scott says: That’s the only place in this life where you’re guaranteed “housing”… Well, in most cases, the military guarantees housing (maybe just a tent, but hey..)
GWB says: True. But they are much more likely to be qualified for prison than for the military.
Scott says: You’re not wrong
[…] stats from last year are in the toilet and have very little to do with race and much to do with the unions keeping the schools […]
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