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Education Sep 09, 2022
An LAUSD school bus. | Photo courtesy of Griffin5/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing about 34,000 employees in the Los Angeles Unified School District, blasted the district’s latest contract proposal Friday as “insulting and negligible.”
LAUSD presented an offer on Thursday that it claimed was a 23% increase in compensation through the 2023-24 school year. The proposal would include a 4% wage increase for the next two school years, in addition to a 3% retention bonus for each year, stipends and additional salary increases for select employees.
But the union criticized the proposal as doing “nothing to move us out of the educator shortage crisis” and providing “no meaningful improvements for all students.”
Arlene Inouye, bargaining co-chair and secretary for UTLA, said in a statement that the union was “tired of the word games and broken math,” calling the 4% wage increases “menial.”
“We will not celebrate scraps when thousands of educators in this city are struggling to afford to live doing the job they love,” Inouye said. “The best teachers are the most supported teachers, and our students deserve the best. No more table scraps and no more short term solutions; we’re demanding a better future for our students.”
LAUSD’s proposal also included progressively reducing class sizes by 2026, according to the district. It also included incentives for some teachers working in “priority schools” and for dual-language program instructors.
“Under the leadership of Superintendent (Alberto) Carvalho, the district recognizes the hard work and dedication of our employees and the need to compensate them fairly in the current economic environment,” the district said in a statement. “It’s the district’s desire to avoid protracted negotiations, and to keep the focus on student achievement.”
District officials noted the proposed wage increases “are in addition to the 5% ongoing wage increase and $2,500 stipend provided in the 2021-22 school year.”
