Three Los Angeles school district unions won big with deals that led to huge raises and celebratory messages about a new chapter in local education progress. But Union Peace’s annual contract cost will be approximately $1.2 billion, and questions remain whether the District can afford it.
Union workers have been promised double-digit raises by a school system that has announced for months that it is in deep financial trouble, mired in deficit spending and facing possible bankruptcy within four years. Just two months ago the school board voted to send out 3,200 notices of potential layoffs, expected to cut about 700 jobs in the process.
However, in the past three days, officials have made a decision about their actual financial situation that is closer to the unions’ interpretation: The district has billions of dollars in reserves that should be used to pay teachers, principals and other essential workers more in this high-cost city.
According to LA Unified, once the raises are fully in effect, the annual cost will be $650 million a year for United Teachers Los Angeles members, $490 million for Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union and $75 million for the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. Additionally, as part of the new agreement, the district agreed to reverse more than 200 layoffs and is being pressured to reverse more.
“In Los Angeles, teachers will now earn salaries that better reflect the real cost of living in the communities they serve,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. “This victory ensures that teachers can stay close to their jobs and continue to teach in the schools they are a part of. It means resources will begin to be redirected toward our children and the classrooms that need them most.”
The three dramatic and anxious days leading up to the morning of the planned strike suddenly led to massive, major action: the three unions representing the majority of district employees were prepared to walk out simultaneously unless each union achieved its own tentative agreement. The strike was postponed with a few hours left on Tuesday morning.
A student arrives for class at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex after the LAUSD strike was averted Tuesday.
(Gennaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Financing contracts is the next challenge
During an excited City Hall news conference at the end of the day, Acting Supt. Andrés Chait seemed as if he was not entirely sure where the promised money would come from.
“Obviously that’s a very good question,” Chait said. “In making these commitments to our labor workforce, we always want to start internally and look at where our dollars are going. I know there’s been a lot of conversations around using internal services, around subcontracting. So, certainly, we’re focused like a laser on what we can do.”
District officials have previously described such cost-cutting efforts as potentially worthwhile, but only marginally helpful because staff salaries and benefits make up the bulk of the district’s roughly $19 billion budget.
Chait said district officials, along with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and union leaders, will lobby the state government in Sacramento for more funding.
Critics immediately went on the attack.
“When (unions) band together to ‘force’ significant wage and benefit increase agreements, using their own terminology, on a bankrupt district that doesn’t have the money to make those deals, it’s called extortion,” said Lance Christensen, vice president of government affairs and education policy at the California Policy Center, a right-wing think tank. “These deals will only exacerbate LAUSD’s financial problems and do nothing to improve education delivery for their declining student base.”
Even a district colleague expressed concern.
“I believe the only way the district will be able to raise money is to fire a lot of people, unless they’re hiding money, which I don’t think is the case,” said Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education. “They have lost over 200,000 students over the last 15 years and have made no reductions in staff or the number of schools. This is not sustainable.”
Mayor Karen Bass led a press conference Tuesday at City Hall announcing a tentative agreement between LAUSD and the unions representing teachers and workers.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
deal at the eleventh hour
An agreement was reached first Sunday morning with United Teachers Los Angeles and its 37,000 members, followed in the evening with an agreement with the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, whose 3,000 members include principals and vice principals.
More challenging to bring home was the third agreement – with Local 99. Its 30,000 district members include bus drivers, teaching assistants, supervisory assistants, custodians, gardeners, cafeteria workers and technical support staff.
Local 99 members average about $35,000 a year – and most also receive health benefits for themselves and their families. Their pay scale places them at the bottom compared to other district employees and as a result, union leaders insisted that they receive a higher percentage increase than the other two unions.
And this is what they got – an average increase of 24% over the three-year period of the contract. Almost two years have passed since then, so most of the additions will be retroactive.
Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said Tuesday the increase will increase members’ average pay from $42,000 to $45,000 a year. Members’ average wages will increase 54% after the union’s first strike in 2023, Arias said.
There will also be a significant increase in the salaries of teachers. The average teacher will earn at least 13.9% more over the lifetime of the three-year contract and starting salaries for teachers will increase to $77,000. Even before the new deal, the average teacher salary was more than $100,000 and had risen to $130,000.
The pay scale of administrators is somewhat higher. Their salaries will increase by approximately 11.7% overall.
Faculty members welcome students to Evelyn Thurman Grants Elementary School on Tuesday.
(Gennaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
more than just a pay raise
The increase isn’t the only big cost item.
The teachers union says the district has agreed to hire 450 new psychologists, psychiatric social workers, attendance counselors and other counselors.
Many Local 99 members are getting extended work hours – making them eligible for the many health benefits that come with working 20 or more hours per week.
The district’s total budget for this year is $18.8 billion. Before the three agreements, the district had estimated its balance at the end of June would be $3.8 billion, down from $5 billion a year earlier. The school system is spending $1 billion to $2 billion more per year than expected since pandemic aid ended, officials said.
If this is accurate, LA Unified could make its new deals in the short term, but would probably run into losses in three to four years – potentially leading to major program cuts and layoffs unless cost-cutting decisions were made earlier.
But Chait’s bet on a Sacramento-will-pay-for-it scenario could hold promise. As it happens, Governor Gavin Newsom has so far resisted setting aside a billion-dollar tranche of education funding that California education advocates say is overdue. If this transfer goes through, LA Unified could receive more than $400 million in funding per year.
Additionally, state tax revenues have been good – which bodes well for even more state education funding for school systems across the state. Of course, a recession could overturn this rosy outlook.
“It’s a beautiful day. It’s really a beautiful day,” said School Board Chairman Scott Schmerelson. “SEIU 99 got nice bonus increase, but they deserve it.”
School Board member Rocio Rivas said, “I’m relieved there is an agreement in principle… ensuring that our schools remain open and stable for the students and families who depend on them – just as I did when I was a LAUSD student… They are a second home to many… Our teachers, school staff and administrators – everyone – they are all part of the backbone of our school communities.”
