My humble thoughts on UTLA's vote on the Tentative Agreement
I want to thank United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) for being the only thing standing between our communies and Eli Broad's malevolent designs. For better or worse, UTLA members agreed once more to take a drastic pay cut so that they could save the jobs of many of their colleagues, who, in turn, serve our community. Educators have made these amazing personal sacrifices year after year, while simultaneously being vilified as greedy and self serving by the corporate press, unprincipled politicians, and the avaricious opportunists in the so-called non-profit sector. Notice too that none of the no-excuses reformers ever make sacrifices of any kind on behalf of our communities. The only "shared sacrifices" I've seen are by working people, and more to the point, predominantly by librarians, counselors, teachers and other educators.On the other hand, I want to express my deep sorrow for all the schools being closed, programs being shuttered, educators who are still losing their jobs, and people being robbed of the educational opportunities. Opportunities they would have had if the district actually prioritized education over squandering money on discredited vanity projects and giveaways to wealthy charter operators and their venture capitalist backers. While the agreement saves a portion of critical programs like Adult Education and Early Education, it also abandons many. For example, the Mary Lind Foundation, a place I do much volunteer work at,
