LOS ANGELES - Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District have overwhelmingly ratified a one-year labor contract with the district, thereby saving some 5,000 jobs and maintaining class sizes at present levels, their union announced Saturday.

Over two days beginning Thursday, 20,429 teachers, or 83.2 percent, voted to approve the contract and 4,127, 16.8 percent, voted against, said United Teachers Los Angeles spokeswoman Marla Eby.

"This agreement will benefit teachers, health and human services professionals, parents and especially students, who will lose fewer instructional days and maintain class sizes next year," said union President A.J. Duffy

"We now need to find long-term solutions to the budget crisis so that the classroom is not continuously threatened."

The board of the LAUSD will vote on the deal on June 14.

"While this agreement does not restore all the (job) cuts -- because our schools are still drastically underfunded -- it goes a long way toward providing the resources and personnel for our students to succeed," LAUSD