Already averaging
$73,000 a year, exorbitant teacher compensation contributes to the district’s
failing grade.
By: Andrew Moran
If the left had its way,
government teachers would be a protected class, afforded all the privileges the
nation has to offer. Rather than bargaining and compromising, a blank check
would be handed to these education professionals.
Despite indoctrination overtaking the three Rs, putrid test results, and
students ill-equipped to handle the real world, unions expect more from
taxpayers, even if they cannot afford their exorbitant demands.
LA Teachers Protest
An estimated 30,000 Los
Angeles teachers recently took to the streets for the first time in 30 years.
What was the reason for this strike that crippled the second-largest school
district in the country, affecting half-a-million students? Unsurprisingly:
money. Marching down the streets of L.A. and sporting the color red, thousands
of teachers and activists wanted four things:
- A 6.5% pay raise right away.
- A reduction in class sizes (meaning less work).
- An order to “fully staff” schools with librarians,
nurses, counselors, and other support personnel.
- A guarantee that public school funding will not be
impacted by privatization.
Suffice it to say, if
teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) were given an
exorbitant pay raise, they’d likely forego the other demands.
Alex Caputo-Pearl,
president of UTLA, told the crowd:
“Here we are on a rainy day in the richest
country in the world, in the richest state in the country, in a state that’s
blue as it can be – and in a city rife with millionaires – where teachers have
to go on strike to get the basics for our students.”
Their plight garnered
the support of the usual suspects: Black Lives Matter, Democrats, and
Hollywood.
Void Of Facts
Won’t somebody please
think of the children?
Whenever instructors
walk off the job in the name of their pupils, the mainstream media’s reportage,
especially at the national level, is typically one-sided. The broadcasts
usually lay the blame on Republicans, privatization, and other conservative
conspiracies to bleed public schools dry. This isn’t shocking, considering the
political nature of the press.
…for those who seek the
truth, the coverage is void of facts.
Unfortunately for those
who seek the truth, the coverage is void of facts. For instance, what is often
absent in the discussion is the political representation. L.A. has a Democratic
mayor, California has a Democratic governor, Democrats have a supermajority in
the state legislature, and the courts are left-leaning. The right cannot be
blamed for this one.
So, it’s really the left
that is engaging in a war on teachers? Not exactly.
Let’s begin with the
makeup of the school district: It boasts a $7.52 billion budget and more than
60,000 employees, including about 26,000 teachers, with the average annual
salary being $73,000.
While employment has gone up 16% since 2004, enrollment has dropped 10% in the
same period.
According to the latest
available data, California school funding surged by nearly 10% from 2015 to
2016. If you examine a five-year period (2011 to 2016), school funding in the
state is up a whopping 26%. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has further proposed
the “largest ever investment” in the LAUSD.
Plus, the district already offered LAUSD educators a pay raise of
3% this year and another 3% in 2020. It was rejected.
But the school district
can’t afford another pay hike. Next year, LAUSD will have a $422 million budget
deficit, mainly because employee pension and health care costs represent a
great portion of the budget – they will account for more than half within 10
years. Overall, it has $5.1 billion more in liabilities than in assets and
another $15 billion in unfunded health care benefit liabilities for retirees
and current workers.
Officials conceded in
a 2018 report that its shortfall “threatens its long-term viability and its
ability to deliver basic education programs.” So, if raises were handed out,
then future liabilities would swell, which would create long-term headaches
that can only be remedied by a cocktail of cutbacks and higher taxes.
Failing Report Card
Children are falling
behind in mathematics, drag queen story times are infiltrating public schools,
and social justice is paramount to reading comprehension.
After spending 13 years in government indoctrination camps, studies have found
that many Americans cannot answer basic questions relating to history, science,
geography, or even money. One can only imagine the left’s reaction if the
private sector delivered such results. So, why should teachers and administrators
be compensated more than they already are? If you continually failed at your
job, your boss would not allow you to keep your position, let alone present you
with a raise.
Today, teachers earn more than average Americans, receive a myriad of
opulent benefits, and will have quite the winter years thanks to overgenerous
retirement packages provided by politicians. Yet, these civil servants are
always wanting more and use the children as pawns to get their way. When will
elected officials stand up for the taxpayers and not the powerful teachers’
unions?
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