Sour Fallout From L.A. Teachers’ Bonanza

For historically underpaid teachers, the new contract with the Los Angeles Board of Education is a welcome first step toward more adequate compensation. However, the financial obligations imposed on the district by this settlement do not bode well for its budgetary future. In addition, teachers from the surrounding districts are already flocking to Los Angeles, where the bigger money is, leaving neighboring districts facing severe shortages.

As if these were not troubles enough, there is the sobering fact that the new contract did not guarantee greater teacher accountability or provide funds for improved instruction for our students.

Traditionally, annual salary increases for teachers have been limited to the cost-of-living increase in the funds the state provides. Last year, this was 4.1%. This year it is 4.6%. But to end a strike that was costly to students and disturbing to the public, the school board agreed in June to give its teachers salary increases of 24%, at a rate of 8% per year over three years. This is almost twice the state’s provision.

The funds to meet the higher salaries are coming from cost savings achieved by cutting programs, from lottery funds, (which the state discourages districts from using for fixed costs), from strike savings, contingency funds and staff reductions. But there is only so much that can be cut, given the large percentage of the district’s budget that salaries take, and the resources available for students’ instruction are certain to be diminished by this financial crunch.

A related problem is that the contract is already having an adverse impact on the dozensof school districts in Los Angeles County, as teachers defect to L.A. Unified. Compton, Lynwood and Torrance are among the many more school districts experiencing major teacher losses.

L.A. Unified has become a raider, hiring some of the area’s best teachers, particularly those trained in math, science and bilingual education. The Compton Unified School District has lost more than 65 teachers to Los Angeles this semester alone. Teachers submitting their resignations said plainly they were leaving to work for Los Angeles because those $5,000 to $10,000 annual increases proved an irresistible lure.

Although other districts cannot afford to match the L.A. Unified contract terms because they do not have the resources to juggle to pay the costs, their teachers and their union representatives are using the Los Angeles contract as the benchmark for their own negotiations and are asking for the same pay increases. This puts an unfair burden, fiscally and educationally, on other districts, which must make serious cuts in their programs and/or lay off other needed personnel if they are to pay teachers more than the state-provided cost-of-living increases.

The state must avert what is surely an impending disaster to the dozens of districts neighboring L.A. Unified by raising the cost-of-living increases for teacher salaries this year, either just in Los Angeles County or throughout the state, and continuing to do so until teachers are receiving professional salaries. Supplemental funds must also be allocated by the state as direct funding for salaries. For example, Compton, the 14th-largest school district in the state, needs at least $20 million this year to remain competitive with Los Angeles.

The L.A. Unified contract has another serious flaw. Teachers were not held to any higher degree of accountability for the quality of instruction in exchange for the district’s concession on wages.

Educators in L.A. Unified and all the other 91 districts in the county must understand that they cannot be well-paid and receive joint decision-making powers without assuming greater accountability for the teaching of our children. They should, for instance, be required to make specific numbers of home contacts, and to reach goals for the academic achievement of students and for parent involvement.

California at one time led the nation in quality education. Today, the test scores and academic achievements of our students are at an all-time low. Educators must redouble their efforts to reverse this trend, and parents and the community must raise their expectations and insist on results.

We all welcome higher pay for teachers, but it should not come at the expense of programs for students. Nor should it be granted without assurances that educators will do a better job. And clearly, students in school districts outside Los Angeles need and deserve quality educational opportunities, which they will not receive if the present teacher drain continues.