Mock Funeral Protests School Cutbacks : Education: Several thousand L.A. teachers in motorcade clog freeway and airport traffic for hours. A coffin full of students’ letters is to be presented to the governor.

Several thousand Los Angeles teachers staged a mock funeral motorcade Monday to protest state budget reductions in public education, clogging holiday freeway and airport traffic for several hours.

While at least 2,000 cars followed a hearse bearing a child-sized coffin stuffed with students’ letters to Gov. Pete Wilson, other protesters, wearing black United Teachers-Los Angeles T-shirts, distributed leaflets and bumper stickers to harried passengers at Los Angeles International Airport before heading to a picnic and rally at nearby Westchester High School.

“You have to do something dramatic to get public attention, and we want the public to know there is no way we are going to take a pay cut of this magnitude,” a black-garbed Helen Bernstein, UTLA’s president, said before boarding a United Airlines flight to Sacramento to deliver the letters to the governor’s office.

“We want people to know it is not going to be business as usual. . . . We will do anything to stop these cuts and to get kids the kind of education they deserve,” Bernstein said.

She had to shout to be heard above the blaring horns and angry cries of the teachers who rode past the terminal in a departures-deck procession that took well over two hours to complete.

Most cars sported signs, including: “Public Education, R.I.P.,” “Our Kids Count,” “Will Teach for Food.” A battered white minivan drew especially loud cheers with its large, hand-lettered message: “Education 1st, Not Administration. Parent for Education.” Nearly every demonstrator waved black funeral flags that featured an upside-down schoolhouse with crossbones and read: “Pete Wilson Commitment to Ignorance.”

The demonstration began around 8:30 a.m. at Hamilton High School on the Westside, where the “funeral procession” assembled before heading onto the Santa Monica and San Diego freeways en route to the airport. The California Highway Patrol, which UTLA had notified in advance, said the procession tied up freeway traffic for most of the morning. CHP officers were stationed at on-ramps to ease congestion, and no protest-related accidents or other incidents were reported.

Many cars in the slow-moving procession still were waiting to enter the Santa Monica Freeway when the first ones arrived at the airport about 10 a.m., said the CHP. The Highway Patrol said at least 2,000 vehicles were in the procession. UTLA, which worked with authorities for several weeks to get permits and coordinate the event, estimated there were between 4,000 and 5,000 vehicles, each carrying at least two people, plus another 500 participants who handed out leaflets at the passenger terminals all morning.

In Sacramento, a contingent of local teachers was expected to meet Bernstein and join in another procession and demonstration on the Capitol steps.

The Labor Day protest was the highest-profile event to date in the union’s campaign to stave off the deep pay cuts proposed for teachers and all other Los Angeles Unified School District employees.

To pull the state back into the black without raising taxes, the governor insisted on deep cuts in most public services and limiting school funding to the same per-pupil amount as last year. Wilson kept school funding at that level by requiring schools to borrow money from future state allotments.

Because of rising costs, most school districts in California have had to make cuts to balance their budgets. In Los Angeles, officials slashed $400 million from their nearly $3.9-billion budget, well over half of which is to come from still-to-be negotiated cuts in employee pay. The four-tier pay cut proposal would render the biggest reductions to the highest-paid employees and would cost teachers about 17.5% this year.

Angry because they believe district officials have protected high-paying administrators’ jobs at the expense of teachers and students, UTLA leaders over the summer launched a campaign to enlist public support. But some tactics have earned them the enmity of the district’s other employee groups, who believe that the teachers’ demands would hurt them. And UTLA’s campaign to have students write protest letters has angered some parents who believe that their children are being forced into the middle of the dispute.

In detailed packets sent out to the union leader at each of the district’s 600 schools, UTLA urged its members to wear black ribbons, stop doing any extra activities unless they are paid for them, send letters home to parents, contact reporters and write to the governor and other elected officials.

UTLA also came up with a list of alternatives to the pay cuts, which district officials said were impractical or beyond their authority to enact, and persuaded an education reform group to appoint a special commission to look into district finances.

The union also has threatened to launch a campaign to discourage businesses and people from moving into the district if political and civic leaders do not help reverse the budget-cutting trend that has gripped the district for four years.

District officials have criticized UTLA for creating what they say is a false impression of waste and administrative spending. They say they do not have the funds to counter the union’s campaign, which they say will undermine public support for the schools. Other employee unions in the district have banded together as the Education Alliance to counter what they call UTLA’s “scorched earth” tactics.

On Monday, teachers said they came to the airport to try to raise public consciousness.

“People need to know the governor isn’t just hurting teachers, he’s hurting us all. . . . The whole state loses, including him,” said Bell High School teacher Beverly Cook.

Garfield High math teacher David Haley, who spent the morning distributing flyers, said he loves teaching but cannot afford to stay in the profession much longer.

“I don’t think we can avoid some cuts, but I certainly hope we can avoid as much as they’re asking. . . . It’s getting to the point of being ridiculous.”