UTLA Is Keenly Aware of Crisis

Re “Wake-Up Call for LAUSD,” June 8: Every morning, nearly 45,000 teachers take their places at the head of Los Angeles classrooms. We do not need wake-up calls or ice water in the face to know the system is facing an unprecedented crisis, and United Teachers-Los Angeles is hardly in a “delusional trance,” concerned only with salaries and the right to pick classroom assignments. For nearly two years, UTLA members have done everything possible to end business as usual at LAUSD. Our biggest victory for students and taxpayers as well as teachers was a contract raising salaries from the bottom to the middle of the pack. During a national teaching shortage, the only way to attract qualified staff for nearly 5,000 empty positions is to pay competitive salaries.

Teachers have nothing to apologize for for having supported Valerie Fields for reelection to the school board. We won’t rehash the election results. Fields lost and Marlene Canter won, but even if the outcome were reversed, the task of educating students under increasingly difficult conditions would be just as hard. UTLA is ready to work as partners with the new board, just as it has forged a professional relationship with LAUSD Supt. Roy Romer. We wonder, however, if some board members are ready to work with us, or if they will continue bashing teachers to advance their political agendas.

Day Higuchi

President

United Teachers-Los Angeles