For all the cheers that came with the end of the teachers’ strike, it’s become clear that some of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s greatest woes could not be tackled at the bargaining table.
The nation’s second-largest school system remains beset by declining student enrollment, lagging academic achievement and serious financial problems — and privately operated charter schools still pose an existential challenge as they compete for students.
The union “won the public perception battle about the challenges that teachers face. And I think that’s a good thing,” said UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard. But that did not change the big picture financially or with charters, he said.
L.A. Unified, which has about 485,000 students, has been losing about 12,000 a year because of population trends and charter schools. Students translate to funding. The school system also faces a growing financial strain because of rising contributions to state-run pension funds and retiree health benefits.
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