Issues

United Action is a coalition of UTLA members, Chapter Chairs, Board of Directors members, Area Chairs and UTLA Officers running a slate of candidates in the next UTLA election.

		Class size and counselor load reduction and caps

• No true school reform is possible without lower class size and counselor ratios. This is a critical part of improving working and learning conditions. Progress has been made in the past three years through our successful contract fight and state legislation; however, there is still much to do, critically in secondary non-core classes like PE, art, foreign language, etc. This demand also helps build alliances with parents and community.

		Tops in state salaries and health benefits

• Through UTLA’s vigorous mobilization, a raise was won and health benefits maintained in the last contract. But the attack continues. In order to provide the highest-quality education and maintain a diverse staff, including educators of color and second-career educators, we have to have competitive salaries and great benefits, ensured by built-in COLA increases, as well as participation in political campaigns at the state level to control the skyrocketing costs of healthcare. Fix the payroll crisis!

		Teacher and community-initiated reform

• Top-down or corporate-sponsored reform cannot meet our understanding of what real school transformation should look like. Increased school site autonomy must be demanded, including strengthening and democratizing school site decision-making councils and reducing autocratic interference from Local Districts. Pilot schools, like the Belmont Zone of Choice, have been initiated by UTLA and community forces due to repressive responses to teacher and community initiated reform. However, a broader program for reform must be pushed for; all students and teachers deserve creativity and autonomy in their schools.

		End mandated pacing plans and rigid mandated periodic assessments

• Rigid pacing plans hurt kids and restrict teachers’ ability to teach according to their students’ needs and interests. Rigid periodic assessments occupy huge amounts of time in many grades and subject areas. They hyper-standardize learning and curtail creativity. Changes need to be cemented into contract language and board motions.

		End cookie-cutter curricular program and expand Dual Language programs and other culturally relevant educational programs

• Education needs to reflect student needs not political prerogatives. Ending mandates around Open Court will increase teacher retention and help improve community relations. Expanding programs that meet students’ language and cultural needs will heighten the quality of education and build bridges to parents and community. Teachers, in collaboration with community, should be the main players deciding curriculum and their own professional development needs.

		Transform the local districts and cut the LAUSD bureaucracy

• For too long unaccountable bureaucracies have been a fact of life and an intrusion into school site decision making. The local districts must be reorganized to be support and servicing operations – building capacity for school site autonomy -- as opposed to top-down, autocratic enforcement bodies. Resources must be focused on schools and classrooms, not on wasteful district spending.

		Continue to build labor/community relationships

• UA initiatives like MORE-LA (Movement of Organizations to Reform Education in LA) and the COOLs (community organizing liaisons) have become a reality in the last three years. Now is the moment to maximize and build off of these beginnings. We must strengthen this nascent grassroots movement by continuing to support universal health care though legislation for a single payer health plan and additional services and resources in working class communities and communities of color, the communities that we serve.

		Defend public education, defend educators, and increase education funding

• NCLB is up for reform and we must be part of a coalition to end its sanctions and unfunded mandates. We must fight to defend all teachers, including increased rights for new and novice teachers and adult school educators. Educational funding in California has turned from a point of pride to one of shame. We need to fight for increased school funding and corporate fair share taxes.

		Create safer schools

• Environmental hazards and insufficient personnel cause numerous problems for students and educators. We must push for sufficient staffing for supervision and guidance. More support services are needed for students and implementation of pro-active discipline policies with interventions, as opposed to re-active punishments, are needed for students. Immediate intervention on the part of local districts to rectify on-going health and pest concerns is needed.

		Organize UTLA

• The areas need to be reformed to be locations for chapter chairs to gain support, to organize alongside their feeder schools around issues of common concern. Instead of information distribution centers, areas must become locations to develop new leaders and support school site and local district organizing. To this end, organizers are needed in each area. The relationship of decisions made in the areas to the policy of the union as a whole needs to be strengthened. Democratic activism and decision-making needs to be supported in similar ways to the Issues Campaign around the last contract. A union is only as strong as the activist level of its membership.

 

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