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Paying teachers a 'living wage' shouldn't require a strike.

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The strike here isn't about paying teachers. It's a strike by service workers - cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and special education assistants - for their wages to be increased. Teachers are striking in solidarity, but not for their own wages.

I think that the service workers deserve to be paid a living wage as well, but it's not correct to call this a strike to get teachers paid a living wage.

Ok, thank you for your correction. Reading into more, they are asking for a 30% raise across the board. Maybe my comment would have been more correct if I had said, "school workers shouldn't have to strike for a 'living wage'.

Good for them. We need to see a resurgence of unions and strikes if we ever want a pro-labor candidate to actually stand a chance...

Hopefully Biden won't make this one illegal too...

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Teachers in LAUSD make on average nearly 70k and with benefits it’s almost 100k.

This strike is for staff at schools, not teachers.

Yep. There are a lot of employees like janitors that make under $30k/yr for example, in one of the most expensive places in the country. Even with roommates it would be near impossible to scrape by on that amount.

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Getting nearly 100k in compensation in LA is above median salary. We can woe is me teachers in most districts but LAUSD is not one of them.

>Teachers are striking in solidarity, but not for their own wages.

Though while we're at it...

The teachers aren't the ones striking. Good job reading the article. On a side note, you're enabling a shitty practice of teachers being underpaid. Shame on you.

Who's striking?

No, read the article.

Its the other workers.

70K plus full benefits is perfectly liveable for LA. Teachers with more years under their belt are clearing $100K.

Source: I live in LA

It's in the first paragraph of the article. I know you can read. I believe in you.

Please help me

Not even a “living wage” the classified workers want to raise the minimum pay from $25k to $36k. $3000 a month isn’t living anywhere near LA. Good for my fellow teachers supporting these essential workers.

That's why I used quotations around 'living wage'.

No one can live on $25K in a state where income tax can be 12%.

180 school days @ 6 hours per day is 1,080 hours.

$25k / 1,080 is $23 per hour.

That is ~50% more than the minimum wage for the state @ $15.50

This is a tough problem to solve.

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Ok, I read it, this is worse. You didn't have to be mean

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I'm not here to argue with the pay, which is ridiculously low and needs to be increased. It's not enough to live on anywhere in the U.S.

However, CA has a progressive income taxand nobody making that amount would be paying 12% in taxes. It would be between 2-4% on approximately $24k-38k.

60k is not for 12 months of work.

School year is 180 days, 36 weeks. We work about 37 weeks a year.

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$70k in Los Angeles is double the median income. Its right on par with the household income median.

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Yeah I was a para last year and the wage really is shit. Mind you, I worked in a good district for teacher pay. I was making 19k last year, so I worked at Kroger's on the weekends. What's absolutely soul crushing is I knew students working in retail stores that made more than me. Heck one student worked at the same grocery store I worked at. Some classes I was pretty much teaching the content and at least once a week I was a substitute despite not getting the pay

For one this is not about teachers but support staff.

Second they are part time so the “living wage” Bernie Sanders crap you want to say is for part time employees.

No one reads the articles. I bet 4/5 people think this is teachers pay.

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I can't imagine living in LA on $60k/year. $30k I'd just assume is living with parents, 4 other roommates in a tiny house, or they are just supplementing while their partner is the breadwinner. Oof.

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Our support staff need a desperate raise. They keep the schools running. I'm a teacher and I'm 100% dependent on them.

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I hope you are not a reading comprehension teacher . . . .

>For one this is not about teachers

Who said it was? My comment directly states it’s about classified workers. Teachers are striking alongside them to show support. Second, not all of them are part time. These are some of the hardest working people I have had the honor of working alongside.

Sorry you are so bitter against working people. A very quick glance at your post history tells me you may want to spend a little less time obsessing over meme stocks and a little more time in self-reflection.

Teachers and support staff deserve to be paid less because they have the "summers off"?

With that bullshit, I hope you aren't a teacher.

We do have summer off.

My contract literally ends a day after finals and I don’t have to do anything till next school year.

If I teach over the summer it is for extra pay.

Idk how support staff is paid but my pay and work are not for a full year.

You have summers unemployed.

And those 2 to 2.5 months are spent by most of us taking coursework, working off-contract to prepare for the school year, and working part-time, seasonal jobs because our regular salary is shit.

If you are lucky enough that your regular salary allows you to truly "take the summer off" . . . you do not represent most teachers, or definitely support staff.

Nope. I am not a teacher nor do I care about my spelling or grammar on Reddit.

Their salary schedule is incredibly complicated to read, but nonetheless, the beginning salary there is 56K for a first year teacher, and that’s actually pretty low for a California. My district pays more than that for non-credentialed interns. Starting salary in my middle of nowhere district is 65K.

damn, it's legal for teachers to strike there?

It shouldn’t, but raising property taxes will create a huge backlash at the ballot box.

Good they should, everyone should if needs are not ment.

it's illegal here in NJ - teachers are classified the same as cops, making it illegal for them to strike

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This isn’t a teachers strike. This is a strike by the very poorly paid support staff.

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I teach over the summer.

Awesome.

If that is a part of your regular contract, then you are a full-year teacher and don't get what most of us deal with.

If your summer teaching is a separate contract, then like I said, some of us work seasonally over the summers because our regular salaries suck.

Of course, that summer job can be awesome and rewarding beyond the pay, and some folks who don't really need the pay boost will work anyway . . . but again, that doesn't represent most teachers.

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what I find strange is the near complete lack of coverage in national media. Im in NC.

In what universe are teachers working 6 hours a day?

8 minimum, 10 frequently.

Changes the calculations to more like 17.35-13.89

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No.

My contract ends at summer.

Some years I choose to sign a contract and make some extra money over summer.

It’s my choice.

The point is the pay I receive for my salary does not reflect a full year of work.

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> Carvalho said the district has offered a wage increase totaling more than 20% over a multiyear period, along with a 3% bonus, The Associated Press reported.

Bringing it from $10000 under the poverty line to $5000 under, over the course of several years. I’d be on strike too.

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Lived in the Bay Area 20 years ago making $65k and still had to have roommates. I wasn't even in close the city too.

Probably one of the best things our teachers can do not only for them, but to teach our kids that the people must band together to change the establishment.

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Nor understanding the meaning of "reading comprehension" for that matter. Hint: it has little to do with spelling or grammar.

Hmm I wonder if something like this would happen in Texas! God knows those poor teachers don’t make enough here!

$19k/year as a para is disgustingly low for what it entails.

I don't think people understand the gravity of the situation. We have a huge shortage of bus drivers in my district. I teach high school, and sometimes the morning busses are 30+ minutes late because drivers are doing multiple routes. We can't mark kids tardy when it's out of their control. So quickly, the non-bus kids figure it out and start rolling into class whenever.

Almost half of my first period students last term flunked my class because they didn't show up regularly.

You can't pay these wages and expect to have a pool of candidates. And if you dont offer decent wages, it's classroom quality and ultimately children who suffer.

This isn't new. It genuinely makes me wonder why people still intentionally go into teaching.

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Not all that strange. National media doesn't want you getting any big ideas.

How about no. And a block.

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FYI, this story/article isn't about teachers.

It's in the union rules. They have to follow a protocol.

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oh yeah i'm just saying, since in my state (NJ) it is illegal for teachers to strike

Parapros are teachers too. And even being hourly as most are, like everyone else in education, they put in more hours than they are paid for.

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I teach special Ed and those children are just a delight. I have had very few jobs where I leave feeling so loved. I learn so much from them.

My district is having the same issue. The drivers are leaving to work at the high school because the pay and benefits are better.

The teachers are just supporting the classified staff strike. These are cafeteria workers, the workers that change the diapers of special needs students, feed ad administer medicine, help with extreme behaviors, etc.

Bearing the expenses of post-secondary education and eeking out a living on the average teacher's salary seem like a high cost. I'm glad that you're finding value in it.

Special Education tends to pay much better than general ed. I am fortunate to live in a high demand area for this job and make a much higher salary than most jobs I see in exactly the same field. There are intern programs that have the district t bear a portion of the educational cost because demand is so high. I was fortunate to be a part of one of these.

It aint even that after taxes either. Especially in cali. 36k in cali is laughable at best.

I’m jealous of states that let teachers strike. My state we just have to deal with the hand we are dealt

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Chick fillet was paying better than they pay Paras in my district. Imagine being a SPED teacher with 10 kids 13-22 with severe and sometimes violent behaviors, and they send you a barely legal to work teen who is on his phone all the time, and an old lady who cry’s after ever class and asks to skip work every other Day to see her therapist. Paras need to be paid a ton more so the kids can have quality people. Even the behaviorists are grossly underpaid. The teacher can be okay if they have 2 masters degrees and 15 years in. Hahha.

If you we are not willing to pay enough to even rent an apartment and own a car, how can it be sustainable?

June, July, august baby… JK. I am not one of those weirdos that gets pressed about teachers getting summers off. If anything they deserve it, and they deserve livable pay.

I feel your pain. I was paid $17.50 an hour to be bitten, punched in the head, kicked, attacked with scissors, dodge thrown chairs, all while kept working right below the legal limit at which they'd have to pay me any kind of benefits. The only reason it worked out is because I was living at home at the time and could walk, no need to pay for a car or gas.

I’ve seen the story featured in major outlets like the NYT, WaPo, and LA times… isn’t that sufficient for a story that is ultimately local? The impact is largely confined to LA.

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