Local 99 Says Passage of LAUSD Public Choice Resolution Fails to Fully Protect a Key Component to Student Learning
School Board passes resolution 6 votes to 1
The Los Angeles Unified School Board passed the Public Choice Resolution at their August 25th meeting to expand opportunities for innovative school operators.
Local 99 members—a majority of us also LAUSD parents—are hopeful that the plan will have a positive impact on student success. However, we are deeply disappointed that the resolution leaves out a key component to student learning—stable and secure jobs with a living wage and health benefits. While we are pleased to see some protections, they don’t go far enough to ensure that we will continue to have access to jobs at the more than 250 affected schools—50 new campuses and 200 Program Improvement schools.
The resolution states that “external partners” (charters) will be required to “contract with LAUSD as the default provider of outsourced school facility support services, such as cafeteria, custodial, maintenance, security, supplies, and transportation services.” In other words, Unit C workers would still be employed by LAUSD under our Local 99 bargaining agreement. However, our performance would be very closely monitored and the charter operator could say that we fail to meet their standards. If the identified issues are not resolved, “external partners may then contract with non-LAUSD providers for specified support services.”
This leaves charters the option of contracting out our Unit C jobs. The resolution has no language protecting the jobs of Unit B, G, or F employees. To give us a stronger voice in deciding what happens to our jobs, newly-seated School Board Member Nury Martinez added language to the plan, which the Board adopted, giving unions a place on a task force that will look at staffing options for the affected schools. This task force will also include charter leaders and members of the business community.
“As a parent, I support efforts to give my children an excellent education. But as a worker who provides for my family, I think the Board failed to understand how a good job helps a student learn. It’s very hard for any child to learn when there is poverty and instability at home—no matter how good the school is,” says Lilia Garcia, a School Supervision Aide at Norwood Elementary School.
We maintain that hiring non-District subcontractors does not serve the students of LAUSD. Living wages and health benefits that the District provides have been key ingredients for preventing high staff turnover. By creating good jobs in the neighborhood, schools have been able to attract workers who stay for many years, getting to know entire families and providing stability for students as they grow up. These elements will be lost if school operators are simply pushed to hire the lowest-bidding contractor.
The resolution directs Superintendent Cortines to “work collaboratively” with stakeholders over the next 30 days to develop an implementation plan that includes identifying education models, governance models, and accountability measures. This implementation plan will also include recommending a process for evaluating the various school proposals the District receives.