The newly announced GOP pick for the office that oversees education statewide ripped the Los Angeles Unified School District for boosting teacher pay by nearly 14% as students struggle to read or write at proficient levels.
“Schools must be able to attract and retain teachers, and good educators deserve fair pay and support,” Sonja Shaw, who is running for California state superintendent, told The Post.
“However, we cannot continue throwing hundreds of millions more into a broken system without real accountability, especially when more than half of students can’t even read or write at grade level as is the case here.”
Shaw, who received an endorsement from the California Republican Party on Sunday, went on to criticize the LAUSD for prioritizing ideology over academics.
“Safety is collapsing, ideological mandates are prioritized over academics, and parents are kept in the dark as leadership scandals and deficits loom,” she said. “LAUSD needs to address these problems at their root, or we risk threatening the future of an entire generation of children.”
Shaw’s sharp rebuke comes amid uncertainty and turmoil within the LAUSD, as hundreds of thousands of children across Los Angeles brace for a potential school shutdown over a massive teachers strike planned to start Tuesday.
The LAUSD struck a last-minute deal over the weekend with United Teachers Los Angeles that would see salaries rise by 13.86% over two years, depending on experience.
Under the deal, beginning teacher salaries would jump from about $68,000 to $77,000 annually, while teachers with 15 years’ experience would rise from $113,374 to $125,156.
The deal follows months of tense negotiations after the union’s contract expired last June, and is aimed at heading off the impending strike.
The threat of a Tuesday walkout still looms as the Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents custodians, cafeteria workers and other service staff, have yet to reach a deal with the district.
While the unions representing teachers and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles have both reached tentative agreements, all three unions have pledged to strike together in a show of solidarity. That means unless a deal can be struck at the 11th hour, tens of thousands of employees could stage a walkout, effectively shutting down the nation’s second-largest school district.
“We continue to be open to the mediation process with the school district,” Max Arias, executive director of Local 99, said in a statement. “Just as we work together every day in our classrooms and campuses, we are proud to be united with teachers and principals in the fight for our schools, students and communities.”
If the strike moves forward, it would impact roughly 398,487 students attending transitional kindergarten through 12th grade, along with more than 151,000 others enrolled in adult education, independent charter schools and early education centers, according to LAUSD.
