One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.
LAUSD settlement to change teacher layoffs
ACLU of Southern California lead counsel Mark Rosenbaum at Markham Middle School in Watts. He announced a lawsuit to stop L.A. Unified teacher layoffs that have disproportionately affected, the suit alleges, schools in low income neighborhoods. File photo.
(
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
)
Listen
0:53
LAUSD settlement to change teacher layoffs
LAUSD settlement to change teacher layoffs
L.A. Unified will change the way it lays off teachers amid budget cuts. That’s the result of a settlement today between the school district and civil rights lawyers.
L.A. Unified agreed to stop teacher layoffs at about 40 of the lowest-performing campuses in the school district — and to set up an incentive program to keep principals and teachers at schools in impoverished neighborhoods.
When the school district does carry out teacher layoffs, lawyers said, the proportion of teachers let go can’t exceed the district-wide average.
Last year, some schools in the Watts area lost about half their teachers to budget layoffs — a much higher proportion than schools in affluent neighborhoods. That sent education at those campuses into a tailspin, attorney Mark Rosenbaum says, because principals hired substitutes to fill in the gaps.
The settlement also establishes an incentive program that encourages principals and teachers to take jobs in working class neighborhoods.
Rosenbaum, of the American Civil Liberties Union, says the settlement stops schools in working class neighborhoods from losing a high proportion of teachers because of seniority-driven layoffs.
"Even more dramatically, this settlement ends, it ends disproportionate teacher layoffs, not only at these schools, the hard to staff schools. But all schools in the Los Angeles district and it does that by mandating that no school can suffer teacher layoffs greater than the district average," Rosenbaum said.
Sponsored message
He said the settlement is a victory for working class neighborhoods disproportionately affected by state funding cuts.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
