Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Tuesday to change the way California's juvenile prisons are overseen. We also examine the LAUSD and UTLA tentative agreement; discuss Facebook’s research into space lasers; and more.
Back to school, pt. 2: LAUSD students, teachers return to classes after deal reached to end strike
The first strike in almost 30 years at the nation’s second-largest school district is finally over.
After six days of picketing and a marathon negotiating session that ended in the early morning hours Tuesday at City Hall, leadership for both Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles emerged to announce that a tentative deal had been reached to end the walkout, and later in the day it was announced that enough UTLA members had voted to ratify the deal.
In addition to a 6 percent raise, the three year deal also lays out a road map for decreasing class sizes, a major sticking point in the negotiations, as well as a framework to add more nurses and counselors. The longer deal allows the district to spread the cost of reducing class sizes and adding the new support staff over several years, during which time they will be working to identify a revenue stream to pay for those changes.
AirTalk updates the latest details on the agreement to end the teachers strike, plus we’ll hear from stakeholders in the negotiations, look ahead to what’s next for both the district and teacher’s union and explain how charter schools fit into the deal.
For more on the specifics of what’s in the deal, read Kyle Stokes latest story at LAist.com
We reached out to LAUSD to invite Superintendent Austin Beutner to join us, but the district declined our request.
Guests:
Kyle Stokes, KPCC K-12 education reporter
Mónica García, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education
Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter School Association
Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing LAUSD teachers and support staff
SCOTUS will take up New York gun control case that might have broader implications for gun transportation
On Tuesday, the high court said it will take up a right-to-carry gun control case -- the first time it’s taken up a major second amendment case in nearly a decade.
The court will examine the legality of New York’s ban on transporting handguns outside city lines, even if those handguns are locked and unloaded.
The suit pits the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association against the City of New York. The law itself is a minor one, but depending on how broadly the court rules, the implications could be far reaching for concealed carry and the issue of transporting a gun outside the home.
With Justice Kavanaugh on the court, what is the likely outcome of the case? What kind of implications could it have for concealed carry? Is this a bellwether for a new SCOTUS approach to the second amendment?
Guests:
Jamal Greene, professor of law at Columbia University; he tweets
Eugene Volokh, professor of law at UCLA; he tweets
As LAUSD teachers resume classes, a look at healing after the strike
While United Teachers Los Angeles and the L.A. Unified School District have reached a deal, fractured relationships between administrators and teachers may sting long after the picket lines disperse.
There are a lot of feelings to unpack here. Unsuccessful bargaining between teachers union members and L.A. Unified lasted for nearly two years before a strike finally happened-- and it was the first LAUSD teachers strike since 1989. And despite the show of good faith at Tuesday’s press conference, it’s the people on the ground in schools, including students, who will have to grapple with the fallout from events in the past two weeks that made national headlines.
When the last strike ended 30 years ago, there was a fear of retaliation that extended past a final union vote. And according to some people who worked in L.A.’s classrooms during the strike of ‘89, those who crossed picket lines faced isolation once unionized teachers came back to the classroom.
Larry asks listeners today for their thoughts on how to heal after the events of the past weeks, and what they remember about the fallout of the strike 30 years ago.
Guest:
Evelyn Aleman, parent of a freshman at Grover Cleveland, a combination charter-magnet High School in Reseda; she was a teacher’s assistant at Rosemont Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles during the 1989 LAUSD teachers strike
Governor Newsom proposes changes to youth prison oversight
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Tuesday to change the way California's juvenile prisons are overseen, eventually closing facilities to cut what he called the "ludicrous" cost.
The Democratic governor is asking state lawmakers to put youth prisons under California's Health and Human Services Agency. Youthful offenders currently are overseen by the same agency that runs adult prisons.
The current system isn't working, he said, with about three out of four young offenders arrested again within three years of their release. More than half are convicted of new crimes and more than a third are soon back in state custody, according to 2017 figures.
With files from the Associated Press
We have reached out to the California Health & Human Services Agency and California Division of Juvenile Justice. They did not get back to us in time for this interview.
Guests:
Patricia Soung, director of Youth Justice Policy and Staff Attorney at the Children's Defense Fund, California; a non-profit that advocates for children’s rights
Kate Chatfield, policy director for Re:store Justice, a non profit that advocates for criminal justice reform in CA; she is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law
Stephanie James, president, Chief Probation Officers of California; Chief Probation Officer for San Joaquin County
Why a Facebook subsidiary wants to build observatories on Mt. Wilson to house space lasers
Historic Mt. Wilson is home to a number of transmitter and satellite arrays used for scientific research and communications, including KPCC’s main transmitter.
And soon, it could also house one of Facebook’s research endeavors: space lasers.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a space laser like Darth Vader used to destroy the planet Alderaan. These space lasers could be a revolutionary innovation that changes the way we transmit data on a large scale. The engineering publication IEEE obtained construction permits from the County of Los Angeles for a company called PointView Tech, which IEEE reported last year was a subsidiary of Facebook, to build two detached observatories on Mt. Wilson that could be for a laser communications system. Lasers can handle much higher data rates than the radio transmitters we currently use, they’re more secure and regulatory approval wouldn’t be required because lasers can’t interfere with another frequency like radio waves can.
We talk to science and tech writer Mark Harris, who broke the story for IEEE, about his reporting on Facebook’s research into space lasers and how close we are to seeing this kind of technology deployed on a large scale.
Guest:
Mark Harris, science and tech writer for various publications including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The Economist, WIRED, The Guardian, MIT Tech Review and more; his latest piece for IEEE is “Facebook’s Plans for Space Lasers Revealed”; he tweets