Our Kids and Our Teachers Deserve Better

Statement of Renata Simril About the LAUSD Teachers Strike

The ongoing LAUSD teachers strike is no surprise — this has been a crisis hurtling in slow motion towards the city for decades.

And as rain so desperately needed by our region falls this week, during this contentious moment in time it is easy to wish that all the school planning mistakes and sins of omission of the past could be washed away, and seeds for a brighter future could be planted and start to grow. But this is real life, not a fairy tale. That is not an easy wish to fulfill.

Civic leaders, County officials, the Governor, the Mayor, the School Board, the Teachers Union and the Superintendent: We all need to sit down, roll up our sleeves and sharpen our pencils and figure this out NOW. We need to get our teachers and kids back in class, because we’re leaving thousands of kids behind. But that is just a start. We also need to remain at the table working together to achieve a sustainable solution that will provide our teachers and kids the resources and support they deserve long into the future.

Ever since Proposition 13 went into effect in 1978, public schools have faced a forever drizzle of financial woes. Past LAUSD Superintendents have used their bully pulpit to bring light to the financial situation, but ultimately relied on short-term fixes, effectively kicking the can on down the road. Now, the deluge is here.

I am writing this post on my own. It pains me to see teachers standing in the rain alongside the road hoping for someone to honk in solidarity and fighting for what they should have; or to hear about how LAUSD is losing about $15 million a day (more than $70 million since the strike began) because two-thirds of parents decided to keep their kids out of school. Our kids and our teachers deserve better. Disclosures: I serve on an LAUSD advisory panel — which I actively participated in under the previous Superintendent. I’m friends with Superintendent Austin Beutner and his family — and I have worked for him as his chief of staff at the Los Angeles Times. I know Beutner well, and I can say confidently, that he cares about our teachers and our kids. Austin wasn’t hired for his education background. He was hired for his finance background. And why is that? Because LAUSD has a major financial problem. The structural deficit is real and the District is on the brink of disaster.

Both the LAUSD administration and the Teachers Union are to my eyes and ears, fighting the same good fight. Everyone agrees: Teachers absolutely should be paid more. Class size must be smaller. There should be librarians in every school. Our kids should have access to qualified Counselors with trauma-informed training.

A KCRW interview I listened to this week with a LAUSD English teacher reported that 50 percent of his class had experienced, or knew somebody who experienced, a shooting. A Times article from 2016 cites a study that found 98% of LAUSD students experienced trauma — such as shootings — before they reached sixth grade. In addition, the vast majority of the kids in this teacher’s class either directly or indirectly had been separated from a family member or relative who is incarcerated or had been through the system.

There’s also the crushing poverty known to so many families; seventy eight percent of LAUSD schools are Title I. That’s 400,000 kids living in poverty. And, we can’t forget the students in foster care. Think about students with special needs. Think about all of the students — the children of our city — who are homeless. Our kids deserve better. Teachers deserve better.

But there should also be P.E. classes five days a week. There should be enrichment programs, such as music and art and yes even sports, in every school. Enrichment programs, including sport, play an essential role in whole-child development.

In more affluent communities, parents pay to put these programs back in place. In under-resourced communities, most go without but for philanthropic organizations such as the Ballmer Foundation, Weingart Foundation and the LA84 Foundation, where I am President & CEO.. Examples of these programs include L.A.’s Best, and Beyond The Bell, Think Together and the YMCA. Our Foundation has been primary significant funder of Beyond The Bell since its inception nine years ago and we’re pleased that our funding is helping to keep things open after school during this strike.

Collectively, philanthropy is doing what we can to support our kids and spending millions to do so, but the gap continues to increase and the resources we have to invest are limited. A rethinking of how we fund public education and bring about systemic change is critical.

Rainbows of hope are beginning to emerge: Governor Newsom with the stroke of a pen is working to make a substantial difference. Local school districts rely heavily on the state. Newsom’s first budget proposal calls for $80 billion in education funding, a rise from last year, with tens of millions dedicated to LAUSD. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week approved $10 million to support mental health professionals in LAUSD schools.

There is also talk of a ballot measure that is trying to make its way into the 2020 election cycle. It would change or increase property taxes on commercial buildings only and that would be a dedicated revenue stream to public education.

That would be a promising development. So would statewide structural budget reform that prioritizes K-12 public education in full, including enrichment programs in all schools, during and after school.

California is the 5th largest economy in the world and we are one of the wealthiest states in the union; yet we spend about $10,200 per pupil on K-12 public education compared to $75,000 in per prisoner spending, (a number that is expected to rise to over $80,000 per inmate based on former Governor Jerry Brown’s 2018–19 budget).

Understanding that California’s school districts rely heavily on state, rather than local funds and that the state spends a sizable portion of its budget (28%) on K-12 education; looking at where we are today in LA this is neither sufficient nor efficient.

Budgets are a reflection of our values and priorities. Statewide, we owe it to the 6.2 million children in the K-12 system to provide them, their families and their teachers with the resources they need to build a bridge to a brighter future. That future can’t come quickly enough for the half million kids of the LAUSD.