The teachers' union lifted elements of the DSA's Green New Deal for schools, such as demands for free public transportation for students, "climate literacy" courses taught through a "racial justice lens," campus parks, and more school solar panels. The teachers' platform, titled "Beyond Recovery," also seeks city rent controls, taxpayer-funded parental leave, subsidized housing on unused school property, smaller classrooms, and a crackdown on charter schools. The union is also demanding that administrators lobby the federal government to make COVID-19 funds permanent and the state to increase cash flow.
Los Angeles public school teachers earn on average $86,578 per year, with total compensation running nearly $115,000 with benefits, according to Transparent California. That is well above the city's average salary of $67,500. The strike would shut schools for three days in the state's largest district, where kids are still reeling from learning losses and behavioral problems incurred during California's longest-in-the-nation closures. Some 420,000 students would be affected.