US: Los Angeles teachers strike after deadline passes

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - Teachers in the city of Los Angeles officially began striking Monday.

Schools won't close but classrooms will feel the absence of 31,000 teachers.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) failed to reach terms last week on salary and increased staffing.

The last strike in California’s largest city was in 1989 and lasted nine days.

Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of UTLA, the education union that represents certified, non-administrative staff in the Los Angeles area, said the temporary nature of the proposals by the LAUSD forced an impasse.

The union also considers charter schools that are federally-funded and privately-contracted as part of the problem.

"The problem is that the ascendant political force in the California charter school movement right now is the billionaire-funded corporate charters, the unchecked growth of which will lead to the demise of the civic institution of public education," Pearl told a public radio station.

The strike is expected to take at least two days.