Why 30,000 Los Angeles teachers are ready to strike over huge class sizes

“More than 30,000 teachers at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) — the second-largest school district in the country after New York City — are about to go on strike, because they have reached an impasse with the district leadership. The strike, scheduled to start Monday, will be the first for the union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, in nearly 30 years. The main issue under contention is not salary, where the two sides are close together; Superintendent Austin Beutner has offered a 6 percent increase, with the union demanding 6.5 percent.”