Mammoth sum taxpayers will fork out after LAUSD caved on deal with unions

Los Angeles taxpayers are about to be on the hook for the massive pay out that LAUSD agreed to pay workers of three different unions after it averted an 11th hour strike.

The cash strapped district avoided a massive strike on Tuesday by tentatively agreeing to hand its staff generous pay raises — even while students in the troubled district are scoring lower than the rest of the state and its leadership faces investigations from federal and local authorities.

In order to avoid the strike that would’ve kept kids out of school on Tuesday after the union members vowed to hit the picket line together, the district agreed to three different contract agreements that will cost it close to $1.2 billion annually, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The costs of the whopping pay out breaks down to about $490 million to the Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, another $650 million annually to members of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and an additional $75 million spent annually for pay raises to the members of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles.

On top of the cost, the district had to agree to walk back layoffs of hundreds of employees.

But even the acting LAUSD superintendent Andres E. Chait — who’s filling in for Aberto Carvalho while Carvalho faces a federal probe — isn’t sure where the district is going to find the money for the massive pay raises, the Times reported.

“That’s a very good question, obviously,” Chait said during a press conference on Tuesday.  “In making these commitments to our labor workforce, we’re looking … to always start internally and look at where our dollars are going.”

“I know there’s been a lot of dialogue around subcontracting, around using internal services. So, of course, we’re taking a laser-like focus on what we can do.”

Chait said union leaders along with LA Mayor Karen Bass planned to look towards Sacramento to get more money for the district. Critics and allies alike questioned how the district would pull this off, the report noted.

“My hunch is that the only way the district will be able to come up with the money is to lay off lots of people, unless they have been hiding money, which I don’t think is the case,” Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education said.

“They have lost over 200,000 students over the last 15 years and haven’t downsized the number of employees or schools. It’s unsustainable.”

Lance Christensen, with the California Policy Center, called the union’s “gang up” on the district “extortion.”

“These deals will only further exacerbate LAUSD’s financial problems and do nothing to improve the delivery of education for their declining student base.”

It was the workers with the Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union who scored the largest pay hike, with a 24% pay increase over a three-year deal.  It represents workers like teacher aides, campus aides, custodians, and bus drivers. 

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The union also scored more work hours, a nixing of the layoffs directed at tech support workers, more health care benefits, and limitations on subcontracting work to outside vendors. The union had been without a new deal since June 2024.

Two other unions, UTLA and the one that represents administrators, reached tentative deals with the district on Sunday.

LAUSD’s agreement with UTLA, which represents about 37,000 teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists and librarians, gives teachers a 14% raise over a two-year agreement. The agreement also raises starting pay for teachers to $77,000 from $68,965.

The district’s deal with the administrator’s union, which represents about 3,000 principals and assistant principals, equals a pay increase of about 12% over two years

The California Post reached out to LAUSD and Mayor Bass’s office for further comment. 

All three deals still need to be ratified by union members and the Board of Education, but the tentative agreements will keep schools open.