Los Angeles teachers go on strike for the first time in 30 years

The L.A. Times reports:

With umbrellas in one hand and picket signs in the other, Los Angeles teachers braved cold, drizzly weather Monday morning as they walked off the job in their first strike in 30 years to demand smaller class sizes, more support staff at schools and better pay.

"Let's be clear, educators don't want to strike," United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl said to a crowd of supporters during a morning news conference at John Marshall High School. "We don't want to miss time with our students. We don't want to have less money for the car payment or less money for the school supplies that we always end up buying ourselves."

Schools will be open during the strike, but it's unknown how many students will head to classes in the nation's second-largest school system. Some students and parents opted to join teachers on the picket line.

For those who go to school, the day is unlikely to follow routines as volunteers, an estimated 400 substitutes and 2,000 staffers from central and regional offices fill in for 31,000 teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors. At 10 schools, nonteaching employees will take part in a sympathy strike, which will create additional headaches as administrators struggle to manage such tasks as preparing and serving meals.

Another failure of government schools.