UTLA uses the coronavirus as excuse to trash charters: Larry Sand

Posted on:April 10, 2020

Due to the coronavirus, many of us have become more charitable — helping the elderly and infirm, shopping for a family that fears leaving home, other acts of kindness.

Many teachers are working hard, tackling the ins-and-outs of online education, desperately trying to keep their students apace via distance learning.

Sadly, though, there are some who attempt to capitalize on these stressful times to advance their political agenda. And quite conspicuous in that crowd is Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles.

In a classic instance of “never let a good crisis go to waste,” Caputo-Pearl fired off a missive to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner and the L.A. school board on March 26. Incoherently stoking coronavirus fears, the union leader demanded “a moratorium on the approval of any new charter schools” and “that LAUSD halt all new proposed charter co-locations for the 2020-21 school year.”

At the very end of the harangue, he got to his real point: “Los Angeles is already over-saturated with charter schools and loses over $600 million/year in resources to unregulated charter growth. It is time to stop the bleeding and ensure that our existing classrooms and students are appropriately funded and protected.”

To read the rest of this column in the Los Angeles Daily News, please click here.

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