L.A. teachers launch union drive at Alliance charter schools
Source: LA Times
By ZAHIRA TORRES
Teachers at the largest charter school organization in Los Angeles have launched a drive to unionize, a move that could alter the path of school reform in the city.
Charter schools, which are independently managed and publicly funded, have grown rapidly in Los Angeles, drawing students and funding from the school district. For the most part, their teachers are not unionized. That traditionally has put charters at odds with the teachers union.
Increasingly, charter organizations and the union are seen as political adversaries in charting the future of public schools.
A successful push by educators at the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools would hand an important victory to United Teachers Los Angeles as it struggles to reverse years of declining membership. The move could also pose a challenge to charters, which have been able to hire and fire staff without union rules — a key factor they believe helps provide the best instruction for students.
FULL story at link.
http://www.trbimg.com/img-5503c229/turbine/la-1965960-me-0820-utla1-wjs-jpg-20150313/750/750x422
United Teachers Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl, shown in 2014, said it is no secret that the union wants to help organize charter school teachers. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-charters-union-20150314-story.html
More than 100,000 students, or 15% of LAUSD enrollment, attend charters, the most of any system in the U.S.
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They make for great high school basketball factories! They get to draw from a city-wide area and put together an all star lineup and win state championships. As for educations? Who needs that? As long as they break teacher's unions and raid the public coffers for private profit, all is good! 
