Teacher Union Leaders Focus on Charter Schools Amid Dwindling Membership

Teacher Union Leaders Focus on Charter Schools Amid Dwindling Membership
Parents arrive with their children to Evelyn Thurman Gratts Elementary School as people rally in support of a teacher strike in Los Angeles on Jan. 22, 2019. Richard Vogel/AP
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During the January teachers’ strike in Los Angeles, unions dedicated a great deal of attention to charter schools, with some even accusing officials of hurting public schools.

At the time, Alex Caputo-Pearl, the president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union, told a cheering crowd of striking educators that the district was “[starving] our schools in order to justify cuts and justify handing more schools over to privately run charter schools.”