'Union started sounding good....'

A union started sounding good to Eric Levy about a year ago. That’s when he and other teachers at Chicago International Charter School’s Northtown campus were told they’d be teaching an additional class.

LEVY: We were just presented with that. There was no salary increase or anything like that, it was just like, “Hey, you’re teaching six classes now.” Class size has slowly crept up, too. So it’s six BIG classes. My biggest class has 33 students. (City Room, WBEZ)

R.I.P. 'mainstream' media

Teachers set up picket lines in L.A. Friday and as a result, dozens were thrown in jail, including A.J. Duffy, the president of the teachers union The teachers were putting their bodies on the line, peacefully protesting the massive budget cuts in public education and the mass firing of tens of thousands of their colleagues statewide as well as the worsening conditions for the district's 700,000 students (mostly students of color). They were joined by thousands of students at high schools across the city who walked out in solidarity. Big news, right?

The L.A. Times ran a piece a week before the arrests, quoting schools chief Cortines accusing teachers of "milking the system" and then one on Friday, just before the arrests, claiming that teachers were going to "storm district headquarters" and "jump on some desks." Then they trailed way behind the blogs and Twitter in covering the protest and the arrests. I found this story about the student protests, on Saturday but nothing else. I looked again on Sunday. Nothing. I looked again this morning. Nothing. I combed the national press again today. Nothing.

Actually more people in China know about the L.A. struggle, than do folks here in the U.S.A. I found this story about teachers in Queensland (that's in Australia) going on strike, but nary a word about L.A. Thank goodness for the blogs and Twitter. RIP L.A. Times and the Tribune Company.