Los Angeles teachers marked the end of their first week on strike with a major rally Friday morning. In a hopeful sign, negotiations that restarted on Thursday went on until midnight and resumed on Friday. But union president Alex Caputo-Pearl emphasized that that doesn't mean teachers are looking to cave:
"After 21 months of negotiations, I think it's an unrealistic expectation to say that this is going to be over after today," Caputo-Pearl said.
"If it goes into next week ... we have to last one day longer than [superintendent] Austin Beutner," Caputo-Pearl said. "We have to last one day longer than somebody who's never taught in a classroom."
Student attendance dropped on Thursday, creating more pressure on the school district, since state funding is dependent on attendance levels. Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing additional education funding—sorely needed in California, which has relatively low per-pupil expenditures—but that’s unlikely to be the immediate solution to the strike.