Teachers Unions Continue to Exploit COVID to Serve Themselves

Those who believe there’s hope for reforming the current union-controlled public school system ought to pay close attention to the response by United Teachers Los Angeles to a seemingly unobjectionable recent teaching proposal. The district is offering “Accelerated Days” in October to help students who have lagged far behind in their studies because of the COVID-19 shutdowns.

The Los Angeles Unified School District wants to offer several additional teaching days for “students identified as in need of intensive intervention … to accelerate students’ progress toward grade-level proficiency, social emotional learning and high school graduation, while providing teachers and other employees an opportunity to earn extra pay.”

The extra schooling is optional for students and employees. The district will pay the teachers. The accelerated days would focus on tutoring and hands-on assistance, especially for English learners and those with disabilities. A few additional school days are unlikely to accomplish much given the depth of the pandemic-related educational setbacks, but it’s hard to imagine anyone objecting to that modest effort.