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For Kids & Country | The Sandstorm | by Lary Sand | April 27,2026
Public employee unions in L.A. hold children hostage, and the school district is complicit.
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” is a famous quote by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, often used to criticize high-taxing, high-spending government policies. It emphasizes that state welfare systems rely on funding from individuals, a reliance that often becomes unsustainable. The Los Angeles Unified School District currently provides living proof of the accuracy of Thatcher’s words.
The new LAUSD/UTLA contracts and their costs to taxpayers
In the wee hours of April 14, three education unions in Los Angeles secured major victories for their employees, including a 13.8% raise for teachers, a 24% raise for service workers, and an 11.65% raise for administrators, averting a strike that would have shut down schools just hours later. The deals are estimated to cost more than a billion dollars annually, raising many questions about affordability.
Once the raises take full effect, the United Teachers Los Angeles deal will cost taxpayers $650 million annually. Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents teacher aides, gardeners, custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and tech support staff, will ding taxpayers for an additional $490 million. The new contract with the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles amounts to $75 million.
The unions also managed to convince LAUSD to rescind at least 200 layoff notices and are urging the district to rehire more staff, secure four weeks of paid parental leave for teachers, and hire 450 new psychologists, psychiatric social workers, attendance counselors, and other employees.
A week after the settlement, on April 21, the L.A. school board unanimously approved a resolution to reopen several shuttered early education centers, add more preschool classrooms on elementary campuses, and expand the district’s relationship with local child-care providers. These plans aim to deepen the district’s involvement in the child-care industry by providing affordable day care, which it hopes will bolster dwindling enrollment. The cost of these moves is not yet known, but LAUSD is already grappling with deficits, depleted reserves, and legal liabilities.
LAUSD and UTLA have completely disregarded the fact that staffing has not been reduced in proportion to the district’s enrollment decline. While student attendance was 747,000 in the 2003–2004 school year, it has now plunged to 390,000. Additionally, during the COVID pandemic, LAUSD expanded parts of its workforce using temporary federal funds. That money is gone, yet spending continues unabated.
Clearly, the district cannot afford all the new costs it is taking on. As the Los Angeles Times’ Howard Blume succinctly notes, the district is betting on a “Sacramento-will-pay-for-it” scenario.
But there is no indication that the state will bail out Los Angeles. In fact, California faces a $21 billion deficit, making increased funding for schools very unlikely right now.
LAUSD schools are a mess
According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, just 21% of LAUSD eighth-grade students are proficient in reading, and a mere 19% are proficient in math.
Los Angeles also has the unfortunate reputation of being the child abuse capital of the world, with more than 370 cases in just the first few months of this year. In February, the district approved up to $250 million in bonds to settle claims, many stemming from older cases triggered by recent legislative changes, such as Assembly Bill 218, which created a legal window allowing adults to sue over childhood sexual abuse from decades ago, thereby overwhelming many school districts across the state.
This is the second time the state’s largest district has done so in the past year. In June 2025, the board voted to authorize $500 million in bonds, bringing total authorizations to about $750 million. The total cost, including financing, is expected to exceed $1 billion.
Furthermore, the 1776 Project Foundation is suing LAUSD, alleging that the district discriminates against white students by directing more resources to schools where at least 70% of students are nonwhite.
The superintendent controversies
On Feb. 25, LAUSD took a hit when the FBI raided the home and office of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho as part of an expanding investigation into a $6 million deal between the nation’s second-largest school system and a failed artificial intelligence startup that had engaged in criminal activity. Carvalho, who was not involved in the recent contract talks and ultimate deal, was placed on paid administrative leave shortly after the raids. As of this writing, his fate remains unknown, but he is still receiving his $440,00 annual salary, as well as extraordinary perks.
Carvalho’s replacement, Andres Chait, just received a pay raise to nearly $396,000. However, he is also at the center of a controversy. As reported by RedState, Chait is married to Laura Orozco Chait, a LAUSD teacher and the sister of UTLA Secondary Vice President Alex Orozco.
So, taxpayers are now paying for two LAUSD leaders with skeletons in their closets.
Lance Christensen, vice president of government affairs and education policy at the California Policy Center, sums up the dismal situation. “When the [unions] gang up on an insolvent district to ‘force’—using their terminology—agreements of significant pay and benefit increases of a district that has no money to make those deals, that is called extortion. These deals will only further exacerbate LAUSD’s financial problems and do nothing to improve the delivery of education for their declining student base.”
Time to get the government out of the education business
Milton Friedman correctly argued that the government has no money of its own, only what it takes from people, and that these expenditures should be minimized because individuals spend their own money much more carefully than the government does.
Friedman believed that government intervention often leads to higher costs and lower quality because officials lack the private-market incentives to satisfy customers. Government-run schools are living proof of this, and LAUSD is its poster child.
It’s time to get the government out of the education realm entirely, giving beleaguered taxpayers a much-needed break and allowing parents to choose how and where to best educate their children.
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Larry Sand is a retired 28-year classroom teacher who served as president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He now focuses on raising awareness about our failing education system.
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