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A bid to unionize a popular Los Angeles-based chain of charter schools has led to a protracted battle between the schools' management and the district teachers' union, at least temporarily stranding some 700 teachers in labor limbo.
The situation at the 27 campuses of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools illustrates the tensions charter organizations face as they evolve and mature: Merit pay, benefits, and governance-all treated differently in many charter schools than in regular public schools-are key points of concern for teachers embracing the union drive.
The conflict is also emblematic of sharp divisions already established in the Los Angeles district's unique schooling landscape. Charters in Los Angeles are praised for generally outperforming traditional schools, but have also been criticized for high rates of teacher turnover. The district school board's members-typically backed either by philanthropists supportive of charter growth or by a teachers' union opposed to it-have long been divided over the role of the typically nonunion schools.
Charters have expanded steadily in the city, but so have other school models favored by the United Teachers Los Angeles, such as "local initiative schools," which are unionized but freed from some work rules. In light of that tension, a successful bid to unionize Alliance schools would come as a symbolically important win for the UTLA.
"We can argue about outcomes, but if there's any success the charter movement has had, it's de-unionization," said Christopher Lubienski, a professor of education policy at the University...