The Los Angeles Unified School District teachers and service workers went on strike for three days due to a pay dispute.

For those three days, all LAUSD school campuses remained closed which left approximately 565,000 students without class for those three days.

The issue of a higher wage has been a persistent one for years now, but little ground has been gained on this issue.

On average, teachers in Los Angeles make about sixty-one thousand dollars yearly but the average teacher in California makes forty-one thousand yearly which is just not livable, especially in California.

The state of California’s public education funding for the 2022-2023 school year is approximately $128.6 billion, a sum that makes these low wages all the more baffling.

Los Angeles Unified, Fresno Unified and San Diego Unified are the three biggest school districts in California, and combined their budget is about $17.5 billion.

LAUSD’s budget is $14.8 billion, FUSD’s budget is $1.1 billion, and SDUSD’s budget is $1.6 billion, there is no way those three school districts and other school districts around California can’t pay their teachers a more livable wage.

As the people educating the future leaders of the world, they deserve more than what they are being given.

It is getting harder to be a teacher and live off a wage that is unsupportable especially after inflation has risen the cost of everything from housing to food to utility services.

An influx of educators now are having to quit their jobs as teachers because they aren’t making enough or are having to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet.

Even worse, the future of education is called into question as fewer and fewer people want to become teachers for the very same reason of not being paid enough.

Many teachers also lack proper support, as it is all too common to hear about instructors being forced to supply classes out of their own pocket.

Increasing the yearly salary of a teacher will not only halt or make fewer teachers quit their jobs, but it may even increase the interest in being an educator again.

Lynn Gangone, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education shared his thoughts on how important it is that we invest in our education and educators.

“I don’t know how bad it’s going to have to get before we realize as a country that if we don’t invest in education we will not have anyone in the classrooms to teach our children,” Gangone said.

More teachers from other school districts in California and around the country should go on strike to spark a change.

Our elected leaders need to listen to the people that put them in that seat because an overwhelming majority of Americans support teachers getting paid more. Students should hold walkouts and go to school board meetings to advocate for the teachers to get paid more.