(CNN)After an apparent dayslong game of ÿchicken,ÿ the Los Angeles teachers union and the school district went back to the negotiating table Thursday.þþTalks resumed for the first time since more than 30,000 educators walked off the job this week to demand smaller class sizes, more school staffing and higher teacher salaries.þÿWe are having an impact,ÿ said Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles union. ÿThat impact is being felt across the city. And we've just got to keep it up.ÿþþBut while teachers demand millions more dollars in school funding, the Los Angeles Unified School District said it has already lost $97 million during the strike.þThat's because the state funds schools based on daily attendance, and the number of kids going to school has plunged during the strike. On Thursday, for example, about 84,000 of the district's 600,000 students went to school, LAUSD said. That's a 37% drop in attendance from Wednesday.þParent Karen Goldman is well aware of the money lost by lower attendance. That's one reason she's keeping her fifth-grade son out of school.þþÿI feel like the message I am sending by not sending him and creating a budget loss is better than if I send him, because that will hopefully bring the strike to a conclusion faster,ÿ she said.þBut don't expect teachers to end their strike anytime soon, the union president said Thursday.þÿAfter 21 months of negotiations, I think it's an unrealistic expectation to say that this is going to be over after today,ÿ Caputo-Pearl said.þThe teachers on strike are not getting paid. But the union leader said it's critical for them to outlast Superintendent Austin Beutner, a former investment banker who doesn't have a background in teaching.þÿIf it goes into next week ... we have to last one day longer than Austin Beutner,ÿ Caputo-Pearl said. ÿWe have to last one day longer than somebody who's never taught in a classroom.ÿþThe union called for supporters to join the teachers at a rally on Friday at Grand Park, in front of City Hall.þþThe school district says kids are still learningþEven though students are supposed to go to school during the strike, many parents have pulled their kids out due to the enormous shortage of teachers.þSome students who did go to school reported playing board games or watching movies all day.þBut the LAUSD said students are learning -- though sometimes in auditoriums rather than classrooms. At Adams Middle School, an assistant principal filled in and gave a history lecture on Thursday.þþLast week, the LAUSD said 2,000 reassigned administrators and about 400 substitute teachers would help fill in for the more than 30,000 educators on strike. On Wednesday, the school district updated the number of substitutes to 1,400.þþLAUSD has not responded to CNN's questions about how many teachers are not on strike and are still in classrooms.þBeutner has defended the decision to keep schools running -- especially for lower-income families, who can't afford child care and don't have a safe place for their children to go.þÿWhile education in classrooms is not the same without teachers, we have a responsibility to keep schools open and provide students with a safe space, shelter from the rain, meals and modified instruction,ÿ he said.þþThis standoff comes down to two issues: how much money to spend on more school staffing and teachers' raises, and whether the school district actually has that kind of money.þBeutner said there's no way the district can afford right now to give the union everything it wants. He noted an independent fact-finder agreed that it doesn't have the money to cover the union's demands.þThe district did offer $130 million toward what the union wants, but UTLA rejected that proposal.
Source: CNN.com
