Article snippet: United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) wants higher pay and greater spending on public education. ABC News reports the union members – many of whom are wearing #RedForEd T-shirts – are threatening to strike “for as long as it takes.” “We’re in the battle for the soul of public education,” states UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “Now is the moment for action.” The schools are remaining open, however, as LAUSD has hired substitute teachers. The union calls the hiring of substitutes “irresponsible” and has urged parents to keep their children at home and join the protest. “We are going on strike for students, who we miss in our hearts right now,” Caputo-Pearl adds. “They deserve better.” However, Rebecca Friedrichs, who spearheaded a national movement to wrest control of public schools from teachers’ unions, writes at the Orange County Register that the #RedForEd walkouts – which played prominently last year in the Arizona teachers’ strike, as well as others – are “deceptively promoted as a ‘grassroots movement’ led by teachers”: Friedrichs, one of seven California teachers who filed a federal class action lawsuit for return of fees previously paid to their union in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent Janus v. AFSCME decision, writes that a teacher colleague of hers who witnessed the development of #RedForEd said “teachers were used to promote the propaganda of the NEA [National Education Association].” Friedrichs says about her teacher-friend, “Catherine”: Fried... Link to the full article to read more