LA Teachers Score Massive Contract Win After Union VP’s Brother-in-Law Is Named Acting Superintendent – RedState
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) scored a massive victory this week, finalizing a new contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that will cost the nearly insolvent district an additional $1.2 billion per year and increase the union’s power in the future by expanding the areas in which the union has bargaining rights (IA, subcontracting). LAUSD’s complete fold isn’t all that surprising, however, given that the district’s interim superintendent is the brother-in-law of UTLA Secondary Vice President Alex Orozco and UTLA Superintendent Victoria Casas, a relationship that has not been disclosed.
It’s funny how that works.
How did this happen?
UTLA had been threatening to strike for months; It was the No. 1 issue facing the district when its superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, was placed on leave after his home and office were raided by the FBI in February as part of a securities fraud prosecution against an LAUSD contractor.
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The LAUSD board named Andres Chait, a second-level administrator, as interim superintendent in late February, and in mid-March the two other unions in negotiations with the district joined UTLA in setting a coordinated strike deadline of April 14. At the last minute, Chait reached a deal with the union that is much more generous than the one Carvalho offered and includes additional elements that weren’t even on the table before.
Before his suspension, Carvalho stressed to UTLA that the district was facing extreme financial difficulties – facing potential insolvency within four years – due to a combination of reliance on deficit spending, a massive decline in enrollment and the one-time depletion of COVID funding. The situation was so serious that the LAUSD board had voted to provide notice of possible layoffs to 3,200 employees and planned to lay off 700 people.
In the deal negotiated by Chait and his team:
- At least 200 layoff notices will be canceled
- Teachers will receive double-digit raises (11.65% base, 13-14% effective)
- Restructuring of the salary scale
- More than 450 new positions
- Paid parental leave
- Enforceable special education student/teacher ratios with penalties
- Expanded negotiation rights related to AI and outsourcing
With the inclusion of expanded bargaining rights and pay scale restructuring, UTLA effectively reshaped the relationship with LAUSD to more closely match its vision, which was UTLA’s primary goal. As a 2020 UCLA Luskin Center report documents, UTLA leadership aims to achieve broad societal change and “ensure the centrality of racial, social, gender, and economic justice.”
The deal is so bad that even the Los Angeles Times criticizes it; Their headline on the deal reads: “The price of LAUSD union peace will be $1.2 billion per year. The next step will be to pay for it. » Chait doesn’t even have a plan for LAUSD to meet its new contractual obligations; At a news conference announcing the deal, he said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LAUSD officials were going to come to Sacramento with outstretched hands, asking for a bailout. Apparently they didn’t hear that Sacramento was also broke.
Oh, and Chait gets a big raise too. He earned $278,205 a year as head of school operations, but that increased to $395,967 a year in this new role, plus $250 a month for a driver who takes him to school functions.
This seems like a good deal for everyone except LA Unified taxpayers. California Policy Center Vice President of Government Affairs and Education Policy Lance Christensen gave a harsher description of what happened:
“When the [unions] ganging up on an insolvent district to “force” – in their terminology – agreements to significantly increase salaries and benefits from a district that has no money to make those agreements is called extortion. These agreements will only further exacerbate LAUSD’s financial problems and will do nothing to improve educational provision for their declining student base.
Relationship between Chait and UTLA
Chait is married to Laura Orozco Chait, a teacher at LAUSD and sister of UTLA secondary vice president Alex Orozco. Multiple LAUSD sources speaking to RedState on condition of anonymity said the relationship is well known among employees but is not openly discussed. Orozco is married to UTLA principal and LAUSD teacher Victoria Casas. Laura, a 4th grade teacher at Topeka Street Charter in Northridge, is also a member of UTLA.
📢CONFLICT OF INTEREST ALERT… LAUSD Interim Superintendent Andres Chait, who is currently leading the district’s negotiations with unions and trying to avert a strike, is the brother-in-law of *TWO* UTLA executives (Secondary Vice President Alex Orozco and Principal Victoria Casas) and… pic.twitter.com/8QJN4SWCjM
– Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) March 23, 2026
Orozco is the leader of UTLA’s health care negotiations and one of its key organizers. So Chait essentially negotiated with his brother-in-law a contract that he and his in-laws will benefit from directly and indirectly – and by giving UTLA this big victory, he is helping Orozco and Casas elevate their careers in union politics.
Orozco is a protégé of Alex Caputo-Pearl and Cecily Myart-Cruz; it is widely believed that he will be the union’s next president.
UTLA is calling for a 17% salary increase, a reduction in class sizes, no layoffs, protections against outsourcing and AI replacement of staff, and has set an April 14… pic.twitter.com/dKUgUhgDO4
– Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) March 23, 2026
Why would the LAUSD Board of Trustees appoint someone to this position who had such a conflict of interest in his dealings with UTLA? RedState contacted the board on March 23, asking if they were aware of this relationship, and if they did so, when informed, referencing LAUSD’s code of ethics:
“We are committed to refraining from decisions that could result in a direct benefit to a close relative or domestic partner, including, but not limited to, hiring, promotion, discipline, evaluation or direct supervision. »
We did not receive a response.
How was Chait selected?
There is no automatic replacement for the role of LAUSD Superintendent if the incumbent goes on leave; council members discuss and vote behind closed doors.
The last time LAUSD appointed an interim superintendent, in 2018, they appointed someone who reported directly to the superintendent: Vivian Ekchian, who was associate superintendent of human resources.
But Chait is lower on the organizational chart; he’s the head of school operations (and we’ll learn more about his problems soon). So the LAUSD board bypassed more experienced superintendents and elevated someone with a massive conflict of interest.
LAUSD Board President Scott Schmerelson, a former San Fernando Valley teacher, has worked with Chait and Orozco for years; When Orozco first ran for office in UTLA, he touted his real-life campaign experience to get Schmerelson elected, saying in a video, “I’ve also played a key role in many political races, including Scott Schmerelson’s victory over Tamar Galatzan.”
RedState also asked the LAUSD board what role Schmerelson played in Chait’s strange appointment, but received no response.
Editor’s Note: President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America’s children get the education they deserve.
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