L.A. Times Notes Hard-left Bent of Teachers Union Leadership

Fans of NewsBusters are quite familiar with how we track instances of labeling bias: where the media don't label liberal activists or employ double standards in labeling conservatives vs. liberals, Republicans vs. Democrats, etc.

But sometimes, a news agency gets it right and while that's how it should be, it's also worth noting in certain cases, like Los Angeles Times reporter Howard Blume's February 18 story, "Judgment day for L.A. teacher union officials."

Blume noted that three years of hard-left control of an L.A. teachers union will come to a head in recent school board elections for L.A. Unified, the second-largest public school district by enrollment in the United States:

The band of left-wing, dissident back-benchers that took over the city teachers union three years ago faces a verdict this week on its revolution. United Teachers Los Angeles is holding elections, the results of which will affect not only teachers but also school-reform efforts and city politics.

UTLA's members are the 48,000 teachers, nurses and school psychologists in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The union's endorsements and street troops help elect city and state politicians, and can carry the most weight in school board elections. And UTLA can impede or propel various efforts to improve the education of the 700,000 students in the nation's second-largest school system.

Blume's article focused heavily on infighting and political intrigue affecting teacher compensation and other bureaucratic matters, something bound to leave L.A. taxpayers wondering just how much full-time liberal educrats care about the, well, education of their children.

Kudos to Blume and the Times for not letting the teacher's union leadership escape without being labeled by their ideology.