It might sound cliched, but L.A.'s teachers truly seem to striking less for themselves and more for the kids — much like the “red wave” of educator walkouts that during 2018 shocked “red states” like West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona where Republican lawmakers had been starving public schools for years. In Southern California, teachers aren’t only armed with specific grievances such as growing class sizes and shrinking school services, but are also more broadly worried about the rising clout and enrollment numbers of charter schools and the privatization of public education — concern that spiked when the Los Angeles school board hired an investment banker with no education background, Austin Beutner, as superintendent last May.