Los Angeles teachers approve contract, ending 6-day strike

Late Tuesday, Los Angeles teachers approved a contract deal and agreed to return to the classrooms on Wednesday after a six-day strike in the nation's second-largest school district. The votes of the 30,000 teachers union members were still being counted Tuesday night, but "a vast supermajority are voting yes for the agreement that we made," said union president Alex Caputo-Pearl. "Those are preliminary results but they're so overwhelming that we know what the results are going to be."

The deal, finalized early Tuesday, gives teachers a 6 percent raise, reduces class sizes incrementally over the next few years, and increases the number of support staff, including teachers and librarians. The Board of Education is expected to ratify the deal in short order. Caputo-Pearl called the agreement a "historic victory" for "educators, students, and parents" achieved through "unity, our action, and our shared sacrifice."

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