UFT delegates at the Delegate Assembly on Jan. 16 unanimously passed a resolution in support of the striking Los Angeles teachers.

“Per pupil spending is down dramatically in Los Angeles,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew at the monthly meeting at UFT headquarters.

The strike, he said, was also about protecting public schools from being usurped by charter schools, obtaining more support services for students in need and reducing the focus on standardized testing.

“They’re fighting for community schools, and to hire counselors and social workers,” Mulgrew said.

The strike, which ran from Jan. 14 to Jan. 23, affected 30,000 teachers in the second largest school district in the nation after New York City.

Mulgrew said the UFT and the AFT worked closely with United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing the strikers, to fight effectively against the same forces New York City faced during the Bloomberg administration.

“We can’t let them get away with their schemes to defund public education,” he said.