Longtime Reformer to Head Teachers Union

After six years as president of the Los Angeles teachers union, Helen Bernstein will pass the baton to her top lieutenant, Day Higuchi, a longtime educator and union activist known for his work on school reform.

Higuchi will take over one of the largest and most influential teachers unions in the country July 1 after receiving nearly 70% of the vote in a mail-in election conducted over the past month. Manual Arts High School history teacher Joshua Pechthalt was a distant second with about 20% of the vote.

Bernstein, who had served the maximum term as president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, cut a fiery path through the district, actively supporting school reform while exacting promises that teachers would share decision-making power with administrators.

Calling his new three-year post “the buck-stop job,” Higuchi said he intended to continue to push a reform agenda, but would gradually shift from campus governance to classroom instruction.

“We’ve done a lot of clearing away of obstacles to schools being able to act freely, but now it’s time to start building,” he said. “Part of it may even look like a back to basics movement.”

Although UTLA does not support dismantling the Los Angeles Unified School District--a process that was streamlined by recent state legislation--Bernstein has described a breakup as inevitable.

Higuchi took a softer position Tuesday, saying the district can prevent a breakup if its leaders wage an aggressive campaign against it.

“If I was L.A. Unified, I would put my best people in the areas that want to break away,” Higuchi said.

Union officer John Perez will fill Higuchi’s former post.