01/23/19 01/23/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! build progressive with students and you fight and if you have to, you strike! amy: los angeles teachers are claiming victory following a week-long strike to improve classroom conditions and to

fight the privatization of public schools. this comes as denver teachers vote to strike on monday. we will go to los angeles for the latest and hear from some of the teachers and students on the picket line. >> i'm here for my kids. they can't fight for what they deserve. and what they deserve are fully funded community schools. if the community school is not the best school available, that is a problem because community schools should be every single student can come and get a quality education. amy: than the supreme court votes to allow president trump's ban on transgender troops to go into effect. we will speak with the aclu's chase strangio on the legal fight to overturn the ban. >> it is looking to ban people from enlisting, restrict promotions and give the department of defense asked --

discretion to take people out at will. this is just transparent determination we have seen from the administration towards transgender individuals and so many others. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the partial government shutdown enters its 33rd day, the senate is set to vote on two sepaparate bills thursday -- a democratic proposal that would reopen the government temporarily with no funding for a border wall, and a republican bill that includes president trump's demand for $5.7 billion to build his wall on the u.s.-mexico border. the aclu condemned senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's funding proposal tuesday, saying it is substantially worse than what the president described in his speech and contains provisions that would severely curtail the asylum system and put immigrant

children at increased risk. democratic leaders in both the hohouse and senate have already rejected such a proposal. this is house speaker nancy pelosi. >> daca recipients had their protections, temporary protected status, has protections, has not took it away. now he is saying, well, i will give you this but temporarily if you give me a wall permanently. amy: as the political impasse drags on, affected federal workers and agencies continue to call for an end to the shutdown. the transportation security administration said a record 10% of workers did not come to work sunday due to the shutdown, as travelers face extended wait times and reduced service at a number of airports around the country. there are over 800,000 federal workers w who are working withot pay or on furlough, and 4 million federal contractors who will never be paid, perhaps,

because they are not working didirectly for the government, though are affected by the shutdown. a group representing t the fbi released a report tuesday y layg out the affects of the shutdown on the agency, includingng hampering ongoing criminal investigations in cases involving sex trafficking and crimes against children. federal workers affected by the shutdown are continuing to hold events and rallies across the country. this is lorie mccann, an employee at the internal revenue service in chicago. she recently filed f for unemployoyment. >> i'm goining to physisical therapy. the co-pays are $90 a week. i'm having to pay that out-of-pocket. so now it is at the point -- well, i do get to the point where, should i pay my -- should i go to physical therapy or pay a bill or purchase food? amy: food banks have been set up around the country to help federal workers who can't afford food.

the supreme court has green-lighted president donald trump's plan to ban transgender people from serving in the u.s. military. the decision came tuesday in a 5 to 4 ruling, with the liberal justices dissenting. trump first announced the ban in but two lower court injunctions 2017, blocked it. the rule, which affects most transgender people, will be permitted to go into effect as the ongoing lawsuits make their way up to the suprememe court. we'll have more on this later in the broadcast with chase strangio, staff attorney at the aclu, who is challenging the trump administration's ban. in more news from the supreme court, justices decided not to take up the trump administration's attempted repeal of the deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca, program. this leaves the program in place for now as several lower court judges already ruled against trump's challenge to the obama-era policy. daca currently benefits around

700,000 formerly undocumented people who were brought to the united states as children. the supreme court also decided tuesday it would hear a case challenging a new york city law that prevents licensed gun owners from taking their guns outside of the city. it will be the first second amendment case heard by the court since 2010. meanwhile, the trump administration is asking the supreme court to take on the 2020 census citizenship question after a new york judge barred the movove last week. voting rights activists say the citizenship question is aimed at deterring immigrants from participating in the census, leading to a vast undercount in states with large immigrant communities, impacting everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocationon of federal funding. senate republicans say they are considering the so-called nuclear option in order to speed up the confirmation of trump-appointed judges.

if employed, the nuclear option would allow republican senators to confirm nominees with a simple majority, rather than the usual 60 votes. republicans now hold 53 seats in the senate. senator mitch mcconnell used the strategy in 2017 to confirm neil gorsuch to the supreme court. shortly after brett kavanaugh's confirmation last year, mcconnell declared it was the biggest achievement of his career. in los angeles, public school teachers are returning to school today after approving an agreement to end a historic six-day strike. the united teachers los angeles and los angeles city officials announced tuesday morning that they had reached a deal on a new contract. the agreement includes pay increases for teachers, additional support staff in schools, smaller class sizes, and the regulation of charter schools. meanwhile, teachers in denver

have voted overwhelmingly to strike. the decision came after failing to come to an agreement with the denver school system over contract and pay issues. this will be the first such strike for denver teachers in a quarter of a century. we'll have more on the teachers' strike after headlines. in zimbabwe, growing unrest has been met with escalating violence, including deaths and multiple accounts of torture. some reports put the number of zimbabweans killed at over 12. nationwide protests started last week following the government's move to more than double the cost of fuel. in response, the government of president emmerson mnangagwa ordered an internet blackout and deployed military forces to counter the uprising. ththis is sheila matindike of te zimbabwe's human rights commission, describing recent attacks by the military. >> they would arrive at people's in the earlyht or

hours of the day and ask all men to go outside and lie on the ground. they would then beat up all of the men, including boyoys as yog as 11 years. amy: in antigovernment protests continue calling for the ouster of alba share. a protester died after sustaining injuries after clashes with security officers last week. the committee to protect journalists said tuesday sudanese authorities have revoked credentials of international journalists covering the protests, including al jazeera. the e united states is continuig to ratchet up pressure on venezuela in what appears to b e part of a corrugated effort to remove the venezuelan president net was maduro from office. on tuesday, vice president mike pence posted a video online telling venezuelan opposition leaders and protesters that the u.s. s supports their efforts to

oust the president. vice pres. pence: i am mike pence. the vice president of the united states. and on behalf of president donald trump and all of the american people, let me express the unwavering support of the united statetes as you, the peoe of venezuela, raise your voices in a call for freedom. nicolas maduro is a dictator with no legitimamate claim to power. amy: venezuela presidedent maduo responded by saying he w would revise diplomatic relations with the united dates, saying -- "never before has a highgh-level offificial said ththat the oppositionon should overthrow te government." venezuelan vice e president dely rodriguez also responded to the video. does note mr. pence have a job come now he wants to run venezuela, handing out instructions on what should happen in venezuela tomorrow,

openly calling for a coup d'etat in venezuela. i will say it like the venezuela people with it to you, yankee, go home. amy: on monday, the government of president maduro said it suppreressed a military revolt n the capital caracas. maduro has accused the u.s., along with canada and 12 latin american allies, of plotting a coup against his socialist government. meanwhile, opposition groups are plannining to hold majoror anti-maduro protests tododay across venenezuela. in davos, switzerland, global elites are gathering at the world economic forum this week. while some of the world's wealthiest people discussed economic and business issues, other speakers, including renowned british natural historian sir david attenborough, sounded the alarm on the dangers of climate change. >> it is difficult to overstate it. so numerous, so powerful, so all pervasive, the mechanisms that we have for destruction are so frightening

that we can actctlly exterminate whole ecosyststems without even noticing it. amy: that was david attenborough speaking with prince william tuesday. brazilian president jair also narrow called on business leaders to invest in brazil, citing the country's biodiversity and abundant mineral riches. environmentalists say bolsonaro will speed catastrophic climate change through deregulation and by opening up vast swaths of the amazon to agribusiness giants. a new study published this week finds that the melting of greenlnland's ice sheet mamay he reached a tipping point and could severerely increrease sea-level rise over the e next 0 years. the report confirms other recent studies which warned that the arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet due to climate change. a study by the universities of michigan and utah found that federal aid to puerto rico was slower and less generous after hurricane maria than federal aid received by texas and florida after hurricanes harvey and irma.

hurricane maria, which slammed into the island of puerto rico in september 2017, was in fact a higher category hurricane than those which struck mainland united states just weeks earlier. local residents have decried fema's response to the disaster. last year, a harvard study says the death toll from maria may top 4600. in the new york town of greece, police arrested three men and one minor on suspicion of plotting an attack on a local muslim community. the suspects were said to be in possession of multiple improvised explosive devices and firearms, and were charged with criminal possession of a weapon and conspiracy. the suspects were allegedly planning to attack the small community of islamberg, in upstate new york. police discovered the plot after the unidentified 16-year old -- 16-year-old suspect made a comment to a fellow student about a school shooter. the other suspects are 19-year-old vincent vetromile, 20-year-old brian colaneri, and 18-year-old andrew crysel. police say the attack was

planned on the gaming chat platform discord. and in new york city, the aclu and the new york civil liberties union filed a lawsuit tuesday against the new york police department for arresting a transgender woman and charging her with false personation. linda dominguez told nypd officers that she changed her name to align with her gender identityty. false personation would involve someone misrepresenting their name in order to conceal their identity. officers also allegedly harassed and mocked dominguez on the basis of her gender identity. this is linda dominguez speaking ababout the se. >> i decided to do this wi a a wsuiuit they y n't keep doing th.. i and the realization ofyy ceststor dreams,nd i cant allo the police to abus us trans girls. y: and tse are se of the headlis. this idemocracnow!, democracow.org, e war an peacreport. i'amy goodn. we beginhe show los anges, whereublic scol

teachers are returning to school today after approving an agreement to end a historic six-day strike. the strike was the first in los angeles in three decades. it came after more than 20 months of strained negotiations between the union, the united teachers los angeles, and the school district. the strike effectively shutdown los angeles unified, the nation's second largest school district. on tuesday morning, and los angeles city officials announced they had reached a deal on a new contract. this is los angeles mayor eric garcetti. >> i am proud to announce the pending approval by the teachers represented by utla and education professionals and the board of education that we have an agreement that will allow our teachers to go back toto work on their campuses tomorrow. amy: after a vote, the union announced tuesday night that the contract had been approved by a supermajority of utla members. included in the agreement are

pay increases for teachers, additional support staff in schools, smaller class sizes, and the regulation of charter schools. president of uninited teachers s angeles alex caputo-pearl praised the striking teachers. >> we're seeing over the last week something pretty amazing happen. we went on strike in one of the largest strikes that the united states has seen in decades. and the creativity and and loven and passion and emotion of our members was out on the street in the communities, and the parks, for everyone to see. and i am so proud of our members. classroom teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians, psychologists, early educatotor, adult educators who took it upon themselves in record numbers on picket lines to express what we

have all known, but has been a truth hard to tell sometimes, which is that public education desperately needs attention. from the city, from the country, from the s state. amy: los angeles unified school district superintendent austin beutner also spoke at tuesday 's news conference, explaining four key areas where an agreement had been reached. >> the first was to write a fair 6% increase to a all of the working schools. the e second was to reduduce cls sizes, provide morore support to educators in schools, more nurses, , counselors, librarian. the third was to invest every nickel we have in our classrooms while maintaining the fiscal solvency of los angeles unified. probably the most important, his district and the voice of educators and provide more opportunities for

collaboration for all who work in our schools. amy: well, for more, we're joined by two guests. arlene inouye is chair of the bargaining team for united teachers los angeles, or utla. she is also the utla secretary. and sarah jaffe is a reporting fellow at the type media center, formerly the nation institute. she is the author of "necessary trouble: americans in revolt." welcome to democracy now! arlene inouye, let's begin with you. we see you as these announcements were big made. democracy now! just returned from los angeles. we went to the rally right before the announcement where firefighters had joined with the teachers in protesting. talk about the agreement that was reached, the striking teachers voted for last night. what exactly did you achieve? >> yes, thank you, amy. this was a historic agreement. it even gave us more than we had expected.

alththgh we had d very, very ststrong demands and we were clr that thehese demands needed to e met. and they included, basically, investing in our students, respect for educators, and to stop the privatization of our schools. so specifically, we were able to lower class sizes by anywhere one to seven students in a class depending on which kind of classroom you have, and to eliminate a provision that was in our contract that allowed the district to unilaterally increase class sizes. so that is out. and we were also able to get a nurse at every school five days a week, which is exactly what we asked for. more academic counselors, so if there's a racial -- racial 501. we also asked for teacher librarians to be brought back into our middle and has also hiring a 41 additional teacher

librarians moment to health professionals, able to get funding for different sources so we can lower the ratio for psychiatric social worker psychologists. ofre were gains for a lot the diversity of our unions. a lot of the different groups, such as substitutes, such as early educators, such as adult educators. we have bilingual education in there. we have a provision to stop -- to beow for a charter cap introduced at the state level. we have a state law that allows toegulated charter schools be started up anywhere, and it is an unlimited number. so now we have a cap on that. and for the very first time, a co-location article in our contract, meaning we put the

educators involved in the process that allows charter schools to come onto our public school campuses and to take over the space that the district says is unoccupied. and this is a state law that has been very difficult for a late -- l.a. unified because we basically have segregated campuses where we have charter schools on one side and our public school on the other hand. and sometimes the charter schools, very often, have lower class sizes. so we're able to compete with the charter schools by making our conditions better. we alslso betterer able to put o thee contract community schools, which is our alternative to charter schools. and that is bringing the investments into the neighborhood schools and allowing the parents, the educators, and students to have a say in the curriculum, whether it is music, arts, dual language

, ethnic studies, whatever it is that that community will be able to develop and be connected with parents. so this is our vision for public schools. we are so excited that we were able to move this vision ford and to address just ford and to address the unregegulated c char school growth in l.a., which we are ground zero for. we have over 270 unregulated charter schools. we knew this is about the survival of public education. it is about the desperate resources we have needed in our clclassrooms. classes -- i think you have heard, in the 30's in our elementary school and 40's and 50's and even sometimes 60's in our high schools. amy: 60 kids in a class? >> that's correct. we have documented, for example, the highest -- the 100 highest class sizes. with secondary schools where the have a caseload o of 500.

300 to 500 students on a caseload. that is how many kids our educators the e in a day.. we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. arlene inouye, chair of the bargaining team for utla, united teachers los angeles. sarah jaffe will be joining us who has been writing about this strike. this is democracy now! \ when we come back, we will talk more about the messages this is sending to ththose aroud the country by the privatization of education. also, denver teachers just devoted to go on strike. they will be striking on monday. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "people have the power." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. i just flew in on the redeye from los angeles to new york. when we came into los angeles yesterday morning, we went to a

rally of hundreds of teachers and firefighters from los angeles, from new york as well. unions that have come in solidarity to support the striking teachers. we spoke with a number of those teachers and supporters just before the agreement was reached between united teachers los angeles and the school district. again, this was the first teachers strike in los angeles and 30 years. i began by speaking with teacher marianne o'brien. can you tell us about the school we are standing outside of? you are a teacher, what grade you teach? >> we are at the learning complex. the school we are at is the logical school of global studies. , 10th grade english teacher. amy: why are you out here? >> we're here for a number of reasons. we do want better resources for our school. we went a higher salary, smaller class sizes, less testing.

about the, this is privatization of schools. with the superintendent austin beutner who is right now w pushg to privatize schools. that is a problem for usus becae our students would be disproportionately hurt by that and not have access to a quality education of all of the funding for public schools pools into charter schools. amy: how that works. >> a charter school works in that it has more at on a me. -- tommy. it would pull funding from public schools. that is a problem because they have more autonomy they are allowed to kick out students and choose who goes. there allowed to fire teachers. g geta problem because they to choose which students go into their schools so they are not going to choose the student who has issues. special ed, individualized plan.l

>> i also teach with her. i teach mainly ninth graders now in an effort studies class. i am not just here for myself. i am here for my kids because they cannot fight for what they deserve. what they deserve are fully funded community schools. if the community school is not the best school available, the net is a problem because the communities school should be the school where every single student can get a quality education. what we have been doing is funneling money from community schools to establish a completely disparate system that enables certain individuals, certain families access to a quality education at the expense of others. my students deserve the best. my students deserve the most of my time, the most of my energy, but they also deserve a nurse on campus every single day of the week. they deserve fully stacked library. they deserve sec yet to social

workers, as so many have already mentioned. our students come in with a lot of trauma. need to be addressed before they can be of the learn in my classroom. i am out here for them. this is not about our pay. that is by far the least important of our demands. this is about our kids and what they deserve. amy: this is the second-largest school district in the country, and it is 75% latino? >> yes. this is about fighting for communities of color because those are the communities that are affected by this privatization that has taken over. unfortunately, it has taken a strike to get attention to this really critical issue. usould much rather -- all of would much rather be in our classrooms right now. we are out here because we feel like we have to, because this is the only way we can make our voices heard on behalf of our students. amy: teachers at the learning complex which houses four schools, right before the announcement came down that the

teachers and the district had reached an agreement. the teachers voted on it last night and more than 31,000 teachers will go back to school today. arlene inouye, chair of the bargaining team for united teachers los angeles, or utla. sarah jaffe is a reporting fellow at the type media center, formerly the nation institute. you have been following this closely, this deep concern about the privatization of public education and the resources, public resources being funneled to private corporations. i heardcular concern yesterday, teachers expressed against the superintendent austin beutner, who did not come from an education background, a hedge fund. >> he is a wall street guy, and you certainly become a big hate object from the teachers i spoke to. students.parerents and

they have a lot to say about austin beutner. he came in seen a summit who came in with a plan, which was to privatize the district, break it up into 32 portfolio districts -- - to something like they did in newark with cory booker. amy: when he was mayor. >> yes. the teachers, stududents, and parents were angry enough at austin beutner to go to his house on thursday evening and hold a rallyly outside his house and say, "we have quesestions about privatization, the gentrification of our city. we want to live in an n affordae placace that has public schools that everybody can access." iny see him as an obstacle this. one of the teachers i spoke with last night retreated one of my tweets saying "he still has to go." there is an interesting story to follow-up on this which is there's going to be a special school board election coming up soon. amy: talk about the significance of that post up whatat happenedo the school board? how superintendent beutner was chosen.

>> the school board was elected in an election last are that had something like $14.7 million in outside funding spent on and by charter school advocates, big dollar hedge funds, things like that -- the usual people we see that roland did these places. they got a majority approach charters school candidates on their. they put beutner in. one of the school board members had to leave the board because of a scandal about campaign funding. now there's going to be a special election for his seat. the teachers have their candidate, which is going to be running. they have others that will bc and as more pro-charter schools. that will be the next big fight. if the teachers want beutner gone, that is when be the way to do it. amy: arlene inouyeye, can you tk about the message being sent? and your particular struggle around the school board and what you want to see happen, how you see this whole debate around charter schools shaping up now that the strike has ended? >> yes, amy.

i feel like the strike has sent a powerful message throughout the coununtry and eveven the wod that public educators are standing up for our schools, our students, and for ourselves. we're looking at decades of cuts and the demonization of public schools and the school teachers who work in them. this has been years in the making. and the use of standardized tests to rank students, rank schools, close schools, privatize schools -- we k know this is a modedel that is comin. lausd, with austin beutner, had -- reimagine the u.s. do that we were concerned about. what we have done is to say, no to privatization of schools

where we are ground zero and to in ours to investing public schools because we believe it is the foundation of our democracy and civic institution that every student needs a quality education. we have a higher percentage of special needs in l.a. unified because the charter schools do not have dust take a semper portion or choose to not accept the neediest kids in our city. we are 90% students of c color, 82% poverty and free luncnch prograram. we now want to invest in the students who have been stripped of a quality education. we have the highest class sizes and the nation. we are 48 out of 50. so we are ecstatic t this turnaround, a real clear shift in the direction of our school district a and, again, we are ea union that four years ago set

out on this path. this did not just happen the have beennths when we in negotiations, but four years ago we set down the path to organize our schools to bring in parents and community, and have a social justice agenda, and educational justice agenda for all of our students. that is why it is so exciting to us because we see in fruition this all coming to pass. and this is what other unions across the nation, other teachers unions are also fighting for -- the same issues. in different degrees, we have the same issues of the privatization n our schools and of the funding. so we are part of this movement. it began with chicago. amy: i want to talk about -- >> continue. and you go i want to talk about the progressive union caucus and the significance of it within the utla. >> like she said, the movement we are seen among teachers

unions, we got a wind of it in chicago but there has been reform within utla for at least a decade. teachers told me about movements going back to the 2008 financial crisis, the layoffs of a lot of teachers. the attempts to form a caucus really coming out of that. in 2014, becoming the union power caucus that took charge the like arlene, alex caputo-pearl, that brought in things like an organizing department, political department that the union did not have before, and voted to raise their owndues in ororder to do those things. climate, wejanice should be looking at a union that got teachers to vote to increase their own dues to invest in becoming a fighting organizing union. the we talk about this district, i was struck by how geographically huge it is. i live in new york, the biggest school district in the country. but you could fit i don't know how many new yorks in the i don't know how many square miles of the valley unified school

district. when they got a matter percent vote -- when they got a 90% vote to strike, they had to build up from the bottom-up that got every teacher never school in order to do this and then to pull off this strike were pretty much every teacher went out. amy: talk about the significance of this strike and what is now happening. see denver teachers voted overwhelmingly district. i want to turn what happened last i, denver teachers voting to strike for the first time in 25 years. the strike could begin as soon as monday. this is the leadad negotiator fr the dcta, denver classroom teachers association. >> tonight, denver teachers overwhelmingly agreed to strike. 93% voted to strike. they are striking for better pay

. they are striking for our profession. they are striking for denver students. amy: arlene inouye, what are some wars of wisdom you have for your colleagues in denver? this strike to begin, apparently, on monday. >> yes, and we are excited for the educators in denver that they have taken this step. i feel like what we have learned through the years is that when you communicate clearly what the messagee is an you reach out to parents and communities, our collective power is what got us to win. we havave a chapter leaderer in every single school. we have teams now, organizing teams at every school. we have constant communication. i think as you see, amy, when you talk to anybody, any teacher or parent out there that were on a picket line, they will tell you the same message -- why we

are fighting. it is very clear to us. i think by being able to organize across the board and theg in the voices, ordinary voices of our parents and our educators -- and i, myself, by the way am a speech and language specialist. i worked 18 years in l.a. unified. we have a diverse membership, including speech and language, including health and human services,, otpt, and so forth. and sometimes these little groups feel like their voices are not heard. that we were able to give -- we were able to draw attention to all of the needs in our schools, all of the professionals, and also the students, of course, and what they need, and really lived this up and to see it as an issue of social justice in our schools. we were also able to bring in some nonmandatory subjects of

bargaining into our schools, which we call, good issues, like stopping the criminalization of youth trhough wanding. andere able to bring in immigrant defense fund. we are a statement of our values and what is critical for how our schohools need to address the needs of our students. amy: what do you think that the district superintendent beutner -- what do you think they miscalculated when it came to the power of the strike? again, in los angeles you one out for the first time in 30 years. >> yes. thank you for that question, amy, because i do believe -- i kept saying all along that beutner has no idea of who he is fighting with because we have very, very strong emotions, tenacity in our members and

parents, as was reported earlier. they even went to his home -- when you come together with all of the voices, and including our students -- students are comingg out in record numbers on the picket line. as was m mentioned in the earlir is aerview with alex, it beautiful sight to see. i have never seen a strike like this where you are actually celebrating. it was like a love fest. i think it is because of the affirmation and the validation that our educators felt in the connection with our parents. amy: it was hard to conduct our interviews yesterday because the people were driving by and everyone was honking. the students were out with the teachers. they were not sank him oh, this is great, this is a week off for us. they were in the rain and cold saying, we're here side by side

because we know our teachers are here for us. sarah, you used to live in denver and are now covering the will a strike. and in oakland. california and colorado, these are two democratic states. and you have gavin newsom and mayor garcetti, the mayor of los angeles, who was the one who mediated the negotiations. >> colorado was still considered a red state when i lived there. i left in 2004. what we're seeing is the sort of return to the blue state of the teachers rebellion. we saw last your with the sort of red fred strike although colorado did have a day of action to all of that. this all really began in chicago. there was reform momovements in places like massachusetts and new york. it has been n a real challenge o these democrats because, again, calilifornia has been a blue ste for as long as you and i can remember.

it is 43rd in pursuit of funding: the level with some of these red fred states. that is the same problem in oakland. amy: a used to be one of the top in the country. now it is 43rd. >> as the proportion of students of color went up, the amount of per student funding went down. when you see these fights happening in these blue states, again, d democrats have been in favor of charter schools. i mentioned cory booker earlier. we had this experience here in new york. it is been bipartisan policy to sort of beat up on teachers and argue that privatizing will make them better. we are finally really seeing incredible pushback on that front, and it is changing the way a lot of people talk about it. in the naacp came out with a moratorium on charter schools recently. they had been in favor of charter schools. this is changing because of teteachers like arlene, the teachers in chicago,

massachusetts, and now colorado and probably next in oakland. amy: and oakland? >> i spoke to teachers in oakland in december. their complaints are similar to los angeles. their overcrowded, underfunded charter schools are taking the best students. the charter schools cup on one hand they can push them out, but on the other hand you have to apply to get in to charter schools. already you get the kids whose parents are more involved, who of the time to do that. undocumented students, their parents, especially under trump come are afraid to fill out any form and put any information down. that means those kids don't get it of charters because they are not applying. amy: one of the things teachers kept repeating to me over and over yesterday was, in chararter schohools, teachers can be f fid and ththe students can be firer. >> the accelerated school, a charter school in los angeles went on strike with his utla strike starting last tuesday. they were telling me 40% turnover at that school among teachers. youdo you do anything if

don't know if you're going to have your job next year? to: we're going to continue cover this wave of strikes. it looks like oakland is about to vote and denver teachers overwhelmingly voted to strike last night. teachers, over 31,000 come are back in their classrooms today and at their offices as they have just claimed a victory in the six-day histstoric strike, first one in0 years. i want to thank arlene inouye, chair of the bargaining team for utla utla secretary. ,and sarah jaffe is a reporting fellow at the type media center, formerly the nation institute. when we come back on the supreme court makes a major decision. we will talk about it. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on tuesday, the supreme court revived president donald trump's plan to ban transgender people from serving in the u.s. military. in a 5-4 decision, the supreme court lifted lower court rulings that had blocked the ban from going into effect on constitutional grounds. justices stephen breyer, ruth bader ginsburg, , sonia sotomay, and elena kagan dissented. trump first announced the ban on -- in 2017, but two lower court junctions blocked it. most will be permitted to go into effect as the ongoing lawsuits make their way up to the supreme court. while the court lifted the two injunctions, he did not rule on the legality of the ban itself. the pentagon praised the court ruling, stating -- "dod's proposed policy isis nota ban on service by transgender persons, it is based on

professional military judgment and will ensure that the u.s. armed forces remain the most lethal and combat-effective fighting force in the world." by chase we are joined strangio, staff attorney at the aclu, which is challenging the trump administration's ban on service members who are transgender. chase strangio, welcome to democracy now! talk about this decision. >> first, i want to acknowledge how heartbreaking it is to once again have the supreme court essentially greenlight apparently cruel and discriminatory policy coming out of the trump administration. this is disappointing and very scary for trans servicece membe, people wanting to serve in the trans community across the country. first, there is still an injunction in place. there is one nation what injunction the supreme court did not have before it.

so the policy cannot immediately go into effect, despite initial reports. the other thing important to clarify is the government is out in their statementnts saying things like, this is not a ban on transgender people serving. it is important of break that down. what they are saying is that transgender people, you can serve as long as you are completely covetable serving in your assigned sex at birth, that you don't transition, that you never have transition, and you don't say you are trans. .hat is definitionally a ban to say it is not as part of this a ministrations ever do say, we will be fine with you if you are trans as long as you're not trans. amy: is this just reviving don't ask don't tell? >> essentially. even worse and that they are essentially suggesting as we've seen across his administration a trance people don't exist at all full stop. that you can somehow suppress your transness live comfortably

in your sex assigned at birth. we cannot let them get away with the statatements that are makin. amy: i want to turn to brookstone, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the trump administration's ban on service members who are transgender. brock has served over a decade in the u.s. navy including a nine-month deployment to afghanistan. >> being able to serve openly as a trans rvrvice member has be berating kindf a big ight offy cht becse i ft cut t likee i had to hide before. felt kind of like hadad t hi beforor in t t navy, they hemohage you hosty. did not want to have to worry abou somebody sing sothing on facebook. that was a distrtion fromy dues. my exnded famy,

not just a j. has beean opportunity for me to give the people and interact with people and be part of something. amy: that is petty officer first class brock stone, the lead plaintiff in your case. talk about him, chase. >> brock and alexa many other christian of people, have been serving their country for many years. he lived in the shadows in his service and had to not serve openly, then came out of the the carter policy was first announced in 2016 under president obama. here we are a few years later and he is now at risk of losing his entire career and everything he worked for because of what started as a series of impulsive tweets by the president in 2017, surprising that only the country come not only trans service members, but the secretary of defense at the time. there has nevever been a militay justification offered for this ban. there is no question it is

driven by animus and discrimination. we're going to keep fighting for people like brock and our clients who have been working hard to enlist in the military. i want to say something to a lot of people who i've been in community with for a long time who have justifiable concerns about the actions of our u.s. military and don't support the military for many reasons. this isn't a question about whether or not we support the u.s. military policy. this is a labor issue, a survival issue, a question about whether the largest employer in our country can tell transgender welcome,ey are not that they cannot actively be who they are and retain their employment. we should be incredibly concern not only about what this means for trans people, for our employment, health care comes survival, and absolutelely every context, but whether or not we're going to accept the government policy that is premised on the idea we don't exist. and if we do exist, we should not be protected in any way. amy: i just came back from los angeles this morning, where i took part in a discussion on racial justice that was curated

by the well-known director ava duvernay are. i spoke with laverne cox, author woodson.e looked it was a national day of racial healing. well-knownerne cox, transgender actress and activist, to respond to the supreme court newsws. >> first o of all, i'm m not surprised given the nature and makeup of who is on the supreme court. when i look through it historically and try to put things in perspective, this is part of a larger pattern of the attack of transgender people that really probably maybe started four years ago or so. i think after the passage of marriage equality, some conservative folks needed a another group to scapegoat in

part. arguably since 2014, trans people more visible in the media than we ever have been before through youtube, etc. the real lived experiences of trans people are actually out there for people to access. in theas backlash earlier discussion. i think that is also going on. we've seen unprecedenteded introductions of anti-i-trans legislation all over the country. there have probably been over 400 pieces of legislation introduced since 2014. guidelines for how transgender children should be treated in school were rescinded. the current administration, they had a leaked memo last year that said once you just wanted you to change the definition of sex so basically, being what is on your birth certificate, if that is not to determine by chromosomes,

i don't know what kind of society does chromosome test. the idea of that is to give trans people no legal recourse under the law. they did this a lot of courts determined sex determined under title vii and title ix. i could go on and on. trans people being murdered with impunity. it is disgusting. there all of these things happening in the world. i think heart of that is about backlash. i think because we're more visible than folks creating these arguments -- i did indeed dive recently.y. some how anti-trans reader came up. i was like, let me see what these people are saying. usually do not expose myself to that kind of thing. it was fascinating how coordinated the anti-trans movement, i would say, very coordinated. they have similar talking points. there are groups organize just to introduce anti-trans

legislation all over the country. it cannot be a coincidence of these pieces of legislation are being introduced. it is a coordinated movement to basically attempt to define gender based on what you were assigned at birth control to really, based on genitalia because that is usually how we assign gender at birth. so it is a larger cultural issue. amy: that is the trans actress and activist laverne cox responded to the news yesterday of the supreme court upholding the ban. though not ruling legally on it, but allowing it to be in place, the trans ban on trans people in caseslitary until two make their way to the supreme court. i want to talk about another case. on tuesdsday, the aclu and the w york civil liberties union sued the new york police department on behalf of a transgender woman named linda dominguez. she was arrested and charged with "false personation" after she provided police officers with both her previous and current legal names after she

was stopped for walking through a papark at night. this is linda talking about what happened at the police precinct. i saw theprecinct, mock me. the poli l lookeat m me if ere wewe somethi wrong with a because she lked at msoso ly.. that is a man, that's s not man, what i ithat? i went through so chch tryeingng arrested in this way. it w a a verhorrrrib exexrience. i was about to take my own life. peop who are not as strong may ke theirwnwn life if they experice this, too. to do this with lawst t so ty dodon't keke doing this. i and the realizionf my ancestor dreams, and i cannot allow the police to abuse us trans girls. amy: that is linda dominguez. false personation? >> frankly, i am shocked the police and the prosecutors are still doing this in new york, essentially saying we are going

to charge you with a crime of just existing, of being your self. i want to note not only was she charged with false personation, which had to do with giving her name and try to comply with the police officer's request -- by the way, in a city -- in a state supposedly supposed to be progressive on trans issues -- but she was also arrested for walking through a park at night. i can assure you know white person has to worry about that. this is in issue of racial profiling, of the way trans women of color particularly profiled across the country. we are suing on linda's behalf and making a statement so the nypd and prosecutors in new york city know this is absolutely unacceptable. just tying this to what laverne was saying and what is going on from the federal government, we have to stay vigilant at every level of government. there are attacks on trans people happening. if we're not paying attention and the progressive cities and states, we are going to end up with a system in which we may

have formal equality in some places, but we do not have survival opportunitities for trs people. amy: earlier this month, new york state lawmakers approved a pair of bills aimed at protecting the lgbtq community. one bill bans licensed mental health professionals from participating in so-called conversion therapy. talk more about these bills and or concern. the village and has been pushing through the new york state assembly. basically, nondiscrimination law. we are explicitly protected people under state law. it comes with a hate crimes component which in the and incarcerates more people and is up officers allowed to arrest people of colors for antiwhite crimes, you know, trans and lgbt people first-rate crimes, so we have to be very careful about how our reform efforts are building a feeling mass incarceration's. as it should be more critical about how many people we are

sending to prison and how we're doing that in the service of what? amy: i want to thank you so much. clearly, conversation that needs to continue. chase strangio, staff attorney at the aclu challenging the trump administration's ban on service members who are transgender. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feed .

hello. a very warm welcome to nhk "newsline." we turn this hour to south korea. a former chief justice was arrested thursday. he is accused of abusing his authority including unjustly making a ruling on the war time issues. prosecutors alleged he acted in line with the wishes of former