What Happened to Workers’ Ed?

The UCLA Labor Center functions as a sort of policy and research think tank for the network of community nonprofits, legal advocacy groups, and strong unions that make up the city’s vibrant left. With collective bargaining effectively out of reach for many, institutions such as the UCLA Labor Center have been laboratories for discovering new ways to represent the American working class. Beyond Los Angeles, however, similar university programs are enduring closures, downsizing, and legal challenges to their legitimacy as publicly funded institutions. As American labor searches for a viable strategy to endure and grow, its limited footholds in many state institutions of higher learning are coming loose.