LOS ANGELES Tuesday, on the second day of the Los Angeles teachers strike, tens of thousands of educators protested in front of the California Charter Schools Association building at a rally so crowded that participants were standing shoulder to shoulder.

Among the crowd of protesters were teachers from Accelerated Charter Schools, who started their own strike Tuesday morning, along with members of the United Teachers Los Angeles union.

As the Los Angeles Unified School District strike heads into its third day affecting half a million students and over 30,000 teachers with no immediate end in sight, charter schools are in the spotlight. Teachers are asking the district for smaller class sizes and more support staff, and in the backdrop are larger issues about charter school growth and how it affects district finances.

And educators from the Accelerated Charter Schools a network of three schools are standing in solidarity while fighting for their own needs.

A strike of charter school educators is unprecedented in California and nearly unprecedented in the nation the vast majority of charter school educators are not unionized, unlike those from Accelerated Charter Schools. On Tuesday these educators joined the thousands of traditional public school teachers on strike, notably rallying outside the building of an organization that works to advance charter schools interests.

A strike involving charter school employees who are deeply critical of the system in which their schools operate only invites more criticism and is symbolic of the microscope that charters are currently under. The educators at Accelerated Charters are fighting for more job security, binding arbitration and health care benefits.