Change The LAUSD

Why are we in Afghanistan anyway? 

To get our soldiers killed or injured or to have the soldiers return with PTSD, no jobs awaiting them, and limited federal government support.

Why did we invade and destroy Iraq?

To make billions for the defense industry which supports legislators with campaign contributions, and to make billions for the corporations rebuilding and the private defense firms guarding Iraq. And oil power.

Why is there a war on teachers?

To have every student in public schools enter for profit charter schools and to break the power of the teachers’ unions.

Money, lots of money:

“Watch a fully-formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’”

-Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina seems intent on proving the adage that “a lie told often enough becomes the truth.” During the September 16, Republican debate, she gave a detailed description of a scene from the “highly edited”  videos from the Center for Medical Progress, an organization that sounds like it could be lifted straight out of an Orwellian 1984. Problematically, “the exact scene, exactly as Ms. Fiorina describes it, is not on the videos.” Politifact rated the statement as “Mostly False,” saying that while “Fiorina makes it sound as if the footage shows what Planned Parenthood is alleged to have done...stock footage was added to the video to dramatize its content.” The anti-abortion group that produced the video admits that one of those images was “of a stillborn baby that was made to look like an aborted fetus.” At best, the actual quote cited is poorly paraphrased as the transcript states “this is a really good fetus. It looks like we can procure a lot from it. We’re going to procure a brain.”

“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

-The United States Constitution

The members of the Republican party may want the voters to believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation (or if they are feeling generous, a “Judeo-Christian nation”), but this view was not unanimously shared by the Founding Fathers. For example, the Constitution specifically prohibits a religious test for “any office or public trust.” Religious freedom was further expanded with the passage of the First Amendment, which prohibited Congress from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion” and building what Thomas Jefferson called “a wall of separation between Church and State.” In 1797 the Senate ratified and President John Adams signed a treaty between the United States and Tripoli that stated “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded in the Christian Religion.”

“Pursuant to Gov. Code §6254(f), the records you have requested are exempt from disclosure.”

-LAUSD, Office of the General Counsel (OGC)

The LAUSD Inspector General’s (IG) office seemed confident in their audit of the Food Services division when they stated in their draft report “that the program is currently at a minimum being mismanaged and at worst being consistently abused.” The fact that this was a “confidential personnel matter” did not stop the District from releasing this report to the press, which then said that the Food Services Director David Binkle had been suspended with pay. Actually, like those in “Teacher Jail” Binkle was actually “re-assigned,” literally under house arrest. During work hours he was forbidden by the District to leave his house as he waited for inspectors. He reports that those inspectors never showed up to hear his side of the story. It was unclear why these investigators had not concluded their investigation before writing a report and publically dragging an honored employee’s name through the mud. In February, the IG said they expedited the audit “to be completed by early summer.” With this deadline long past, the District said on Thursday that it is still “ongoing.”

My name is Bilbo Billionaire and my family through three generations has continued to double our fortunes every year. No one in my family, no one in my peer group, and no one on my Board of Directors, and no one in any of their families has ever attended public schools. We have been at the top private schools all the way.

I am investing in charter schools and online schools because both are real moneymakers. I have spent millions on local school board and statewide elections on candidates who advocate charter school education. I am strongly opposed to advocates of public school education.

(The following is fictional)

Amelia Bedalia Elementary in LAUSD is the future of education, so we follow the party line and it is reported in Pravda, I mean the LA School Report.

We teach solely to the test.

Language Arts and Mathematics are the only subjects taught. 

Physical Education is one day a month for 20 minutes.

Recess has been eliminated. Lunch is 15 minutes and only for eating. Bathroom breaks are strongly discouraged.

Are they trying to provide a proper education for the students or are they trying to see who has the most power and influence?

Are trying to see which Los Angeles millionaires and billionaires can get their candidates elected to the LAUSD school board and who can get their chosen person selected as Superintendent?

Are they trying to get all senior teachers to retire early to save lifetime benefits by finding a reason to put them into teacher jails?

Are they trying to make sure that fewer students past the worthless tests so that more parents put their kids into charter schools that are for profit with the billionaires and millionaires as the investors in the schools?

Are they trying to make the teachers feel so poorly and be paid so poorly that they quit and leave the field of education?

Are they trying to force Breakfast In the Classroom so that their sponsors sell surplus food, the kids get fat on the high calorie, breakfasts, the teachers have to clean up and can have a bug infestations in their classrooms, and more educational time is lost?

“Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she is ‘sorry’ for using a private email server, going further than ever before to express remorse for the controversy that has rocked her campaign.”

-CNN

Ironically, I decided to support President Obama in 2008 based on the assumption that Hillary Clinton was such a magnet for controversy that if she were to become President she would become so bogged down in defending herself that little would get done. I clearly remembered that Bill Clinton’s Presidency was a string of manufactured scandals that resulted in an actual impeachment and, with the exception of a certain encounter just outside the Oval Office, his wife was often included in the scandal du jour. If Democrats were going to regain the Presidency, it was best to do so with a candidate who represented a fresh start and who was free of  scandals.

“At Granada Hills Charter High School, we are always looking to give our parents tools to advance their children’s education. That is why we are proud to partner with the California Charter Schools Association. CCSA is here to educate, engage, and empower parents of charter school students to stay informed on issues that affect their school and all charter schools in California. To help get that relationship started, we will be sharing our school directory with CCSA, so you can hear directly from them.”

-Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS)

The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) likes to argue that “charters [sic] schools are public schools." While it is true that these schools do receive public tax dollars, there is little else that qualifies them as a public entity. By their own accord they are “free from most rules and regulations governing conventional public schools,” even when that “red tape” was designed to protect students. While their website promises that “if a charter school cannot perform up to the established standards, it will be closed,” the LAUSD, Los Angeles County Office of Education and the office of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction have all displayed an unwillingness to hold these schools accountable to the laws governing public schools. Worst of all, charters have not proven to be any more successful at providing children with the education that they need. Despite their ability to cherry pick the easiest to educate students, recently released test scores showed that independent charters within the LAUSD were “below the state average” and “almost even with [the District’s] traditional [schools] and affiliated charters.”

“As required under California Government Code section 6253, the District will make a determination within 10 days as to whether or not a request is seeking records that are publicly disclosable and, if so, to provide the estimated date that the records will be made available."

-LAUSD, August 4, 2015

While running for a seat on the School Board I had the opportunity to give voice to the victims of bullying by the LAUSD. I listened to the stories of those in Teacher’s Jail and repeatedly heard about the abuses of power within the District. Every time I wrote an article a voice in the back of my head reminded me that this could be the time that a teacher was actually at fault, but that never happened. In retrospect, that makes sense; clear cut cases of wrongdoing do not require an extended stay of paid leave while the district conducts an “investigation.”