Change The LAUSD

Not a day goes by where a charter school controversy or scandal is not exposed in California or the rest of the nation. The frequent media coverage of charter school misconduct exposes how the increasing privatization of our public education system has turned our current educational landscape into a laughable charade at the expense of our children’s education and their overall well-being. New and growing research is mounting regarding the consequences of not having strong oversight, transparency, and accountability over charter schools, which includes increased corruption and educational dishonesty.

Read the article by Dr. Rocio Rivas on K-12 News Networks The Wire.

“It is our job to make his pattern of revolting behavior clear -- piece by painful piece”

- Brett Kavanaugh

Much like Dr. Christine Ford, Monica Lewinsky’s life was turned upside down by the glare of someone else's spotlight. While Brett Kavanaugh asserted that engaging in sexual relations with Bill Clinton turned “her life into a shambles”, from Lewinsky's point of view it was his boss, Kenneth Starr, “who turned [her] 24-year-old life into a living hell”. As tribal politics raged, it was not the sex acts, but Clinton’s use of her as “a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position” that provided his contribution to her enduring victimization.

“Numbered wristbands will be distributed by District security officers to individuals in line outside of the Board Room doors starting at 8 a.m. Those who wish to attend this meeting should reassemble in numerical order by 12 noon to enter the Board Room and, if interested, to sign up to speak.”

- LAUSD

Before the Internet enabled us to purchase concert tickets from the comfort of our own homes, people would line up at Ticketmaster outlets on the day they went on sale in an effort to get the best possible seats. For very popular acts, these lines would start forming early in the morning and could get very long. To ensure fairness and prevent fighting, security guards would attach numbered wristbands to the patrons that would ensure that everybody was served in the order that they arrived. Unfortunately, there was a good chance that many of the people at the front of the line had no real intention of attending the show. Instead, they were being paid by ticket scalpers who would resell them, at a highly inflated price to those who were unwilling, or unable to get to the box office early.

Let’s schedule LAUSD school board meetings on more evening and weekend times, provide overflow space with a remote feed to attendees, and resolve to adopt other innovative ideas to bring parent involvement and community participation into the digital age.

Sign and share the petition to show your support!

“Out on the road today
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said
‘Don't look back, you can never look back’"

- Don Henley

When Don Henley released the song “The Boys of Summer” in 1984, I had just begun my senior year in high school and life was exciting. With a long-term girlfriend, I was exploring what it was like to be in a relationship. My unrestricted driver’s license was brand new and I could now make plans without having to rely on my mother for transportation. My band, in which I was the drummer, was taking the first steps towards turning noise into music and my school notebooks were peppered with lyrics for songs that were waiting to be written. While I planned to move on to college, I dreamed of becoming a rock star.

"The teachers of Los Angeles have authorized a strike. As you will see in this article by LA parent Carl Petersen, negotiations remain stalled.

The district claims it can’t afford to settle with its teachers. This having raised Board Member salaries by 174% and paying its new superintendent a base salary of $350,000 (supporters of former investment banker Beutner originally said he would take no salary).

One of the richest cities in the nation claims it can’t pay its teachers or provide the services children need. Yet LAUSD managed to find an extra $1 billion for John Deasy’s iPad Fiasco.

Cue the world’s smallest violin.

And this:

Read the article HERE

"Where am I going to leave her today? I have to call in sick."

- Parent of Student enrolled in a closed charter school

Imagine if the LAUSD decided that one of their schools was draining resources from the District and decided to shut it down just days into the start of the school year. Of course, this would never happen. Part of the mission of public schools is to serve all students, even if some students cost more to educate than others.

In a recent op-ed, Gloria Molina attempted to absolve the L.A. School Board of responsibility for their refusal to fund the education our students deserve. In response, I sent the following letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times. It was not published.

As the LAUSD tries to pit parents against teachers, it should be noted that the union’s proposed contract would reduce class sizes, ensure that there is a full-time nurse in every school and put full-time librarians back to our secondary schools.

The District says it would like to put “kids first” but cannot find the funds. There is no money left after spending $400 million to build (and rebuild) the Belmont Learning Complex atop a toxic site, $1 billion on the failed iPad project, $111.5 million for the botched MiSiS system and $139 million settling the Miramonte sex abuse cases.

Parents will ultimately decide who wins this fight as empty classrooms would force the District to look elsewhere in the bloated bureaucracy for the cuts needed to give students the education that they deserve. My two LAUSD students and I will be joining their teachers on the picket lines.

Donald Trump is a master of branding. He took a “small loan of a million dollars”, bought some gold spray paint and turned the Trump name into something synonymous with how poor people think rich people live. Sure, you could not afford to live in the Trump Tower where the penthouse has “over over-the-top surroundings that might make Liberace blush” and the “upper-level residential floors are not equipped with fire sprinklers”, but what about some Trump Steaks? They were best when “cooked well-done and smothered in ketchup.” If these “dreadful pieces of meat for a high price” did not kill you and you still had room left on your credit card, you could have looked for a class at Trump University on how to inherit millions from your father and turn it into six bankruptcies.

"There is currently an effort to call for a strike that pits adults versus adults when students and their families will bear the brunt of a strike action."

- LAUSD School Board

Having gladly accepted the title of “a gadfly at the school board meetings”, I have a natural tendency to be suspicious of the LAUSD’s marketing materials. This is particularly true when the document is titled with the very 1984 sounding “Just the Facts.” However, recognizing that the union’s first priority is to represent the best interests of the teachers, I realize that their contract demands are not going to automatically line up with the needs of families. With this in mind, I dove into the gap that divides the two sides. I have broken the issues down by what the District states the United Teacher Los Angeles (UTLA) claims are: