Change The LAUSD

The Los Angeles Times reported on November 4, 2015, that the LAUSD is headed for a major funding shortfall.

In my 35 years of teaching in Los Angeles, LAUSD always follows the same pattern:

First, the forecast of financial doom in the future.

Then, oh where can we cut, oh where can we cut?

 “Charter schools allow parents, teachers and the community to transform our public school system.”

-California Charter School Association

As Eli Broad prepares to implement his plan “to reach 50 percent charter market share” within the LAUSD, now is the time for Angelenos to begin asking what this privately controlled system would look like. While Broad claims that his takeover of public education will bring an “expansion of high-quality charter schools in Los Angeles,” is there any proof that existing charter schools have reached this standard of excellence? Do charter schools help to “ensure that no Los Angeles student remains trapped in a low-performing school,” or would this expanded network of publicly funded private schools continue to cherry-pick the easiest to teach students who are more likely to increase their school’s reported test scores. Most importantly, do these schools actually want “parents [who] are effectively engaged” or will their right to elect representatives to the governing boards be revoked once these schools are established?

The seven members of the school board are elected. Do they care about education or is it politics they care about? Are they educators, parents with school age children or are they aspiring politicians?

Warren Furutani and Jackie Goldberg, former school board members, got elected to serve in Sacramento. Rita Walters and Jose Huizar got elected to the City Council. Bobbie Fielder went to Congress.

It is name recognition. Once they are serving on the School Board, they find an elected seat that is to be vacated, they run, and since their name is known they win. Look at all the politicians who have switched between Sacramento and the Los Angeles City Council. They have become career politicians enjoying the perks, the attention, the limelight, and the fame. What else can they do?

When they see another elected office opening up do they remain on The Board of Education or are they bored of education?

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”

Steve Zimmer and George McKenna made clear where their loyalties lie when they joined Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez to block public access to the finalists in the search for a new Superintendent. At the October 13th Board meeting, Monica Ratliff proposed a resolution that would have made “the finalists public, but her effort failed.” With Scott Schmerelson and Richard Vladovic voting “yes,” only one more vote was needed to ensure an open process. Despite the significant support that both Zimmer and McKenna have received from the supporters of public education in past elections, neither felt that the public deserved a final say on who will be the next leader of  our district.

Here are the proven ways to get sent to teacher jail:

1.Be at the top of the salary scale.

2.Be close to vesting in lifetime benefits.

3.Be an advocate for your students and their families.

“As it relates to my brother, there’s one thing I know for sure: he kept us safe.”

-Jeb Bush

How is it that the party that credits Reagan for getting the hostages in Iran released because it occurred “on the same day and at the same hour” that he was sworn in can also blame Clinton for 9/11 because they allege that he was guilty of “backing off, letting the Taliban go, over and over again.”   While Ben Carson may think that “it’s ridiculous to suggest [Bush] was responsible for” the allowing the events of that day to have occurred, the fact is that W had been in office for almost eight months. This passage of time negates Condoleezza Rice’s excuses that they “were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida” and “what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton Administration did in the preceding years.” As the threat against the country built during the month of August 2001, the Bush Administration was not scrambling to rework the anti-terrorism apparatus. Instead the President “was on vacation” in Texas and the CIA Director George Tenet was put “on leave” Jeb’s assertion that his brother “kept us safe” is the equivalent of maintaining that Ted Kennedy had an excellent driving record if you ignore that one night in Chappaquiddick.

Public education is free; paid for by our property tax dollars. No one makes a profit from it. The board of education and the state superintendent of public education are chosen in free elections.

All of that is changing. Billionaires are pouring millions into local school board races to elect candidates who will serve their needs. Dot com millionaires with no knowledge of public education are running for statewide educational positions. 

These wealthy investors who would never allow their children to attend public or charter schools, who would never allow their children to attend schools using the Common Core, who would never allow their children to attend schools where everything including teachers’ evaluations depends on test scores, who would never allow their children to attend schools where the class sizes are large and there is minimal support personnel, are investing in charter and online schools and are working behind the scenes to get elected officials and district administrators to close public schools and send the students to for profit charters.

Rafe Esquith “wants to shut down teacher jail. Mostly he wanted to teach. That’s not going to happen anymore not at Hobart, not by L.A.Unified and he wants to never let this happen to any teacher again.”

-Mark Geragos

When it comes to Rafe Esquith, the LAUSD is in a no-win situation. Eventually, the public will be presented with the evidence that the District has dug up against the famed teacher and the court of public opinion will decide if he should have been removed from the classroom. If the public agrees that the District’s actions were correct, the LAUSD will need to explain why it took them 30 years to find that Esquith was unfit for the classroom. However, a finding that he was framed will expose another instance of bullying by the District and they will owe the current students of Hobart Elementary School an explanation for why they were deprived of the experience of being Hobart Shakespeareans. The 640,000 students of the LAUSD will also want to know why over $1 billion meant for their education is being jeopardized by this behavior.

Teaching to the test. Then testing. The rhythm of education in LAUSD today. 

LAUSD is robbing your children of a well rounded education, a proper education, an education like they gave you before all the tests.

Teaching to the test. Then testing. The rhythm of education in LAUSD today.

Test scores, tests scores: compare them, improve them, at what cost to the students? At what costs to their futures?

Teaching to the test. Then testing. The rhythm of education in LAUSD today.

The fun is gone. The creativity is gone. The education in LAUSD has become a business. No longer are the students the bottom line--tests scores are.

“It is clear to all present that which you have pointed out. I would sarcastically compare you to Sherlock Holmes, were I the type, but suffice it to say, sir, that you are a dullard.”

-Matt E.

In reporting on Racy Film Sets, KNBC found that the LAUSD is a “school system lacking oversight,” that obtaining information from the District requires “fighting for access to public records” and exceptions will be made to a policy prohibiting the disruption of “any school instructional program...in exchange for additional donations.” For readers of the Parental Engagement blog, these stories are not new. My campaign for LAUSD School Board was based on bringing accountability to the District. The Office of the General Counsel has blocked or stonewalled my attempts to gather information about the forced departure of David Binkle and Disruptive Parent Letters. Blogs about the California Charter Schools Association and Eli Broad have shown how they have been able to spread their resources, either through campaign spending or in restricted donations to the District, to take control of the LAUSD. KNBC: welcome to the party. Where have you been?