L.A. charter schools get a chance to grow, but how big? -- latimes.com:
"But the mayor's team did not wait for a formal process to quietly take control of the Mendez Learning Center, a high school opening this fall in Boyle Heights. In an interview, Cortines said that he had opposed the hand-over but that school board President Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, had insisted on it.
'There was an end-run by the partnership,' the superintendent said. 'They found a way to . . . steal the school, and it's unfortunate.'
Cortines said the new procedures for taking charge of a school would establish rules that neither the mayor nor anyone else could circumvent.
The reform plan will be overseen by newly arrived district official Matt Hill, whose $160,000salary is paid by the foundation of philanthropist Eli Broad. Hill's staff expenses are likely to be covered in part by a $4.3-million grant from Los Angeles sports executive Casey Wasserman. Both donors have given money to charter schools, and Broad has said he hopes charters will gradually dismantle L.A. Unified, which he considers beyond hope for rapid improvement."
One inside formula would be based on 10 experimental pilot schools in the Pico-Union area.At these schools, for example, the teachers union has agreed to a process by which ineffective teachers, even tenured ones, can be removed. And principals must receive an annual vote of confidence from a school governing committee.No entity fought the reform plan harder than United Teachers Los Angeles. Union leaders characterized it as a right wing-inspired privatization scheme that could destabilize public education. They may yet file suit to stop it, but they have also urged teachers to participate."If we seize this chance, we could turn this destructive idea into a more promising one," UTLA President A.J. Duffy said in a bulletin to members. "It could be the mechanism by which we free schools from top-down control."
"But the mayor's team did not wait for a formal process to quietly take control of the Mendez Learning Center, a high school opening this fall in Boyle Heights. In an interview, Cortines said that he had opposed the hand-over but that school board President Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, had insisted on it.
'There was an end-run by the partnership,' the superintendent said. 'They found a way to . . . steal the school, and it's unfortunate.'
Cortines said the new procedures for taking charge of a school would establish rules that neither the mayor nor anyone else could circumvent.
The reform plan will be overseen by newly arrived district official Matt Hill, whose $160,000salary is paid by the foundation of philanthropist Eli Broad. Hill's staff expenses are likely to be covered in part by a $4.3-million grant from Los Angeles sports executive Casey Wasserman. Both donors have given money to charter schools, and Broad has said he hopes charters will gradually dismantle L.A. Unified, which he considers beyond hope for rapid improvement."
One inside formula would be based on 10 experimental pilot schools in the Pico-Union area.At these schools, for example, the teachers union has agreed to a process by which ineffective teachers, even tenured ones, can be removed. And principals must receive an annual vote of confidence from a school governing committee.No entity fought the reform plan harder than United Teachers Los Angeles. Union leaders characterized it as a right wing-inspired privatization scheme that could destabilize public education. They may yet file suit to stop it, but they have also urged teachers to participate."If we seize this chance, we could turn this destructive idea into a more promising one," UTLA President A.J. Duffy said in a bulletin to members. "It could be the mechanism by which we free schools from top-down control."
