The crisis of public education in California
Los Angeles votes on school restructuring initiatives
By Dan Conway
10 February 2010
Schools throughout Los Angeles held community elections last week to decide whether or not to restructure public schools in accordance with provisions of the city’s recently drafted Public School Choice initiative. The vote—which was non-binding and thus does not force the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to actually heed the expressed sentiments of parents, teachers, and students—took place on Tuesday and Saturday of last week. While the district initially promised that results would be announced on Saturday afternoon, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has delayed their posting until February 12.
The Public School Choice initiative was drafted in response to recent legislation passed by state government that is intended to make California eligible for up to $700 million in awards under the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” education program. The passage of the legislature—which allows the state to close public schools and convert them to charter schools—links teacher and administrator work evaluations to student test performance, gives parents greater freedom to take their children out of supposedly poorly-performing public schools and transfer them to newly created charters, and permits parents to petition for the replacement and firing administrators and teachers—does not guarantee that California will actually receive any of the “Race to the Top” money, only that it will be in competition with various other near-bankrupt states for the funds.
Three days before signing the bill, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a budget for the state that included more than $2.4 billion in cuts to K-12 education. If passed, these will follow on the heels of upwards of $20 billion in cuts to the school system in 2009.
At the school polls in Los Angeles last week, voters were asked to indicate which private or semi-private charter school company should be awar
