ACLU Settlement: Helping or Hurting Students of Poverty?
photo from kpcc.org
In 2009, my school was decimated by seniority-based layoffs in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Twenty percent of our staff was fired in a reduction in force, a moment that was tragic for us, when instead we should have been celebrating a success. L.A. Academy, which had previously lost between 30-40% of teachers annually due to turnover, had reduced this transience to 0%. But then, the layoffs hit.
My school was one of many in poor, urban areas of Los Angeles that faced such a harsh reality. Letter writing campaigns, open letters, marches, parent mobilizations, presentations to the school board did nothing to