Occupy LAUSD: What Does 'The Man' Have to Do With L.A.'s Educational Woes?: LAist #ows

Occupy LAUSD: What Does 'The Man' Have to Do With L.A.'s Educational Woes?: LAist:

Occupy LAUSD: What Does 'The Man' Have to Do With L.A.'s Educational Woes?

Occupy LAUSD tents on Day 3 (Photo by @JoseDelBarrio via yfrog)

Since Tuesday, Santee teacher Jose Lara has been sitting--no standing--at the corner of 4th and Beaudry at LAUSD Headquarters. Occupy Wall Street has beget Occupy L.A. has beget Occupy LAUSD. The movementstates "This is a call out to the 99% in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is time we Reclaim Our Schools from the 1% wealthy."

But what does "the man" have to do with huge class sizes, dirty classrooms, empty libraries, fallow gardens and laid off teachers? Haven't the schools been the victim of state budget cuts? According to Lara and education activist Robert Skeels the beleaguered school district is running a current $50 million surplus and not rehiring RIF'd (a polite term given by corporations for firing without giving cause) teachers, staff and librarians? Why? Why conflate the 1% of the country with a battered school district? Perhaps having billionaire