Los Angeles district’s improbable member Monica Ratliff: We need ‘greater bilingual and dual language offerings’
Fifth-grade math teacher Monica Ratliff became the newest member of L.A. Unified School Board after a heavily-publicized win against Antonio Sanchez, a labor union favorite who outspent her bynearly $2 million. Since Ratliff started her term, the country’s second-largest school district has seen its share of controversy, from a botched iPad initiative to the near resignation of Schools Superintendent John Deasy last month. Ratliff did not want to discuss her views on Deasy, but shared her opinions with The Hechinger Report on a range of issues facing the nation’s second-largest school district.
Monica Ratliff
Question: Your decision as a teacher to run for the board created a lot of interest. Why did you want to be on the board?
Answer: I just got tired of having the district issue mandates that seemed disconnected from the classroom and the students. Many times the district would hand down directives that did not seem to serve the needs of our students. So here’s an example related to iPads. Teachers who have iPads are not able at this time to just download apps they might believe have instructional value. The district is trying to come up with a plan on how they’re going to monitor app downloads in the sense of giving permission and so on. For me, this is slowing down teachers. Some of the teachers already have the iPads, yet the district rule is that you’re not supposed to download any app without district permission. They’re still coming up with a policy and I think this is an example of where a large district starts to hinder its teaching force. Some teachers have knowledge of where to go to get more information but I don’t believe that that’s our whole teacher population.
Q: What are your views on charter schools in Los Angeles?
A: I can say pretty unequivocally that I support successful charter schools. If some teacher wants to create a charter school and has a vision for the school and is able to create a plan that is