Neighborhood Councils Should Scrutinize Neighborhood Schools, iPad Initiative
Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD
When Mayor Villaraigosa made a grab for control of school affairs channelingthe approach of his Big Apple-counterpart, we Angelenos would up with clearly delineated and separate roles relegated to either side of the Harbor Freeway. To the west along Beaudry the school board remains in charge of our schools, aided by an appointed superintendent of their “choosing”. (Some salaries of the superintendent’s private circle were once and may yet be paid by private foundations, but the current status of such influence-peddling is hard to deduce).
Nevertheless we citizens retain, by-and-large, a seven-member elected board of directors mandated to address exclusively our education concerns, and issues relating to the pedagogy of our own children.
Meanwhile on the other side of the freeway, a 15-member elected city council retains control over LA’s remaining civil matters, the planning, the streets, the utilities, etc. But for the past decade this power has been shared, slightly, downward and outward, through a broadly blanketing series of democratic Neighborhood Councils whose “participants are empowered to advocate directly for real change in their communities”.
Challenges to this structure are therefore very much of interest to members of