Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools
Nearly 100 students, teachers and parents marched toward a busy intersection of Koreatown yesterday to advocate for better school funding and more community control of L.A. public schools.
The coalition of activists briefly disrupted traffic at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, but the peaceful demonstration earned the car-horn admiration of rush hour commuters and the cooperation of local law enforcement.
The rally, organized by Schools L.A. Students Deserve, was a hotbed of Los Angeles public school discontent, with protestors decrying everything from over-testing to misallocation of district funds. The controversial iPad purchasing program was popular fodder for protestors, with one high school senior, Michelangelo Diaz, calling the severely restricted and pre-loaded tablets, "a waste of money."
SEE ALSO: LAUSD's iPad Problem Is Not Going Away
Wearing red shirts, carrying handcrafted signs and chanting slogans, the group blasted Superintendent John Deasy for being tone deaf and accused the administrator of catering to corporate interests. Not an audacious claim considering the large amount of districts funds sunk into educational iPad software provided by multinational corporate juggernaut, andCommon Core beneficiary, Pearson. The company also coincidentally supplies the school system's eTextbooks and testing material. All for a nominal fee, of course.
Oh, and you want to see Pearson's digital curriculum, you nosy public school teachers? Good luck with that.
It's also worth noting that one of the participants was USC's own Hannah Nguyen, one of the Students, Teachers March To Demand Changes To L.A. Public Schools | Neon Tommy: