CHARTER SCHOOLS TAKE ON THEIR ENEMY, LAUSD'S CONSTANT "NO" VOTER BENNETT KAYSER
The first charter school in L.A. was the Open School, an elementary school that petitioned the school district to be converted into a charter in 1993, allowing it to operate autonomously, beyond the thicket of LAUSD rules. One of the parents who signed that petition was a teacher named Bennett Kayser, whose youngest son attended the school.
Twenty-two years later, Kayser, now on the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, is the bête noire of the growing charter school movement.
By law, every proposed new charter school must go before the elected, seven-member LAUSD board for approval. And every five years the same seven politicians must renew every school's "charter" — rules by which charter schools operate outside the reach of LAUSD.
Most charter schools are approved with little to no discussion. Even controversial schools are often approved, despite the worries of some on the board that the charter schools are draining away students.
But Kayser takes it to a whole other level. The one-time parent of a child in L.A.'s first charter school votes against charter schools — nearly every chance he gets.
"[Steve] Ratliff and [Monica] Zimmer, they're open to listening," says Gary Borden of the California Charter Schools Association Advocates. "They judge each issue on its merits. We can work with them." But Kayser's "nearly 100 percent" opposition is "a reflexively reactionary vote."
Borden's advocacy group, CCSA Advocates, wants to push Kayser, who's up for re-election in L.A.'s March 3 primary, off the school board.
The group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on glossy mailers, radio ads, even TV ads, trashing Kayser. They hope to elect Ref Rodriguez, co-founder of Partnerships to Uplift Communities, or PUC, a chain of charter schools spread from Eagle Rock to Sylmar serving primarily minority and working-class kids.
PUC students earn academic scores well above the state average, the kind of scores seen in the nicest suburbs.
Meanwhile, the teachers union, UTLA, is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars touting Kayser and blasting Ref Rodriguez.
Rodriguez agrees that LAUSD should close down underperforming charter schools. But he's disturbed by Kayser's nuclear option of opposing even the ones where minority children are excelling.
Last year, the board voted to close Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo Academy, a heavily Latino school whose low-income kids were thriving academically. Rodriguez calls the vote "morally reprehensible." The board had insisted the school use LAUSD's special education plan, not its own.
Says Rodriguez: "Here's a high-performing school, by all measures, in a city that does not have a whole Charter Schools Take on Their Enemy, LAUSD's Constant "No" Voter Bennett Kayser - Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly:
