L.A. school board to consider revised motion against rapid charter expansion
Los Angeles school board member Scott Schmerelson, who recently urged his colleagues to oppose a massive charter school expansion plan, has revised a proposal to make it more general — opposing market-driven education reforms and no longer singling out a local foundation for specific criticism.
Schmerelson's amended version has moved away from overtly criticizing the locally based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which had been spearheading the charter plan.
As his motion is now written, Schmerelson wants the school board to oppose “external initiatives that seek to reduce public education in Los Angeles to an educational marketplace and our children to market shares.”
A confidential draft of the charter proposal, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, called for half of district students to enroll in charters over the next eight years. The plan was developed without input from the L.A. Unified School District and could be pursued whether the district likes it or not.
Since then, the Broad Foundation has characterized the leaked plan, which called for raising $490 million, as a “preliminary discussion draft” rather than a call to action. And last month, two charter advocates formed a nonprofit organization that they said would be the next step in the effort. They insisted that the new entity would be devoted to creating superior public schools of any model, charter or otherwise, although documentation they provided mostly touted the benefits of charters.L.A. school board to consider revised motion against rapid charter expansion - LA Times:
ODE TO BROAD
