Who Should Run LA's Public Schools? - LA Progressive

Who Should Run LA's Public Schools? - LA Progressive:

Who Should Run LA’s Public Schools?

 

ver a decade ago, when there was a push to break off the vast San Fernando Valley from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and for the Valley to form its own school district, I was not in agreement. However, with approximately 675,000 students in the seven district areas that comprise LAUSD, I find I am now changing my mind, as have many of us who are education professionals and follow and write about public education.

This huge LAUSD enterprise, with a yearly budget of over $7 billion, has been mired in confusion, corruption, and inefficiency for many decades, and seems not to be manageable.

This huge LAUSD enterprise, with a yearly budget of over $7 billion, has been mired in confusion, corruption, and inefficiency for many decades, and seems not to be manageable. I tend to now agree with some Angelinos who are pushing to reconstruct LAUSD into multiple independent districts. The danger, however, is that it would further segregate the inner city students.

Right now, the multitude of charter schools (LA has the most in the nation) that pick and choose among students of color—leaving behind those who are hard to teach, English Language Learners, or are personally handicapped and have special needs—have contributed to almost total re-segregation of students of color despite the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education.

Also, it would be very costly to have all these new districts with a multitude of administrators. One of the greatest economic problems at LAUSD is the nepotism that for so many years has caused the abundance of hiring many unnecessary middle managers whose large salaries are now built into the budget and who do little to deserve this taxpayer largesse.

Many lifelong Los Angeles residents—and particularly those of us who are also professional educators—are beleaguered by the lack of input allowed the public by the district, lack of transparency of the district and the Board of Education, and the system of highly financed candidates who get elected to the BoE, who either are not educators, or also are not skilled in business management.

We do not need more ‘Voteria’-impacted (paying for votes through an illegal lottery), multi-Who Should Run LA's Public Schools? - LA Progressive: