Jackie Goldberg Explains the Coming War to Save Public Education
After winning a Los Angeles school board seat, Goldberg speaks about charter schools, money and what it means to fight the good fight.
Jackie Goldberg has spent her life fighting for students. From 1983 to 1991, she served on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s board of education, including a term as president. She later became an L.A. City Councilmember and then served three terms in the California State Assembly, where she also served as chairperson of the Assembly Education Committee. Now, nearly 30 years later, Goldberg returns to the board, having been elected to fill the District 5 seat vacated with last year’s resignation of Ref Rodriguez, the former board president who was convicted of campaign money laundering. (Goldberg will now complete a term expiring in December 2020.)
At 74, Goldberg still seems as energetic and passionate as ever. Shortly after winning the board seat, she spoke to Capital & Main about charter schools, money and what it means to fight the good fight. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Capital & Main: You’ve been an outspoken critic of charter schools. Now that you’ve won the election, are you prepared to battle school board members like Nick Melvoin, who have strongly supported their growth?
Jackie Goldberg: I’m ready to go to battle but it isn’t what I’d prefer to do. What I want to do is to pass Measure EE, and then we can fight about how to spend that money. I do want to have a more close fiscal control of charter schools in the district.
“Public education is dying. It is dying because it’s being financially killed.”
There are things that I want to do right away about charters, but most of the work is in Sacramento. I’ve already been up to Sacramento once on this issue, and have talked to a number of people. I do think that we need to get some reforms on charters, such as a back- CONTINUE READING: Jackie Goldberg Explains the Coming War to Save Public Education | Capital & Main
