Civic Leaders Fund Their Own Interests in AD54’s Special Election – redqueeninla

Civic Leaders Fund Their Own Interests in AD54’s Special Election – redqueeninla

Civic Leaders Fund Their Own Interests in AD54’s Special Election

There’s a political newcomer in AD54 (extending across eastern West-LA to western South-LA) who has burst on the scene with startling presence. Gregarious and appealing, Isaac Bryan has a hard luck story that scans like the Parable of the Prodigal Son of modern society, ready to make up for former academic and behavioral lapses with his personal charisma and gilded fluency in issues of social justice.

But if Mr Bryan is society’s prodigal son, then who is conferring the proverbial inheritance? It is Los Angeles’ power-elite. They have anointed his candidacy, and bestowed, along with their blessing, sufficient money to backfill the void of Bryan’s limited political history with mountains of glossy mailers and a tsunami of communications via public airwaves. A political neophyte with neither experience nor a functional vision for crafting legislation, his fallback is a great series of endorsements that mostly just reflect the might of his economic base: the establishment itself.

Following is the mandated reporting of donations organized for the voter to follow this money-trail yourself.

The donor-framework that characterizes this campaign is present from its outset (figure 1). Donations in the first two days (netting 6% of the total to date) engaged many of LA’s modern City Engineers:  the machine-politicians the Ridley-Thomas’ (both), the school system’s venture-capitalist superintendent Beutner, philanthropy-sourced dollars from high-tech (Netflix) and the film industry CONTINUE READING: Civic Leaders Fund Their Own Interests in AD54’s Special Election – redqueeninla

Major victory over a corporate charter school chain and their trade association – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Major victory over a corporate charter school chain and their trade association – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Major victory over a corporate charter school chain and their trade association

Original post at Robert’s page on Medium.

On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, I got my second big win in court against a charter school corporation. It was also a major victory over their California Charter Schools Association (“CCSA”) trade association, which tried to use the case to carve out immunity to the California Public Records Act (“CPRA”). I represented @DotKohlhaas in the action.

Here was my tweet from the day prior, after skimming through the tentative:

My first win against a corporate charter school was a year ago as third chair in a suit to overturn a wrongful expulsion of a student of color. The Partnerships to Uplift Communities (“PUC”) charter chain (of convicted felon Ref Rodriguez fame) had violated the student’s due process rights. Violated isn’t a strong enough word for what they did. PUC unilaterally changed the charges at the appeals hearing and then branded the child as a terrorist in his permanent record. Under the tutelage of the brilliant partners at the law firm I was a part-timer at the time (I am currently transitioning to full time there), plus sage advice from @DrPrestonGreen, we built a strong case.

It was my argument that the charter corporation never proved specific intent — a crucial element to Ed. Code § 48900.7, as well as PUC’s glaring lack of notice afforded to the student, that saw the court overturn the wrongful expulsion and give the student their life back.

This latest case was a charter trying to hide all its dirty secrets by not complying with the CPRA. The scandal-ridden The Accelerated Schools CONTINUE READING: Major victory over a corporate charter school chain and their trade association – Los Angeles Education Examiner

A Toxic Mess in Cudahy. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

A Toxic Mess in Cudahy. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

A Toxic Mess in Cudahy

In November, I drove to South East LA to visit the site where a charter school purchased polluted land to build a new campus.  I made this trip after I had a conversation with Susie de Santiago, an activist protecting her neighborhood in Cudahy.   I wanted to see with my own eyes  twenty thousand square feet of heavy metal and arsenic laced dirt. After I drove around the sweet neighborhood, I was left with a question; why is it always okay for big money to generate toxic messes in non-white communities?

 In September I heard neighbors were concerned that a big monied charter school was moving at breakneck speed in Cudahy. While it was alarming to the community that KIPP, a large corporate charter, would damage the cohesiveness of their small neighborhood, more disturbing was the speed at which the operators were moving. Residents were concerned as to what was being lost with this speed. Was it transparency? Proper civic diligence? Environmental justice? Lack of understanding history?  The activists had real concerns.

Susie de Santiago

A fellow environmental and education activist introduced me to Susie. Over Zoom, we discussed the situation in Cudahy. I noted Susie exhibited CONTINUE READING: A Toxic Mess in Cudahy. – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse

It’s high time to be paying closer attention to the $14.7b (p. 31) of taxpayer’s money that Covid19 has left in essentially the sole charge of our LAUSD Superintendent, Austin Beutner.

On March 10, 2020 under Covid19, the LAUSD’s publicly elected school board signed over sweeping authority for fiscal and management decisions to Superintendent Beutner, a former investment banker who remarks that the “guiding principle in my career, … is to put myself in uncomfortable positions and take risks.”

The emergency powers relinquished the board’s fiduciary responsibility to stakeholders regarding oversight and regulation, policy and budget, with no sunset date attached. The breathtaking subrogation was to a Superintendent appointed by a former board, chaired at the time by a member charged with and subsequently convicted of felony campaign misconduct, indebted to a different, neoliberal and privatizing ideology of public education.

At next Tuesday’s LAUSD board meeting some more fallout from this power shift will become evident. To date a tremendous amount of emergency spending has been brought to the board as simply courtesy, for ratification rather than actual approval. And the circumstances of this spending is fraught; criticism – even questioning – is awkward at best, difficult in practice. Feeding the hungry during this health and economic emergency is crucial; keeping our community safe is vital. But what happens in the long CONTINUE READING: Board Has Wall Street Wolves Guarding LAUSD Henhouse – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020

Seventeen hours from the close of polls in LA County (LAC) leaves a mixed set of results – from polar opposite wins, to hopeful-anticipation.

While 100% of LAC’s precincts have reported partial results, VBM (Vote By Mail) ballots continue to be delivered to ballot counting facilities statewide, including LAC’s Norwalk, where the count is on-going. Updates to LAC counts will not come before the close of day and starting next week, only twice per week.

When registration for delivery of VBM ballots closed last month, 5,709,853 were registered to vote in LAC. Registrations at Vote Centers since that time, including right up through the close of election day, remain unreported.

Of the 5.7K (minimum) registered voters reported, 55.8% (3.2K of 5.7K) have currently been tallied. Approximately ¾ of those were VBM (74%; 2.4K of 3.2K) and ¼ (26%; 0.83K of 3.2K) were VCB (Vote Center Ballots).

In LAUSD’s school board races, board district 3 (west Valley) incumbent, former District principal Scott Schmerelson is winning with 54% of the currently tallied vote. In board district 7 (southern reaches), former PLAS (Partnership for LA Schools; a public-private partnership operating a CONTINUE READING: Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020 – Los Angeles Education Examiner