Paying the Price for Monica Garcia’s Win

Paying the Price for Monica Garcia’s Win:

Paying the Price for Monica Garcia’s Win

If parents are not happy with the school program, it is a school of choice. They are free (and indeed encouraged) to remove their kids from the school. There are plenty of other public school options for their children.”– Mr. Tschang, former KIPP Principal

As I walked off stage at the only debate in the race for LAUSD’s District 2’s Board seat, a student walked up to me to express his support and to say that “we need you on the Board.” I thanked him and also assured him that I would continue fighting for the students of the District, win or lose. This pledge immediately came to mind as I found a flyer delivered by the District to the house in East L.A. where I had rented a room in order to run against Monica Garcia and her allegiance to charters. The public school closest to where I had lived for the past six months is scheduled to become the latest host for a charter school parasite and the District had scheduled an informational meeting to discuss the issue. On Tuesday morning I attended this meeting with approximately 60 parents of Marianna Avenue Elementary school. According to the flyer, staff was also invited to this meeting, but how exactly were they supposed to participate while school was in session? So much for the LAUSD’s goal of “parent and community engagement”.

Like the parents of Arminta Street Elementary School, the parents of Marianna Avenue are organized and ready to fight back. They also seemed to have a more angry tone as they denounced the planned co-location of a KIPP charter. They questioned why space was being given up when there were not enough pre-school seats to meet demand. They wondered why kindergarten and first-grade students were sharing a classroom if the District had determined they had unused space. They decried the lack of green space on the school’s campus and accused the District of ignoringPaying the Price for Monica Garcia’s Win: