Two Los Angeles Teachers Examine Their Superintendent, Austin Beutner
As the dust settles on the 6-day UTLA strike, we can see education policy in the City of Los Angeles with fresh perspectives and fresh options. The demands of Los Angeles teachers were supported by an overwhelming majority of parents, students, and community members. Lower class sizes, as well as more counselors and nurses, are appealing to these groups: the LAUSD stakeholders.
The strike brought national attention to the leadership of both LAUSD and UTLA. As LAUSD teachers, we joined picket lines and marched in rallies 50,000 strong. Our strike, and the support our strike enjoyed throughout Los Angeles, won us the best contract of our careers. It is a contract that will benefit students from this point forward. The strike is also paying dividends beyond Los Angeles. Nationwide, Democrats who may have previously supported charter schools are now rethinking their position. And teachers in other unions across the state and the nation are considering their own job actions. So our faith in the leadership of UTLA is strong.
However, we have a few remarks on the leadership and job performance of Austin Beutner, the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
A school superintendent is expected to support the needs of a district’s stakeholders: the students, the parents, the district’s employees, and the larger community. Successful superintendents are attuned to their stakeholders. Austin Beutner’s pre-strike dismissal of UTLA’s classroom-based demands may have seemed out of character for a school superintendent, but less so when viewed through the lens of the man’s pre-LAUSD career. That is a career that catered to a different group: the shareholder. Beutner’s inability to read the pulse of Los Angeles came because he has never answered to its stakeholders. His inability to discern between the perspective of stakeholders and the perspective of shareholders is what brought on the strike. It is what has made Austin Beutner’s 9-month reign over LAUSD the failure it has been. And it is Exhibit A in the case for his immediate dismissal.
The majority of school district superintendents follow a career arc something like this: first teacher, then administrator, then district assistant-of-something, and finally superintendent. Along the way, this path instills in the individual deep desire for buy-in. From the classroom to the boardroom, nothing happens without a leader who values people trusting their vision and who is skilled enough to earn that trust. Being able to read a room full of stakeholders, whether they are students, parents, teachers, community, or school CONTINUE READING: Two Los Angeles Teachers Examine Their Superintendent, Austin Beutner - Living in Dialogue
