CARL J. PETERSEN: State of Our Schools: Rudderless

State of Our Schools: Rudderless

State of Our Schools: Rudderless

That’s it?”
– Audience member’s reaction to Austin Beutner’s speech

As parents were making their final preparations to send their children back to school, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) leadership was gathering downtown last Thursday for the annual “State of Schools” event. After a breakfast in Grand Park provided by the Food Services Division (no, there was none of the Walmart surplus that is said to be part of the Breakfast in the Classroom program), principals, five out of the seven school board (Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez were conspicuously absent) and district bureaucrats headed to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the headline event – a speech by Superintendent Austin Beutner.

Beutner started his speech by looking back at the most significant event of the past year – the strike by the District’s teachers. While acknowledging that many of the concessions won by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) would be beneficial to the students, he did not explain why a work stoppage was necessary to achieve them. Nor did he accept responsibility for his part in creating animosity between the district and its workers that led to the strike.

From here, Beutner segued to the cost of providing the services CONTINUE READING: State of Our Schools: Rudderless