Los Angeles Unified School District faces Privatization

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_13203296

"The Los Angeles Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that would allow outside groups to run up to a third of all district campuses, including 50 new multi-million dollar campuses coming on line and more than 200 under-performing schools.

The plan also drew strong opposition from labor leaders, who threatened to take legal action to block the plan, which they called a scheme to break up the unions and privatize public education in Los Angeles."

Considering that Arnold has been attacking teachers, schools, firefighters, health care and nursing, and the rest of CA infrastructure since he got into office, and will not tax the rich to fix what he has purposely broken, how can it be a surprise to anyone that privatization has been his plan all along? He's taken the same course Bush did with FEMA ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job") per Hurricane Katrina...action and inaction with destruction as a result, as well as an open door for increasing power grabs...

Consider that Enron >>created<< the conditions under which Arnold got into office in the first place (after a failed initiative to change the Constitution specifically on Arnold's behalf). Enron planned schemes in advance, a newspaper headline read, and their crimes are certainly well-known and documented. However, it is unconfirmed that Arnold is said to have taken meetings with Enron prior to the trouble period. It is however worth noting that Enron were huge Bush supporters.

So why is anyone surprised that Arnold is just another Bushie, that he has the same agenda, does the same things, and mocks us as he gets what he wanted all along?

Why will no one stop him, when all trends point to severe, lasting damage? Rising unemployment? Greatly increased suffering among the weak and poor? Are we going to sit here again, like with did with Bush for eight years, and merely hope that it stops on its own? Remember that private schools can teach what they want, including creationism, a removal of sex education, etc. This sort of thing has been the Republican agenda for decades; during Reagan, they offered their ideas to voters, and lost. Now, they create causes and conditions in which they may simply take over, completely...

"Republican Karl Rove and other commentators had speculated about a permanent political realignment in favor of the GOP..." -Wikipedia.org, "GOP"

What a surprise that they are out there, making such things happen. It is up to us to stop them, because obviously, they have no interest in slowing down.

and consider my 2 years spent there 2 of the worst of my life. I taught a class of emotionally disturbed 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders and experienced virtually no support from administrators or the behemoth bureacracy. It was all about putting up stuff in my classroom, attending endless workshops (some mandated over the summer), standards, raising test scores, being constantly observed and in general, putting out fires. This, on an overcrowded, rundown south Central campus where 2/3 of the kids were English language learners living in abject poverty.

And yet, the main headquarters is a huge building teeming with highly paid "specialists," "deputies," "facilitators," and other educrats who wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes in my classroom. From the point in time I was officially hired, it took another 2 weeks of processing before I actually showed up for work. My first couple paychecks were delayed (although that situation got worse after I resigned). Shortage of books and supplies. One of our literacy coaches actually proposed targeting 4 or 5 kids out of each classroom with extra attention and instruction to boost test scores a few months before the annual testing commenced.

Never once did anyone show up on our campus to say, "We want to help you, and here's how we're going to do it." It was all about more pressure on faculty and otherwise observing, report-writing, dictating and in general, passing the buck.

No wonder private and charter schools look so attractive and are doing such a booming business.

A city the size of Los Angeles with all it's diversity and diverse problems can't really be managed at a local level. There needs to be adequate funding and adequate oversight for that funding like Social Security or Medicare.

but everything else you said was true back then, too.

One month into my third year, I could not take it anymore. After being bumped to a different (worse) school than the first one, I spent the first three weeks dealing with "coordinators." The Reading Coordinator was too busy having lunch with her buddy the principal to actually do her job. After a couple of weeks, I finally went in (she wasn't there, quelle surprise) and selected a series of books for the groups. Two days later (three weeks into the semester) she shows up, announces that it is wrong, and takes the books back, promising to bring the correct ones.

The following Monday, the principal comes to the class, notices the lack of Readers, and gives me shit over it. The next day, I turn in my resignation, clear out all of my privately-purchased enrichments (which leaves the room looking like Dresden, March 1945), and went into computers instead.

And in the 29 years since I left LAUSD, I have consumed fewer Rolaids than I did in those first two years.

the kids when private schools are going bankrupt around the country?

Our incompetent Governor is making worse what seemed like couldn't be made worse.

Serious question since it is an independent agency with strong union support in Sacramento. Were the cuts directed to specific areas or a general cut across the board. Did it include building funds


Edited for ambiguity...

are asking that question. His budget cuts have impacted school districts across the state including in my town. I don't understand what unions have to do with the lack of needed support for the deteriorating schools themselves.

I have also seen claims that the strong LAUSD unions where somehow blunt them vs other districts. Were districts able to choose where the cuts were taken? Did it include previously committed building funds. You get the idea. Note that his action have cut my pay as well.

Not sure how asking what specific cuts were made is not progressive

there since Arnold became governor and I stopped buying the LA Times when it became a neo-con rag. It used to be a great source of accurate information for these kinds of issues both local and national. Not anymore. He has wreaked hard times across the board in CA school districts and I don't believe LAUSD would be an exception.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-schools26-2009aug26,0,4203620.story

"David Crippens, who chairs the committee overseeing school-construction spending, cautioned against "change for the sake of change."

But school board President Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, asserted that "kids can't wait. . . . My support for this resolution is in the hope that the district can move faster."

Shortly after the vote, Villaraigosa savored a political and policy victory at district headquarters in downtown L.A.

"We're not going to be held hostage by a small group of people," Villaraigosa said, referring to the teachers union and other opponents. "I'll let you infer who I'm talking about."