On November 16, 2016, the Office of the Independent Monitor held its semi-annual public hearings about the services provided by the LAUSD to students with special education needs. The following is a copy of my testimony before Dr. Rostetter: When I saw your reaction to Adam’s speech, it gave me something that I haven’t had […]
What is the Opposite of Transparent?
The records you have requested are exempt from disclosure pursuant to California Government Code §6254(f) as they are the subject of an on-going investigation.” –LAUSD Office of the General Counsel It has been almost two years since David Binkle was removed from his position as LAUSD’s Food Services Director. A draft audit by the Inspector […]
Democracy’s Necessary For the LAUSD Superintendent Search
Vet the Supe, along with other grassroots organizations, has called for the search process for new Superintendent of LAUSD to be an open and transparent one. While grasstops groups like the United Way, Urban League, and other non-profits aligned with Eli Broad demand access to a search committee, real on-the-ground teachers union members, parents, and […]
LAUSD: Haste Makes Ed Tech Waste
By Cynthia Liu, CEO/Founder of K12NN. [BREAKING: The FBI carted away 20 boxes of documents relating to the iPad purchase from LAUSD offices late Monday, December 1, 2014.] Two education technology disasters mark the former LAUSD Superintendent’s brief tenure: the iPad debacle, born from cozy relationships with vendors and dependent upon broadband infrastructure that, in […]
Reply to Sandy Banks’ “Deasy’s Exit Leaves Unfinished Work At LAUSD”
Barbara Landis is a native southern Californian (3rd generation — her grandparents came to LA before 1900), and the parent of three children who attended elementary, middle and high school in LAUSD. She also teaches in an independent K-12 school in the Valley. Sandy Banks is right. There’s plenty of work, unfinished and never begun at […]
Marshall Tuck endorsed discredited and disgraced John Deasy
Plagued by multiple scandals, missteps, mismanagement, and allegations of possible malfeasance, discredited and disgraced John Deasy resigned in ignominy from the post of Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Superintendent on October 16, 2014. Marshall Tuck, who failed miserably at both Green Dot Corporate Charters and the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, was among Deasy’s […]
The Deasy Debacle: Six New Rules for a New Superintendent
By Roberta Eidman, MPH. She is a community member and resident of Los Angeles interested in a healthy public commons and excellent public schools for ALL children. The Deasy era was never really about Public Education. It was never really about the kids, or their parents, or the future of Los Angeles as a cultural […]
Why Didn’t LAUSD Perform A Tech Review Before iPad/MiSiS Purchase?
Bad ed tech deals continue to plague LAUSD — currently starting its second month of meltdown, the MiSiS student tracking and class scheduling software mandated by a court-ordered consent decree is a ticking time bomb for high school seniors who need transcripts in order to apply to college and finish classes in order to graduate […]
iPad Watchdog Stuart Magruder’s Re-Appointment: Which Way Will LAUSD Go?
The question for many school districts around the country this spring was this: how are they supposed to give computer-based, end-of-year Common Core State Standards (CCSS) tests? For over a year in Los Angeles Unified, parents, students, teachers, and community members have wrestled with the details of Superintendent John Deasy’s 1:1 iPad program and its […]
United Way's Corporate NPIC Astroturf was thick in front of LAUSD last Tuesday
“By what logic does United Way engage in an activity that is shunned by all the other charities?” — Professor Ralph E. Shaffer Amid all the misleading and mendacious reports in the corporate media about Tuesday’s desk charade, there is one revealing Los Angeles Times photo of so-called “students” setting up desks on Beaudry Boulevard […]