• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / Educators / In Los Angeles Unified School District Power Struggle, Voters Choose

In Los Angeles Unified School District Power Struggle, Voters Choose

October 26, 2013 by K12NN Site Admin

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Guest post by Karen Wolfe, a parent and public education advocate who lives in Los Angeles.

Parents and public school advocates are very concerned following the LA Times article about Mayor Garcetti weighing in on Superintendent Deasy’s waning support.

I hope the mayor will keep in mind that voters value their right to elect an independent school board, a right to which the Los Angeles City Charter entitles them and which has been reaffirmed in the courts. This power struggle is inevitable with a superintendent who very publicly opposed the election of several board members. The voters have spoken. They do not support Deasy’s policies–nor his abuse of power in usurping the board’s role in setting policies at all. As LA Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote earlier this month, “So, yeah, do some micromanaging. Hold people accountable. Ask questions.” The board is doing its job.

The only thing new about this dynamic is Deasy’s precipitous decline in support. The superintendent has declared that board policies are unfunded mandates. That’s absurd. The board has passed several resolutions in the last year that have not been implemented. Examples include a resolution to establish a core arts program, a resolution to help neighborhood schools boost enrollment rather than accept as an operating assumption that enrollment will continue to decline, a resolution to revamp Prop 39 implementation to balance support for neighborhood schools, and a campus greening initiative. Those are POLICIES but no implementation has been forthcoming since the publicly elected board passed them.

The support for policies like these is evident by the election or re-election of board members who proposed them. The public expects its democratically elected representatives to do the job they were elected to do. If Deasy does not agree with the new board’s policies, he should move on to a school district that’s more closely aligned with his policy agenda. He cannot, by sheer force of will, push the independent school board which is accountable to voters, to behave as if they are his implementers. LAUSD’s school board represents a public which has rejected the corporate privatization and deregulation of education pushed by Deasy, Broad, Melendez, the United Way and the other astroturf “community groups” now clamoring at the doors of Beaudry.

Los Angeles is at the epicenter of the defeat of the failed privatization agenda. Indeed, parents across the country overwhelmingly support improvement and investment in neighborhood schools over increased choice through charter and other voucher programs. These power shifts are playing out in cities across the nation that are transitioning, like Los Angeles, from dictatorial “education reform mayors.”  New York’s next likely mayor is setting an agenda to realign public education policy with the will of the people, even  campaigning on such a platform to his city’s business elites. But in Los Angeles, prominent nonprofits are receiving letters asking their leaders to publicly state their support for the superintendent in an effort to quash the voice of voters.

Are we sure that we can count on Mayor Garcetti’s support for an independent school board representing voters? I certainly hope so.

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Educators, Elections, Los Angeles, School Boards, School Districts Tagged With: Deasy, Eli Broad, John Deasy, LAUSD, LAUSD School Board, Thelma Melendez

About K12NN Site Admin

I'm Cynthia Liu, Owner/Founder of K12 News Network. I'm the proud product of public schools through post-grad, the mom of a child in public schools, and the daughter of two teachers. Connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.

Trackbacks

  1. Deflecting Criticism: When Bad Behavior Trumps Incompetence And Insubordination. – redqueeninla says:
    October 28, 2013 at 12:42 pm

    […] overhearing the intensity of excruciating anticipation:  Deasy is reviled.  The actual laity of parents, teachers and students transmit a degree of censure for Deasy that is diametrically opposed to that of the ideologues who champion his […]

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

October 2013
S M T W T F S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep   Nov »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in