• 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 / Elections / The Unrepresented

The Unrepresented

September 6, 2016 by Carl J. Petersen

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Gerrymander: “manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.”

–Oxford Dictionaries

If one wants to see a visual representation of “gerrymandered”, the map of LAUSD District 5 is a good place to start. In an effort to carve our Hunger Game like districts, the mapmakers at the Los Angeles City Council took two larger sections and connected them with a long, thin ribbon that is sandwiched between District 2 and the LAUSD boundary.  Unfortunately for the residents of this ribbon, this creative mapmaking can mean that they do not have a democratically elected representative for the schools that their children attend.

The UnrepresentedOne particularly interesting portion of this ribbon narrows to just three blocks wide and appears to have been drawn specifically to avoid including any schools. Moving the line over by just a few blocks would have included two schools. Instead, all families in this area send their children across the border to schools in District 2. If they have a problem at their school, they can contact Monica Garcia’s office, but what motivation does she have to help them? If she fails to help she does not have to worry  about losing their vote. Meanwhile, the Board Member that they vote for does not have any direct control over the schools their children attend.

Of course, this is not the only example of how the LAUSD fails at being a representative democracy. Despite an obligation to educate all children regardless of citizenship status, parents who are not citizens cannot vote and are, therefore, not represented on the School Board. Citizenship has not always been required in order to vote in the United States. “During the colonial and Civil War eras, noncitizen voting was permitted in 40 states and federal territories at different times, but it contracted during World War I and ceased altogether by 1928.” Until New York City put its School Board under mayoral control, “immigrants with children in the city schools could vote in local school board elections, whether or not they were legal citizens of the United States.” These parents pay taxes and are affected by District actions; they should also have a say in the governance of the schools.

Students are also not fully represented on the LAUSD Board. While the Board should be given credit for adding a Student Board Member during the last term, this role is purely advisory and not chosen through an election. No other group has a more intimate knowledge of the results of the policy set by the Board, but they have no say in the makeup of that Board. Allowing them to vote in these elections would also have the benefit of establishing “a lifelong habit of voting” and having “a positive impact on voter turnout for people of all ages.” Brazil, “Austria, Nicaragua, Argentina, some states in Germany and a canton in Switzerland have all lowered their voting age to 16.”

Improving representation were just some of the types of reforms that I suggested in the LAUSD election process after the 2015 election. I hope that other candidates in both the LAUSD and City Council 2017 elections, including my competitors, will review these proposals and consider incorporating them into their own platforms. Feel free to take them, they were put forward to help the students of our District.

____________________________________________

I am a candidate for the District 2 seat on the LAUSD School Board, founder of Change The LAUSD and member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. You can voice your support for my campaign through DFA. Opinions are my own. You can interact with me on Twitter @ChangeTheLAUSD

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Elections, LAUSD, Los Angeles Tagged With: Election Reform, Gerrymandering, LAUSD, LAUSD School Board

About Carl J. Petersen

Carl is a parent and special education advocate, elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a “strong supporter of public schools.” Opinions are his own.

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

September 2016
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Aug   Oct »

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