On September 12, 2017, the LAUSD School Board was set to take a vote to approve several charters for five-year renewals, including ICEF Innovation. However, before doing so they needed to hear public comment. The following are my remarks before the Board: We are told continuously that the purpose of charters is innovation and experimentation. […]
Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil: The Failures of LAUSD’S Charter School Division
State law provides that an authorizer is not liable for debts, obligations [or] liabilities so long as [they] provide appropriate oversight. We believe we are providing appropriate oversight.” [emphasis mine] – José Cole-Gutiérrez As the District slides towards bankruptcy due to declining enrollment, the LAUSD School Board is set to act on another round of […]
The LAUSD Turns A Blind Eye as Charters Cherry-Pick Their Students
It is time to answer his question.” – Scott Schmerelson, LAUSD Board Member As I have reported previously, Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS) has items on the enrollment page of their website that appear to violate the law and clearly violate their charter. During the past six months, I have been unable to get […]
Standing Up For Our Public Schools
Charters are publicly funded but privately managed and, like most privately run businesses, the schools prefer to avoid transparency in their operations.” – Bobbi Murray / Capital and Main In the past five years, the LAUSD Board had denied nine charter renewals while renewing at least 162. The charter industry, therefore, considered the Board to […]
Why Was El Camino’s Charter Renewed?
Since we are on a timeline and it seems that the other issues that would prevent a renewal just don’t exist here, that everything else is very, positive…we are on a timeline and I think that we should vote the renewal up or down.” – Steve Zimmer, LAUSD Board President It is yet to be […]
Who Does The LAUSD Board Serve?
Charter families have lined up at dawn in biting cold winds holding babies. They’ve sweated it out for hours standing around ice chests or taking turns under canopies. They’ve waited hours—sometimes nearly a full a day—to get into an LA Unified school board meeting. Then, they wait hours more just to be heard.” –LA School […]
The Unrepresented
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 […]
Mónica García on El Camino: Ignorance or Insincerity?
Oversight: “the job of checking that a process or system is working well” –Macmillan Dictionary Before the LAUSD School Board began debate on the Issuance of Notice of Violations for El Camino Real Charter High School (ECRCHS) “requesting the charter school remedy violations by September 23, 2016”, the public had an opportunity to speak. Other […]
Carl Petersen LAUSD District 2 School Board Candidate: Questionnaire Response
Carl Petersen, LAUSD School Board District 2 Candidate (Los Angeles, CA) Why I’m running “When we say $1.4 billion for special ed and we only have $700 million from the federal government and the other $700 million are coming from every child in this district, I’m not about defunding special ed. I just know that […]
Low Expectations and the Oversight of Charter Schools
With respect to the reimbursement of any cap and gown fees charged previously, it is the expectation of the CSD that GHCHS will provide notice to all affected parents of students in the 2014-2015 graduating class regarding options for reimbursement or other remedy.” – LAUSD Charter Schools Division Month after month, the LAUSD School Board […]