“LAUSD board’s so-called reform”
The LA Times joined the Daily News today in blasting the LAUSD school board for last week's Public School Choice vote:
The Los Angeles Unified school board looked transformation in the eye -- and blinked. By overriding several recommendations of its top experts and cutting three of the region's most respected charter organizations out of the picture, the board sadly demonstrated once again that it is devoted more to the politics of running schools than to the education of students. (...)
What was supposed to be one of the most important factors in the decisions -- whether the applicants could demonstrate a record of educational success -- ended up not being a factor at all. The board gave Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a third school he sought against the recommendation of staff, who had proposed giving just two to his Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. The partnership has made a sincere, concerted effort to improve the schools it already runs, but its record is mixed. Meanwhile, charter groups such as Green Dot Public Schools, Inner City Education Foundation and the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, known as committed school operators with excellent records, were given none. In all, charter groups ended up with only four of the 30 schools.
We stand by our original support for the idea of creating a competitive mix of innovative educational models in the school district -- and we applaud the teacher groups that devised their own, strong plans for reform. But we're also forced to stand by our original suspicion that the board would find many ways to make a mess of it.
