I am happy to endorse the candidacy of Robert D. Skeels for LAUSD school board.
He attended UCLA, is a veteran of the US Navy, and a staunch supporter of public education. He passionately defends the right of every child to a high-quality education.
His knowledge, experience and perspective would add a greatly needed new voice to the deliberations of the school board. He would stand up for children, parents and teachers.
The future of public education hangs in the balance, as the forces of privatization circle round it. I strongly urge voters to support Robert Skeels at this critical time.
Diane Ravitch
Do you equate “education” and “attendance at school”? Do you equate “public education” and “compulsory attendance at government-operated schools”? What magic does State employment confer? Could taxpayers realize these benefits with a policy that required all government-operated schools to hire parents, on personal service contracts, to provide for their own children’s education?
Los Angeles is the only city in the big 3(New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) that is not run by a mayor. It almost happened and is still a threat. Several years ago, when Mayor Villaraigosa did not get control of the schools, he threw money and support behind friendly board member candidates. This has been a disaster for Los Angeles children. One of the mayor’s favorites, Yolie Flores Aguilar, presented a plan to put LAUSD schools out to bid. This lead to disruption and more privatization. As a result, funding for traditional schools has been severely cut back with thousands of teachers laid off including librarians and nurses.
Robert Skeels has been a tireless advocate for all the children in LAUSD and if elected, would unseat Monica Garcia, one of the mayor’s favorites. This would end years of gridlock and political cronyism. It is even more important now because the candidates running for mayor next year have not shown independence from Villaraigosa’s failed policies, even though mayoral control in New York and Chicago has been an unmitigated disaster for the educational system in both these cities.
As an example, our mayor successfully pedaled the “Parent Trigger” law at a meeting of mayors from across the country even though the Parent Trigger has NEVER been implemented. It failed miserably in Compton, CA and now, in Adelanto, CA, a recent parent vote to pick a charter under California’s Parent Empowerment Act attracted only 53 voters, even though the school itself serves close to 700 students. And they call this Parent Empowerment?
Robert Skeels has revealed the true nature of the Parent Trigger whose two attempts in California were backed by Parent Revolution, which in turn is backed by the top school privatizers in this country. The tide is turning, with more and more members of the public realizing that there are hidden agendas within the privatization of our public schools. We need more potential board members, like Robert, to come forward and turn the tide all across the country to wrench control out of the hands of those whose only interest is to financially profit off of our public school children.
Of course there are hidden agendas. People are not uniform. Everyone has his own history and dreams. This is one good reason not to make all children march in lockstep through a uniform curriculum at a uniform pace. Competitive markets in goods and services make room for varied tastes.
Inevitably, for each child, somebody or some body will determine how that child will spend the time between birth and age 18. No systematic empirical argument supports policies that from individual parents the power to determine what, where, how, and how fast their children wiii learn and gives this power to politically-selected bureaucrats.
Please Read James Tooley’s __The Beautiful Tree__.
I am humbled by Professor Ravitch’s endorsement, as I am by all the other endorsements I’ve received.
http://robertdskeelsforschoolboard.org
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