I have tried to stay informed about what was happening to Venice High School in Los Angeles.
It was confusing.
The community, with no notice, was offered a choice: take Steve Barr’s pilot school or you will get a charter school. Remember Barr, the founder of the Green Do charters, an entrepreneur, not an educator.
Who was making the decisions?
Why no consultation?
Why the haste?
A parent at VHS explains the back story here.
It is a fascinating story involving Superintendent John Deasey, newly re-elected board member Steve Zimmer, and other players. It seems the re-election of Zimmer upset a lot of apple carts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Keep fighting this fight. Deasy and his privateer, out of towners do not know what is best for the Venice community. Yes, he is a bully and tries to push through reforms unilateral, without any stakeholder input. This on-line educated out of towner needs to be put out of town. He’s doing this all over the sorry ISIC division. I say, if you don’t believe in public education, get out of our district. Go work for Eli Broad or that other privateer. The community and teachers and students support public ed.
Put a charter in Venice High? That’s like having a 5th grader paint a picture of a charter school on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Only a cultural vandal would do something so crass.
Does anybody have an opinion about the Los Angeles mayoral race? Monica Garcia, Bill Clinton, DIck Riordan and Andrew Cuomo have endorsed Wendy Greuel, while CFT and UTLA (and many others) have endorsed Garcetti. That tells me that Garcetti is the better choice, but of course whoever wins will have to fend off Gates, Broad, etc. Any thoughts? I don’t want LA to get stuck with a disaster like Rahm or Bloomberg.
http://www.ericgarcetti.com/
http://www.wendygreuel.org/
Will Ferrell made a video for Garcetti, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbZMCvS8krE
That’s some quality backing! Along with many others.
Gee, sounds kinda like the Joyce Foundation push poll in The Chicago Tribune.
Also, the K12 attempted invasion of 18 Chicago suburban school districts, none of which need no stinkin’ virtual “schools!”
Stand outside virtually any school and see whem most teachers arrive and leave
LA’s Supt. Deasy is following the same Broad Academy tactic used in other cities with Broad Supts. Charter privateers infiltrate target schools via secret strategy meetings then force last minute high stakes votes right before long holidays with only days or hours for those affected to review reams of information, or to respond with alternatives. If reformer ideas are so wonderful, why the ‘cloak and dagger’ followed by ‘hurry hurry don’t look to closely before signing’ sales pitch and maneuvering to shove charters down peoples’ throats? It’s obvious from such methods that their reform product is a wolf dressed up as a lamb unable to prevail in transparent forums.