It seems like only yesterday that Mayor Villaraigosa was trying to take control of the Los Angeles public schools. Now there is a new mayor, and he clearly had little influence over the choice of a new school board president. The vote for Dr. Richard Vladovic was a decisive 5-2.
Monica Ratliff was sworn in by her mother, in both Spanish and English.
Ratliff was elected despite being vastly outspent by the usual corporate reform crowd, who were beaten twice this spring, first by Steve Zimmer, then by Monica Ratliff.
Ratliff immediately stepped into her role, requesting that the candidates for board president describe their priorities.
Zimmer spoke at length about corporate greed. He said, “We should never be data driven…We should be data informed… We should avoid the seduction of easy answers.”
It is a new majority in Los Angeles. This should get interesting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for giving us a glimpse of what could be a glorious new day in public education.
Yes … data informed not data driven!
Zimmer spoke at length about corporate greed. He said, “We should never be data driven…We should be data informed… We should avoid the seduction of easy answers.”
Powerful words.
He also said that we should not look to those that created the financial collapse for answers to the destruction it caused to our schools.
A new day is dawning in Los Angeles.
Ms Ratliff also spoke about what the COMMUNITY told her (during her campaign) they wanted more of: arts education, early childhood education, vocational education, adult education – some of the programs cut because of the twisted priorities of the corporate ed folks. The COMMUNITY, not corporations; the people, not the CEOs, are the voices Ms Ratliff is listening to. Yesterday certainly gave all of us here in L.A., hope.
There was a great contrast between the two candidates. While Dr. Vladovic talked about child related issues and engaging parents, board member Galatzan’s speech was peppered with words like “rules, policy, and process”. Worst of all was her reference to the delivery of “a better educational PRODUCT”. What more evidence does anyone need to realize that the corporate influence has taken her over. She’s a lawyer first and an education advocate last.
As a matter of fact, Steve Zimmer said, “We should be data informed and student driven” May his words prove true.
John Deasy is an arrogant bully who has contempt for education (e.g. fake doctorate) and for the people who provide it. He thought he could push around a “lowly” substitute teacher when no one was looking, but he found out otherwise. I can’t wait to see the man thrown out. Los Angeles teachers and students deserve better.
First, it was a great day. I got there at 7:45 and was first in line. Second, If you want to watch Zimmer’s speach it was just loaded up on You Tube at George1la. I have a lot more video and will load up Ratliff tonight while everyone is asleep.
LAUSD is not data driven even though they have been supplied massive amounts of data to show how they waste vast sums of money, $12-15 billion in construction bonds only. Then through students who do not come to school everyday, 117,000 X $11,600 = about $1.35 billion last year alone. When you have your low performers leave naturally your test scores will go up. How much is an interesting question. Data driven LAUSD has not been for a long time. How about the air conditioners illegally purchased for being 68dB instead of 55dB. This means the teacher cannot hear the students and the students cannot hear the teacher or each other. Good learning conditions aren’t they? How can you learn if you cannot hear? This is good educational policy. As a result of this a friend sued the companies, they bought off his attorneys to put him in a very compromised position legally and 15 of the larges construction management firms in the world represented by 9 of the largest legal firms in the world to take everything he owned. Eventually no one won but the damage had been done. They destroyed him personally. Now for the funny part. Recently we learned that one of the air conditioner companies payed attention and spent many millions to create a new 35 Db cooler. They have so much business now they cannot keep up as everyone, except LAUSD, understands that productivity goes up with a quiet environment. You cannot believe how dumb and bought and sold LAUSD has been. They are in data denial (DD). Now Board President Vladavic is not that kind of person and he has the personality for the job. He has standards especially when it comes to our youth. We shall soon see if it is a new day in L.A.