A teacher in Los Angeles who calls himself Geronimo left the following comment on hearing that Superintendent Deasy planned to resign, then declared that he was only thinking about resigning and might not resign after all:
“If the saga of LAUSD wasn’t soap opera-y enough, the Number One Diva of LA–no, not Kim Kardashian, but Superintendent John Deasy–is forcing the entire city this weekend to witness his woeful performance of “Hamlet.” Early reports on Thursday night had the melancholy prince resigning thus creating premature joy with teachers (or his subjects as we’re known under his regime) in the hopes that our city’s long national nightmare was finally over. Alas, the sigh of relief was short-lived.
“Although there probably has never been a more self-aggrandizing, yet endlessly self-pitying superintendent than John Deasy, we will now have the spectacle of observing who is going to beg this prima donna to stay. Some of the city’s most powerful denizens are already lining up to kiss his ring, weeping and imploring this man to continue to grace us with his wisdom and infantile temper.
“The cry has already gone up among the Establishment, “Don’t leave us now, John!”
“So our city now goes into high-wire drama until Tuesday when the beleaguered, intimidated and castrated School Board meets for Deasy’s contractual “performance review”. It is only afterwards that Deasy will inform the world on his plans. The “leak” of his resignation was clearly designed to put pressure on the School Board to “listen” to the will of the “people” (um, note WHICH people) and do the right thing and say, “We can’t live without you, John. Please come back and forgive the savages who have said such mean things about you.”
“The truth about the California Educational Reform movement is that it is different than almost anywhere else in the country. In other parts it’s the Republicans who are running Education Reform. If you look at the map, they control all the state legislatures in the south where the weakest teacher unions exist and most of the legislatures throughout the Midwest. Those cuckoo birds would never fly in California.
“What has happened in progressive California is that there is a clear split on the Left. Here, it’s the Moneyed/Connected/Privileged Neo-Liberal Left vs. the Working Class/In-the-Trenches Left. Sure Michelle Rhee and John Deasy can each out-boast other who is more pro-gay or pro-immigration and who has the most Democratic Party merit badges on their scout uniform. But when it comes to Education Reform, they are as Far Right Wing as Scott Walker, Rick Perry or Bobby Jindal.
“And they are just as dangerous, disingenuous and damaging.
“The biggest modus operendi that this Moneyed Class Left does is to appropriate the “Civil Rights” mantra while courting big name Democrat Party millionaires who have vested interests in their type of top-down CEO managed school reform. In the future, when I think of who will be on those monuments in Washington for their tireless crusade to protect the rights and opportunities of poor children of color, I definitely picture Eli Broad and John Deasy and the Pearson Corporation.
“Eli Broad knows fine art and music. He’s a philanthropist in that area. In education, he’s a vulture as he buys power and influence in LA supporting HIS style of Reform. With Broad’s money that is hard to turn down, he gets to steer the bus on his terms–Not the kids’ interests or benefits. The Mayors of LA know that and acquiesce to the quid pro quo.
“Meanwhile, back high atop LAUSD headquarters, Deasy constantly denigrates people who disagree with his educational priorities and methodologies. As he primps himself as Deasy X, I would love to hear what Brother Malcolm would say to his grotesque appropriation of “The Movement”. Deasy self-righteously believes an iPad is what our kids need the most. How about giving them what HIS KIDS and all of his rich patrons give their kids? Great class selection, minimal testing, field trips, cool opportunities, enrichment of all kinds, small classes…? It’s abhorrent and insulting what he offers our neediest kids and orders the teachers to follow suit in implementing his noxious brand of instruction.
“So we are all left with the billion dollar iPad as Deasy’s “I have a dream” legacy.
“Pathetic.
“In almost every single interview Deasy has done extolling the virtues of the iPad, he always brings up the example that kids can now go look up “The Arab Spring” to see what textbooks don’t include. I don’t know why he’s latched onto the Arab Spring as his perpetual fall back mantra–His lack of imagination for anything else the kids could look up, perhaps. The Arab Spring is what the kids did when they hacked into the computers! Good for them! They revolted on their own and how does Deasy respond?
“Clamped down on them like any authoritarian figure.
“And more nauseating, each thousand dollar iPad (when everything is finally totaled up) all include those really inspiring Pearson-designed lessons that are supposed to make the kids wildly enthusiastic about learning. No wonder they wander to Youtube or Tumblr or anything else that is remotely interesting to them.
“How do you know the difference between the two worlds on Education Reform on California’s Left Wing? Easy. What they want and have given THEIR kids and what they believe is acceptable for OTHERS’ children. All of them are identical: Arne Duncan. Bill Gates. Mayor Eric Garcetti. Eli Broad. Barack Obama. They would never for a second tolerate the conditions they offer LA’s kids if their own kids were placed in a typical LA classroom.
“Yet we have to listen to them endlessly pontificate on what’s BEST for other people’s kids.
“Deasy, has always been about secrecy and I-Know-Best bullying. His obvious disdain for teacher input has been made clear. Like Michelle Rhee, he is very quick with the “I LOVE teacher” rhetoric–but they have to be HIS kind of obedient teacher who kowtows to his genius. In 2011, Deasy was installed undemocratically by former Mayor Villaraigosa to “shake things up” and yes, he did–but it was more like Fukushima. Teachers despise him not because they are against some mythological status quo–it’s just that HIS status quo is antithetical to smart, creative, thoughtful teaching. The kids know it too and wither under his brand of instruction.
“In Michelle Rhee’s book RADICAL, she specifically singles out California as the big enchilada for her designs on the rest of the country. She has based her operation in Sacramento and believes that if she can transform California, the rest of the country will follow. Not a bad bet.
“When I first heard the news about Deasy leaving, I hadn’t been that relieved since Nixon resigned.
“And now it may be a cruel hoax. I actually don’t know what it will take to really be rid of Deasy, short of a farmhouse caught in a tornado landing on top of him. With this piece of “will he/won’t he” go melodramatics to inflame as much public sympathy for his plight, Deasy is giving everyone a preview of what life will be like if he can be “persuaded” to stay and endure the slings and arrows of his outrageous fortunes.
“Can we PLEASE pull this really bad Laurence Olivier off the stage of LA once and for all?
“Please, inform Mayor Eric Garcetti how you feel:
“mayor.garcetti@lacity.org
“Something is rotten in the city of LA. This show needs to close immediately.”
Mayor Garcetti is already hinting that he will attempt to neutralize the democratically elected school board:
http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20131025/la-mayor-eric-garcetti-says-he-supports-lausd-superintendent-john-deasy-questions-school-board
Speaking at an event in Hollywood, Garcetti said he was “disheartened” to read newspaper stories about Deasy’s possible resignation. “He is a friend and (someone) whose work I support,” Garcetti said.
Garcetti said he had talked to many individuals at the school district, and called Deasy’s exit “an evolving story.” If there is turnover, Garcetti said, he will ensure that the next superintendent isn’t “micromanaged” by the school board.
Is there any truth to the rumor I am hearing that Deasy was offered outside incentives to stay longer? Does anyone know or is anyone checking to see if there is any money trail?
Sounds more like Cladius than Hamlet, who was at least morally sensitive and beloved of the people…
Not Claudius…Deasy is more like CALIGULA.
Superior rant by Geronimo — I couldn’t have put it better myself.
How disgusting of Garcetti, who’s supposed to be the fair-haired liberal, to attempt to intimidate the School Board. I hope they have the courage to ignore him and kick Deasy to the curb, as Deasy has done with so many of my teaching brothers and sisters.
Hit the road, Jack.
Eli Broad has been explosively exposed, since Geronimo posted this excellent analysis.
It’s intriguing to watch these stories all hit the press at the same time. They kind of make interference patterns, like waves that pass through a diffraction slit where the story breaks for the first time, then spread and interact.
Broad’s dark money trail is revealed, and nobody has to pretend he’s any kind of Democrat ever again. The spectacular $11 million fine against the Republican “Small Business Action Committee”, for accepting Broad’s Dark Money contribution, guarantees Broad’s secret, disgusting vulture motives will be discussed in the press.
It’s instructive to search Google News for “Eli Broad” in the past week. We see him unmasked for secretly moving to choke off funding for public education, and we see him stepping forward to “rescue” the School of Visual and Performing Arts. Deasy’s patron is revealed as a scavenger, clutching at the vital organs of public education, while Deasy drains its funding to enrich hidden cronies in his mind-boggling iPad scandal.
It’s obvious from all the information regarding the iPad that it is a dirty deal that’s meant to indebted the district for years to come. If the board votes to continue this program then we need to go after everyone on it that votes to indebted us. Their failure to stop this program will show if they are in on the crime. As for d easy, he will leave, it’s up to the board again to give him his marching orders before he further indebts us. The joy and relief I saw at beaudry when it was announced that Deasy resigned was real and people were happy. This deform administrator has fostered a climate of fear and ignorance. If Garcetti loves him so much, hire him on his staff and see how fast morale declines. Hey Garcetti, don’t be another Villaragosa, handle the city and stay out of areas you know nothing about,politician.
Tell it like it is, Paula! I’m a teacher in LAUSD and know of at least two schools where spontaneous celebrations broke out when it was announced Deasy was resigning.
You’re right on the money (no pun intended) that Deasy is a vampire sucking the blood of LAUSD through his $1 BILLION iPad boondoggle. It’s the standard corporatist gambit — destroy the public sector, then replace it was a corporatized, business-friendly, union-free equivalent.
And what the hell is with Garcetti, the alleged liberal? If he wants to run LAUSD, he should have run for the school board. Take a hike, Eric.
The public has the goods on this charlatan and is demanding his resignation. The high drama is a fabrication to protect poor John Deasy’s fragile ego. The schools and board members answer to the people, not Eli Broad. Deasy will go whether he likes it or not. And, board members – beware. You’re being watched and evaluated by your real bosses the people who pay your salary and cast their votes.
Mere resignation isn’t enough…the District Attorney should thoroughly investigation his financial/conflict-of-interest shenanigans, and see where it leads. The fish stinks from the head down…
Of course, we all agree! But, we won’t see that happen in our lifetime.
The issues public education is confronting today are largely the result of decades of overreaching empowerment of the bureaucracy and an insidious disenfranchisement of communities in the education of our children. The deconstruction of cooperation and collaboration between professional educators and “the village” — in no small way a consequence of the specialization and departmentalization that began to pervade American society in the 20th-century — must become a central focus for change to meet the challenges to providing a relevant and viable education in the 21st-century.
LAUSD schools need leadership that facilitates, not dominates, and that embraces, not discourages, grass roots community involvement on campus and throughout the neighborhoods with all their commercial, civic, residential and cultural sectors. LAUSD needs leadership that is unquestionably 100% committed to public-supported public schools — a public school system that ultimately will make the market in private schooling obsolete.
LAUSD does not need a superintendent who fails our city’s public schools by being first and foremost in service of himself. Nor do we need one who puts the interests of children and quality education well below his personal ambition to be a Silcon Valley-approved Locke or Dewey of this century.
LAUSD does not need a superintendent who talks the talk of community involvement, but whose decision-making and action-taking to facilitate the village’s role in education is obstructive. Nor do we need one with a public persona that casts the light on himself much more than on the charges of his position. And we do not need one who gathers attention by public consideration of resignation, distracting the Board of Education and the public from substantive problems the system faces.
LAUSD does not need a superintendent championing a billion-dollar iPad purchase without widespread, Town Hall-like meetings with parents and school community stakeholders, exemplifying a brand of “I know best” leadership, inimical to our needs. LAUSD does not need a superintendent who is a self-centered, authoritarian megalomaniac, who on occasion can charmingly show a very human face.
LAUSD does need to find a candidate who works to empower villagers, and seeks to achieve a workable balance between bureaucracy and constituency, without which it would not exist… something of a more democratic stripe than we have now.
Mr. Mayor, do not support Dr. John Deasy’s continuance in any form in the LAUSD.
Regarding “The Arab Spring is what the kids did when they hacked into the computers! Good for them! They revolted on their own and how does Deasy respond?
“Clamped down on them like any authoritarian figure.””
Here’s Bill Gates talking about his own school experience with computers. “The school could have shut down the terminal, or they could have tightly regulated who got to use it. Instead, they opened it up. Instead of teaching us about computers in the conventional sense, Lakeside just unleashed us…” https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/bill-gates-tells-us-why-his-high-school-was-a-great-learning-environment/