The Vergara trial in Los Angeles prompted this National Board Certified Teacher to reflect on the power dynamics in LAUSD. And how it affects the students. The trial is funded by a very wealthy tech entrepreneur whose legal team claims that due process rights for teachers denies the civil rights of minority students because it is harder to fire teachers if they get a hearing. Superintendent John Deasy testified for the plaintiffs who are suing his districts because he says he can’t fire ineffective teachers.
The classroom teacher wrote this commentary on the trial and the issues:
“The Vergara case is truly the epicenter of everything wrong with the direction of American public education.
“Sorry in advance for this long post, but this case connects a lot of dots…from my classroom in Los Angeles…to Wall Street…to The White House.
“The words in this case are twisted in Orwellian ways, where a term like “Civil Rights” gets to be used by the oppressors instead of those trying to liberate kids from their dictums.
“Teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District is an exercise in futility these days. Watching this court case unfold with its Trojan Horse arguments about the best education for students is like hearing the 1% argue that what the financial system needs is less regulation so that the poor people of the country can be free to achieve their American Dream.
“Their words are all about “liberty” and “justice” and “equality”, but it is obvious who reaps the benefits of those terms.
“It is no coincidence that our District Superintendent John Deasy, was the first witness called to testify against the teachers of his own district.
“He knew that he had the backing of the very rich benefactors who have paved his life in education. He keeps winning because there is no realistic way to challenge his authority.
“The Editorial Board of the LA TIMES, like the Editorial Boards of papers like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune are enamored by this sort of superintendent–a man who is brought in to kick teachers’ whining butts and bring up test scores. The cosmetic nature of HOW they do it is apparent to anyone who looks at it.
“They have lowered graduation requirements and (as in our school) have brought in empty BS “Advisory” classes that the kids can get full credit for attending (that’s 40 additional credits after four years!!!) so that graduation rates can be boosted. No one is going to do an in depth analysis of this because the public wants results! Arne Duncan can give a big hooray for Deasy and company because the graduation figures are going up! Numbers don’t lie!
“Are our kids “smarter” because John Deasy is our superintendent? No. The pedagogy that Deasy believes in is small-minded and literal. If a teacher in LA is doing great things in his or her classroom, the chances are it’s IN SPITE of the District, not because of it. The only true education emphasis that Deasy champions is the same one that most of the 1% from Bill Gates to Barack Obama to Arne Duncan adhere to: Get the most kids through the education factory they oversee (and often profit from) towards the goal of making them somewhat competent in the world to not go out and steal. It is a very low bar. Very few schools and administrations treat education as a mind-blowing, explosive and subversive experience. That would be about the last thing on John Deasy’s agenda.
“For Deasy and those who back him, Education is defined by them alone, using their own, limited metrics about what they think constitutes “education”.
“For Deasy’s system, creative teaching is seen only as an added bonus–not a primary function. If it happens, great, but it is not the most important aspect of education. Creativity and the emphasis on a critical understanding of the world is not the thing the system values most. Deasy, Duncan, Gates and Pearson value kids responding to its metrics. Actually, if those metrics are achieved, then the Education System says the “product” is successfully educated.
“The truth is that the System will NEVER get the results from this urban population of kids (or for most others either) because they neglect to deal with a variety of factors: Poverty, environment, lack of parental wherewithal, economic forces that dictate a certain path for the working class that Deasy oversees.
“But Deasy’s route to “success” was vastly different from that likely of the students he oversees. In fact, ironically, his path was much more “American” in its orchestration of how the country actually works: Inheritance, privilege and obsequiousness. Although most people are tired of hearing about Deasy’s PhD “controversy” (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2008/10/prince_georges_says_goodbye_to.html) it is always worth remembering because it is a perfect metaphor for how Deasy has always gotten his way throughout his entire education life. With the tremendous support of a financial power structure that has bolstered his career from Day One, Deasy has been the beneficiary of those whose interests he promotes. First it was the financial interests of billionaires Bill Gates and later Eli Broad which morph conveniently into the political interests of the neo-liberal Democrat agenda.
“Brought in and imposed upon the city by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Deasy consolidated his support by having Eli Broad pony up millions into LAUSD to “buy” support for him. Deasy has enjoyed the unfaltering support of The United Way, the Chamber of Commerce, multi-millionaire Jamie Alter-Lynton’s LA SCHOOL REPORT and The LA Times…behind these entities are all men and women of great wealth who have thrown their considerable influence backing Deasy’s “Reform” Agenda but do not send their own kids to LAUSD. Our current Mayor Eric Garcetti is a product of the UCLA Lab School and the tony Harvard Westlake Prep (as Mayor Emmanuel sends his kids to University of Chicago Lab where the Obama kids also attended).
“No matter.
“Like many other inner cities with very separate education agendas for other people’s children, these socially-liberal Titans of LA Power pull the strings for a school system that is both racist and classist. The type of education that Deasy prescribes for the kids of LAUSD would never go over in his former school district of Santa Monica. Educated, mostly white and financially secure parents would not tolerate the low bar for their own kids. They would not tolerate the class size that our students endure and are supposed to “buck up” and learn in, nor the pitiful lack of electives, art, drama or field trip opportunities.
“As for LAUSD teachers? Most suffer in silence. Our system’s teachers are cowed and intimidated. Where do they look for support? How did they become the enemy? Hundreds of teachers in “jail” in LA. Deasy gets a 91% disapproval rating from the very people he leads and it doesn’t garner a shrug. Imagine if the Secretary of Defense got that rating from the troops or any municipal Police Chief from the officers on the street? There would be calls for firing immediately, but teachers are demonized and can be ignored. Everyone from Obama to Bill Gates to Arne Duncan gives lip service to “WE LOVE TEACHERS!” but it is in much the same way as Colonel Sanders LOVES his chickens.
“Only a neo-liberal, corporatist agenda could get a piece of agitprop like the anti-union teacher film WON’T BACK DOWN at the last Democratic Convention. Wall Street loves people like Arne Duncan and John Deasy and Barack Obama. No matter that these people never had any experience in public urban education before they rose to power, they have sought to undermine teachers and student opportunities at every level.
“They have no shame of putting my students in a real-life movie that actually SUBVERTS their interests. They will back law suits like Vergara v. California stating its “for the kids”. Deasy will claim that his teachers are the problem, instead of the social issues that hold students’ lives in their sway. Ghastly, Deasy then claims that its HIS OWN self-serving, self-aggrandizing, self-benefiting educational policies (and those of Gates, Broad, Pearson, et. al) that are the life preservers for the kids.
“Our kids are afloat in a desperate sea and the “rescue” ship they send is manned by cannibals.
“The LAUSD School Board is a feckless lot. It is too much inside baseball to go into the individual psychologies of the seven members. Suffice to say they read the newspapers and are always VERY concerned how they appear to the editorial boards who keep them in line. Education is political and its big business. To say otherwise is ignorant at best and downright disingenuous at worst. I do not hold out much hope for this sorry lot because they are all in over their heads.
“Without rehashing the iPad story, LA’s citizens got upset because they saw it as a ridiculous waste of their money–while teachers saw it as horrifying waste of resources and priorities. We were told by our leader, Deasy, that iPads were a Civil Rights issue which was met with universal derision. We are now forced to figure out some way of threading the needle of asking the public to actually give MORE to public education which actually IS a Civil Rights issue, but it has been polluted by Deasy’s “version” of Civil Rights. When our own district stabs us in the back, undercutting our desire to make the public understand what the system truly needs, then what hope do we have to actually do right by our kids?
“John Deasy, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Barack Obama have miserably failed all urban kids. Their education is a disaster for my students. But the people who have the influence and power to change it don’t realize it (charitably?) or they simply BELIEVE the “philanthropists” when they say something is true and necessary because they also NEED those people for their political survival. And they get their backing because they back them. And so on and so on and so on….
“To connect the dots even further in this depressing spirit, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has announced that Bill Gates will be a keynote speaker at their 2014 Teaching and Learning conference next month. As a National Board teacher, I am horrified by this entity that is supposed to recognize the excellence in teaching is becoming just a shill front. Education is political and the National Board steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the destruction of public education. In fact, Gates has given so much money to this organization that it has created a toxic influence in the organization, reducing the “reliability” of what National Board constitutes great teaching.
“My disenfranchised classroom loses out simply because we can’t buy our way into a seat at the table.
“My kids can’t “buy” their way into a PhD.
“My kids have to accept what Deasy and The LA Times tells them is necessary for them.
“Who is our court of appeal in this system?
“Vergara v. California is the rich’s power grab. American public education is on trial not by “the people” but by the oligarchs who use it as a punching board to misdirect the culpability of many of these elites in creating the societal pathologies these kids navigate everyday.
“The true enemy of the nine students whose names are cynically being used in the suit are not their teachers–but those who exploit their desire for a true education–and will replace their trust with fat bank accounts in someone else’s name at a desk very far away (and with a much better window view) than theirs at the school’s they originally came from.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Education deform “pedagogy . . . is small-minded and literal.
yes, indeed, it is
Has anyone asked, why this court, why this judge? Was this judge elected or appointed? If elected, who funded his campaign? If appointed, who appointed him?
If this case is rigged, that means they will win a judgement and take advantage and trumpet the message that kids suffer at the hands of teachers who have the protection of due process and we must punish these “evil” teachers who are hurting our kids.
Today, public school teachers in America are being treated no better than the Jews in Nazi Germany in the early 20th century.
This is a showcase trial. Even if they lose, they win because of all the press they’re getting. They know exactly what they are doing because they have spent big money for the best minds on Madison Avenue to come up with this as part of the PR program to demonize public education and public teachers.
However, what they don’t realize is that winning battles doesn’t mean you will win the war. Right now, every district level chapter of the two major teacher unions in every state should be mobilizing to reach out to the parents of the kids they teach at the local level and seek support.
Instead of struggling to fight these BIG boys from the top down, we should be working at the grass roots level from the bottom up.
The leaders of the grassroots district union chapters know who the most supportive and active parents are in their communities. The time is ripe to go to these people and stop waiting around for the Robber Barons of Public Education and the Wolves of Sesame Street to attack their communities first.
Right now, the so-called fake reformers are calling all the shots and we are only reacting to what they do. It’s time to take the initiative and choose where and when.
Forget about the leadership of the NEA or AFT. They are only the tip of the teacher union iceberg and they are so removed from the classroom they are out of touch. The real activists are the district level chapters and they all have their own elected local presidents and many of those elected chapter presidents are still in the classroom teaching.
“Today, public school teachers in America are being treated no better than the Jews in Nazi Germany in the early 20th century.”
My lord.
I think Lloyd’s point is to look how the reformers are operating. No, they aren’t killing us in mass numbers, but they are using a campaign of propaganda and misinformation (and a ton of cash) to control their message.
Mike is right. I wasn’t talking about the death camps. I was talking about the methods used on the run up to the death camps.
Yeah, they are being scapegoated just like the Jews were in Nazi Germany. That’s what he means.
The show trials are right out of Stalinist Russia.
Right. Like Lloyd just said: “I wasn’t talking about the death camps. I was talking about the methods used on the run up to the death camps.”
Or like Ted Nugent just said: “There was an incrementalism to what happened in Germany and other places historically, where they came in slowly. And I think that’s what Obamacare is, that’s what I think most of what he represents. The IRS — I really believe that what we see with the IRS can be compared accurately and historically to the early maneuvers of people like jackbooted thugs, like the Brownshirts.”
And yes, obviously the trial is exactly like a show trial in Stalinist Russia. Who could possibly argue against that?
The goals of the Robber Barons of Public Education will probably not lead to concentration camps for teachers. They are just using the same tactics to achieve their corrupt and greedy goals—their power play.
I think their goal isn’t to eradicate the teachers as the Nazis wanted to do with the Jews, but to take over the public schools, get rid of the teachers’ unions and impoverish more than four million teachers who will either have to look for jobs outside of education (for instance, working for Wal-Mart, Target or the fast food industry) or take drastic pay cuts to work for the private sector education industry that’s gearing up to replaced the public schools with bigger class loads and much less pay without any retirement plan.
Imagine the millions of homes teachers will lose when they lose their jobs to the Robber Barons and Wolves. That might even lead to another global financial crises and bring down this house of cards the US has become.
That’s more than four million middle class pay checks that support how many other jobs? How much money do current public school teachers pump into the economy in mortgages, car payments, food, vacations, gasoline, insurance, etc?
Talk about too big to fail!
If the cost of public education is about $700 billion to one trillion annually and teachers earn, what, 80% (?) of that as income that they pay taxes on imagine the lost revenues in taxes to the states and feds.
Then were looking at a loss of between $300 to $400 billion annually sucked out of the consumer economy to transfer to the top 1, who have ways to avoid paying taxes on their great wealth.
Multiply that by a decade and we’re looking at a $3 Trillion to $4 Trillion dollar hit to consumer spending at all levels. When the auto industry was threatened, that was only about a million jobs. This hit is more than four times bigger.
Compare that loss to the handful of billionaires who will just get richer. How many mortgages will they have? How many cars will they buy and drive? How much food will they consume? What about clothing, shoes, etc?
Consumption creates jobs and when the average pay of teachers is cut in half, that will be a heavy blow to the economy leading to an increase in poverty with many teachers among the poor.
I agree about the IRS but that issue doesn’t fit this forum.
In cases like this Lloyd, you admit, “You know what, I said something really stupid and I take it back.”
And then you move on.
You are either a shill for the billionaires or a troll. Why don’t you move on.
In Los Angeles Superior Court judges are elected (like anyone in L.A. knows these guys/gals. From surfing the net I get the impression he is very inflexible and vindictive and loves to fine lawyers for even small infractions. His background is in torts. His bachelors is from the University of Redlands (private, east of L.A. in the Inland Empire) and law school at Loyola Marymount (West Los Angeles). He just refused the defense’s request to dismiss the case, so it will go forward.
If he’s elected, then where did the money come from that he used to run for election?
You never hear about fundraisers. My guess is that lawyers and businesspeople donate. Judicial elections rarely make the news. The L.A. Times will do endorsements. It’s very cut and dried.
But is there a way to use the freedom of information act see exactly where every dollar came from that was donated to this judge’s election campaign?
The same campaign laws apply, so, yes, it is possible. I just don’t think anyone bothers or, if they do, the media don’t cover it.
The media is in crises: cutbacks at every level. They may not have enough reporters to do real investigative reporting any longer.
Is John Deasy the man who presides over the district that has no school libraries for poor children? If so, well so much for “civil rights” for the least fortunate among us.
“Civil rights” are what the reformers say they are, nothing else.
What’s the lawsuit? They are violating the minority students civil rights because they are assigning them the least desirable teachers? Who unequitably destributes the teachers, the funds, and the facilities? Isn’t that the superintendent and the school board?
The sister speaks the truth. I weep for the students. parents, and teachers of the LAUSD. If you meet Deasey face-to-face you are looking into the face of evil vindictiveness. He shows no mercy under any circumstances.
Sister or brother. What a lucky man Deasey is. Tell me, is he Faustus or the Devil?
Deasy lied about his education, and therefore lied on a job application for superintendent. That is grounds for license sanctions at least up here in Oregon; I would think it would be the same in California.
Tell me how this is going to fly in the court system when in fact teachers don’t have “lifetime employment” and don’t even have to go through hearings if they are pushed out by school districts. Where is the union in this?
Why are police and fire personnel allowed the same “right” to hearings as teachers but teachers are not? These morons pushing this “case” are either flat-out liars or they really don’t even know what “rights” teachers have, which is NONE?
I truly feel this lawsuit is designed to fail so that they can put a proposition on the ballot and convince the voters of CA to believe what they are claiming in court. You watch. It doesn’t matter whether or not you put facts in some people’s faces–everyone I’ve heard who talks bad about teachers uses the terms “tenure’ or “lifetime employment” and talk about how it is impossible to fire a teacher and how teachers only collect a paycheck and don’t care. When I try to point out they are wrong, they just say “you are a teacher and are protecting your cushy job and benefits..” You can’t convince those who have bought into this. According to the corporatists, teachers are what is wrong with education–and getting rid of our voices by killing the unions, means they can set the policy without opposition.
This is just about the best summary of the dismal state of affairs I’ve read. Thank you to whoever wrote this. It is superbly said, IMO.
Would that all LAUSD parents were as informed and as vocal as redqueenia!
This teacher email to us hits all bases and still we are not able to motivate parents in LA to revolt as they are doing in NY and some other cities. We now have high school students having to study for and take not only CC standardized tests, but also concurrently, all the State tests. This will take about two months out of their true academic learning.
We here are filled with information on the issues…so any LA parents, and California voters, take up your pen, limber your computer writing fingers, and make all this info known to your legislators, the BoE, and all the media outlets. Linda Johnson and her team of retired teachers are golden in setting the letter writing standards.
Thanks to all who are doing this…but not enough are taking the time and effort to form a real public school power base in LA.
Thanks, Ellen. I’m proud to be a supporter of dedicated teachers and authentic reforms for our students.
I am amused by all the whining about the big, bad rich people picking on California teachers on behalf of students and parents. The union war chest dwarfs every other interest group in California by buckets and buckets of Benjamins. The teachers’ union is by far the biggest political player in California and it has had its way for decades. So cry me a river.
Never mind the corporations own and run the media in L.A. and can focus the story the way they want. The teachers’ unions have plenty of other issues to focus on. Public school enrollment in L.A. because of the corporatist-friendly school board has okayed more than 200 charters. Why don’t you cry the corporatists a river? Public school teachers don’t need your crocodile tears or your sarcasm. You may not care for public schools or teachers, but your ignorance about how things are run in L.A. is showing.
Wrong!
Are you a shill for the Super Packs or a Troll?
In one election, 2012, the Super Pacs spend $567,498,628 to get their pet politicians elected; support or oppose measures on the ballot.
Click on this link and see the list of Super Pacs and how much each one spent.
http://projects.wsj.com/super-pacs/
For CTA, the closest comparison I could find was the 2010 election where CTA spent about $12 million to oppose or support five propositions on the ballot.
For one election, that’s a huge difference between almost $570 million from a handful of billionaires and $12 million paid in dues from several hundred thousand teachers in California who actually go to work everyday—all for one election. I think you’ve been bamboozled by spin that probably is only quoting the total that CTA has spend over several decades. Imagine what the total would be for the Super Pacs if we added up all they’ve spent to influence elections over the decades.
http://ballotpedia.org/California_Teachers_Association
Thank you for pointing out that CTA spends money to defend public education against the Robber Barons and Wolves of Sesame Street. Where do you think the CTA got that money? It came from members dues that are deducted from their monthly paychecks.
Without CTA, the teachers would have no voice to fight back against less than about twenty greedy crooks and billionaires who want to subvert democracy and create a political climate that fits their few beliefs and not the beliefs of the majority of Americans.
In addition, there’s this from California Watch: “State’s top 100 political donors contribute $1.25 Billion.
http://californiawatch.org/money-and-politics/states-top-100-political-donors-contribute-125-billion-16436
I’m, for one, am glad CTA is wisely using money paid to them by their members to fight back against greedy and power hungry billionaire bullies who brought this fight to them.
The “educational reformers” have ramped up their efforts to dismantle teachers’ unions and public schools in CA. This lawsuit sets the tone. I am an educator in CA–in one of those low performing (extreme poverty, high minority) school districts. This lawsuit is an opening salvo . If they fail–and I think this lawsuit is designed to fail as it is too broad–expect Rhee (who is married to Sacramento’s mayor and has lots of political friends in the state govt.) and her ilk to get a proposition on the ballot to do what Vergara may fail to do. You watch, if they lose they will bemoan the unions as too powerful in CA and try to turn the public against us. I worry for my job–as I am a veteran of 20 plus years at my school district–if job protections, LIFO or tenure is killed in CA. I definitely see that seasoned “expensive” teachers would go first–and I probably would be one of them. Am I ineffective? By the standards being argued in Vergara, I am. I work hard and do as much as I can to help my students, but I am fighting a losing battle as poverty continues to take its toll on my kids. I’m so tired of this constant onslaught against teachers. I worry about the future of education in this nation–particularly as I have a young son in the system myself. I try to take it one day at a time, but everyday there is something in the news saying we stink–or I hear how we have to “work harder” in my district will all the new mandates–but no help or guidance in how to implement them. I am hopeful that someday people will wake up–but I fear it may be too little, too late.