Howard Blume reports in the Los Angeles Times that Superintendent John Deasy is likely to step down as early as today.
He retained the fierce loyalty of business and civic leaders, but alienated teachers and parents. His flubs of key technology projects made his position untenable.
Blume reports that former superintendent Ramon Cortines is likely to be the interim superintendent. Cortines, 82, has served twice before as leader of the L.A. Schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
http://www.examiner.com/article/how-many-lives-has-deasy-negatively-impacted?cid=db_articles How many lives has Deasy negatively impacted?
Good question.
If LAUSD kept accurate records that wouldn’t be that difficult to figure out but that’s most probably unlikely to happen.
Don’t forget to bring in your exorcist!
It is moot…it looks like Michelle King has just been named interim supt. reported at 7 PM by LASR.
Ah so…it was Cortines after all. Fooled by LASR again.
How come with Jackie Goldberg’s sterling academic creds from UC Berkeley and U.of Chicago, and Michelle King’s on site experience as deputy Supt., and Monica Ratliff’s sterling creds from Columbia U. and Columbia Law School, our elected woman could not prevail and get a good woman interim appointed by her BoE colleagues, rather than an elderly man with so much baggage who got his creds from a stringent Christian college, Point Loma Nazarene College, that brags about it’s great grads including James Dobson, of Focus on the Family? Just read the 2012 KPCC report on Cortines and how much it cost the district to pay off his legal hassle. Yoiks…more public taxpayer money down the drain.
Is that why Vlad is in hiding today, according to news reports?
Ain’t Wikipedia grand???? Does anyone else feel like we are living in lalaland?
YOU ask the right questions.
As you point out, Ellen, how come it is so difficult to find people who know what learning looks like, and what the classroom practitioner needs to do the job?
How come with the plethora of wonderful teachers and academics whose work I read about in The American Educator, like the ones that YOU mentioned, the person chosen to rescue the second largest school district in the country needed to be retired long ago.
it is not about ‘what’ Cortines “knows about education”, it is about who would be best for the job…certainly not HIM!
And the very FACT that he was chosen — even as an interim — shows that the ‘powers that be’ –the ones who are running public schools into the ground– are completely in charge.
After all, LAUSD is a dismal failure. One would imagine that there would be a concerted effort to find someone who cares about LA, who cares about the ethic minorities who have been passed on with no skills, who knows what LEARNING looks like, not just about ‘education’.
What does that mean… he knows about education?
In NYC, when he was MY chancellor, there was not a shred of support FROM his policies.
I was there, I saw how the rubber rooms became the process for breaking tenure, and how top-down anti-learning mandates, were replacing teacher generated lessons based on state objectives for learning.. Did I imagine that?
First there was Alverado… who did some decent staff development but was a thief…
and was thrown out of NYC… and went to San Diego…but not for long.
Then came Cortines… but not for long in the largest school system in the nation.
Rudy Crew, our next top honcho, left for Florida, for a while
Then came Joel Klein, a businessman and Bloomberg’s hatchet man. to deal the death knell in NYC.
https://vimeo.com/4199476
Klein, that sociopath, now lobbies and sells his soul for a tech company.
Musical chairs for these charlatans.
I know about education… I have 4 degrees and was a cohort for Harvard’s research. I went to school in the forties and fifties, taught and sent my kids to school in the sixties seventies and eighties, was a celebrated educator in the nineties, and I would never consider myself a contender for the job… but I know what teachers need, and like you, I would choose people who could do the job.
The answer, as we all know, is that PUBLIC EDUCATION IS the TARGET, AND the billionaires boy’s club will not rest until it is shot down….and this is why
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
Why is Vlad in hiding?
Susan…many of us here keep asking the right questions but we are consistently stonewalled by the BoE and others who keep it all opaque. No transparency at all.
Both Jackie Goldberg and the current Deputy Supt., Michelle King, are far more qualified and respected by the teachers and the community than Ramon Cortines, who is an embarrassment to every thinking person who can read his history. From the sex scandal which cost the taxpayers about $500,000 only two years ago in payoff to the LAUSD employee who sued him for sexual harassment, to the minimal creds he has, and his many failed employments. He went to a mariginal college, now called Point Loma Nazarene University, a deeply and stringently Christian school which proudly claims as its’ favorite grad, James Dobson of the infamous and highly bigoted Focus on the Family.
Both Goldberg and King, exemplary women educators, got their training at the best public university system in the nation, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, and Jackie got her graduate degree for U. of Chicago, one of the best in the world.
Compare both women’s backgrounds, and someone should tell us why this strangely quiet and obviously manipulated BoE would choose Cortines to make a comeback, when he should be hiding under his bed and waiting for Godot????
King actually was Cortines’ Chief of Staff when he briefly served as interim supt. a few years ago. She knows where all the bodies are buried. But she is a highly and well trained teacher and administrator, and would be far more capable at holding the line than Broad -lover Cortines. Shame on the BoE….again. It is unending.
The phony deal Deasy cut with them to keep from being investigated for his insider dealings with bidders from Apple and Pearson, to his MiSiS debacle…and the billionaires who are still protecting him and him with their best lawyers, but paid for by We, the People, to cut his disgusting severance deals.
Eli Broad is all over it. LAUSD can only recover and the stables swept clean when Broad and his contingent are gone, and real qualified educators are placed in leadership. And when we have a STRONG FEARLESS BoE.
So again I ask where is Vlad? Why is he hiding? What really happened behind those closed doors?
Who is the puppetmaster who will pull Cortines’ strings? Is he hiding out in his new palace on Grand Ave.?
Ellen, I followed Lenny Isenberg at per daily, for a decade, ever since he contacted me when he heard about my experience in NYC. I know Cortines is just an interim until finds a vain and desperate candidate
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-the-vain-and-the-desperate.html?_r=0
is found, someone who will do whatever Broad and clones desire.
Let’s see, about 10, 000 teachers, 700, 000 kids ABD probably parents , aids, staff and assorted peasents . Conservative estimate 100k directly.
The power of a good lawyer is getting Deasy to leaves with plenty of money, with his salary to paid until the end of the year, and other perks like $1000 a day for 60 days as severance, as reported this AM.
But most important, his deal seems to include the agreement not to investigate, nor prosecute him. Only Ratliff objected to that. So off he goes to destroy some other district. Now we know why Deasy hired Saferstein many weeks ago.
Now, it is imperative for all of us to urge the BoE not to EVEN INTERVIEW any Broadie….and to clean the house of all the Eli Broad administrators who were in with Deasy on all the egregious events.
Eli Broad should never again have a voice in LAUSD. Please review his failed actions a decade ago with Belmont HS, and his mandated projects then that cost taxpayers over $500,000,00 bucks. He should go sit in his museum and keep his nose out of the business of the People, which means the public schools.
In addition, I hope there is a huge hue and cry that a large and diverse committee, not the usual Blue Ribbon folks, be formed as partners to the BoE in vetting a new superintendent. Off the top of my head I would suggest, Robert Skeels, Cynthia Liu, Karen Wolfe, and even perhaps myself. But also there must be informed parents and students, and university educators, and similar people who are unafraid to ask hard questions, and do not answer to the plutocrats.
But more immediately, it is also imperative that all of America’s educators support Tom Torlakson for State Supt.
His opponent Marshall Tuck, the hedge fund, charter school, Eli Broad guy, is getting vast amounts of money from the billionaire privatizers, and he is running outrageous tv ads using a Latina, chubby and grey haired, who cries about her son who was into gang life until Marshall Tuck got him into his charter schools.
It is total bilge, and is again, a disrespect to real inner city parents who get used constantly by these unconscionable people like Deasy, Broad, Ben Austin, etc., to be paid actors on the WRONG side of their own best self interest….keeping public schools open and improving them from within the realm of saving public education.
Added note…If Deasy indeed was given 30 days notice by the BoE, it is the opinion of some that this could ONLY have been allowed by their showing ’cause’…which means areas of malfeasance. If anyone has more on this, please let us all know.
I guess these guys are “Too big to fail”. What the heck?! No investigation, nor prosecution? Is that even legal since Federal money was possibly involved?
There was just too much going wrong, coupled with little support from the working stiffs of LAUSD. I just heard that his MISIS system will never work because of hardware difficulties at the schools. My biggest resentment was that he always draped his initiatives in a “civil rights” cloak. Clean schools, freedom from relentless testing, librarians, nurses, counselors, getting the classes you need…those are just as important as access to an outdated I-pad.
My former principal, Dr. Michelle Windmueller, who totally bullied me for 2 years was in charge of the Misis fiasco at Jefferson High School. Will she step down like Deasy or will she be dismissed like I was?
Inquiring minds wants to know.
Segalit…Deasy fired so many good and successful prinicpals and replaced them with his own followers of Eli Broad. It will take time to turn that around. Hopefully, Cortines will start right away…though I personally doubt it. Most things will probably left for a new superintendent.
Ellen,
I agree with a lot of the statements you make but Cortines is not going to be the interim superintendent; it is going to be Michelle King, who was the Deputy Superintendent.
My principal, Dr. Michelle Windmueller, got rid of 12/15 teachers within a 2.5 year period. 56% of those teachers were Jewish and Dr. Windmueller is Jewish herself. Go figure.
I wonder if UTLA will fight for the teachers who were in teacher jail during DZ’s tenure. Out of the 500 teachers that were in teacher jail, there are only 40 of us left. Most jailed teachers were forced to settle, resign and retire.
I doubt, however, that this will happen. DZ will go down in history as the worst superintendent ever.
As far as the BOE is concerned, there are two people who should step down and take DZ’s lead.
I somehow wonder if Deasy’s parting shot at the school district was MiSiS. As detailed and documented by AALA, the administrators’ union, MiSiS, as presented, was not going to work. This was no secret. How the board was kept in the dark about this situation is a mystery. Except for Monica Ratliff, the other board members have been around for many years.
As of yesterday, two more high schools joined Jefferson HS to ask the state to intervene.
http://laschoolreport.com/aclu-to-seek-state-intervention-at-2-other-lausd-high-schools/
We may be looking at an avalanche of lawsuits against the district. Deasy will never be required to personally pay back the millions and millions of dollars spent to shore up these challenged schools, but the rest of the students in LAUSD will see less and less money going for basic needs. The iPad project and now MiSiS are going to take more and more “bailout” money to implement and with more and more lawsuits looming, the future fiscal viability of this school district has NEVER been in more doubt.
Is it finally time to put Deasy into the same league as Bloomberg and Emanuel? While he’s not the mayor, Deasy was put in power through the lobbying of former mayor, Villaraigosa.
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2011/01/12/lausd-school-board-promotes-john-deasy-to-superintendent-without-so-much-as-a-job-interview
He did it to Orince George’s when they caught wind of his fake phd but I suspect it may be more about scrambling the records to destroy evidence of his crimes. As it turns out he had in for Jefferson which was reconstituted and awarded to teachers. You know he resented this. Certainly is possible he is just grinding his ax and Broad is getting in his licks to by inflicting Cortines on us yet again. Unacceptable
yes…
I remember Ramon from NYC circa 1990’s, but wasn’t he also in the news during the 1980’s in NYC as a community super? In any case, this looks like what the pros do. Shuffle one manager from one team to another. Deasey needs to be investigated and prosecuted.
He is a white collar criminal!!
There’s a name for that—
“Dance of the Lemons.”
For the educrats of the self-styled “education reform” movement they usually get all the sweet taste of $tudent $ucce$$ and we get all the bitterness of management by fear.
But just to tip the scales a little in favor of decency and competence, maybe we could ask that Ms. Patrena Shankling be the one to formally show “Dr.” John Deasy the door.
Just sayin’…
😎
The same playbook that BDB used for the Carmen Farina appointment. Pick an veteran name out of the hat, use the words “experienced educator” to describe him, and watch people start to reflexively repeat those words approvingly. Next step: the new superintendent should say something about how he wants to “change the tone,” “respect educators,” and “bring joy into the classroom.” That buys at least a year of fawning.
Mark…yes, shuffling them around is apparent. Cortines has worked in so many places for short time periods, as did Deasy.
Kind of like the Catholic Church has done with child offenders.
Is the interim replacement a good choice? Game changer? (genuinely want to know)
He’s a crook.
Joanna,
Ray Cortines is 82. He is a conscientious educator and will be a good interim.
You are wrong. He was caught in a conflict of interest scandal with Scholastic. He was behind the propoganda that ushered in the teacher jails and published those dubious test scores. His sadistic antics are the stuff of legend and epitomized by what he did to Scott Grahme . He is a rapist! Broad knows he will be in there to finsh off what HE and Deasy started, he was trained by Broad and his petty punitive antics have ruined many lives . He and his Hermes ties are an affront to earnest educators and it irresponsible of you to defend him .
Exactly… Diane’s endorsement is very upsetting to me.
What?
I WAS THERE AND SAW WHAT HE DID IN NYC; It is this kind of opinion by someone like you, that really upsets me. This man is one of the chosen lackeys of the billionaires that you identify as the culprits. At 82, he has nothing to offer LAUSD but the same old stuff. Listen to Hemlock… she gets it, and so should you!
Diane, you’re so wrong on this. Cortines will be nothing but the front man for DZ to continue his bad policies. Cortines is also a flawed superintendent with ethical issues. Do we really want him to be the face of LAUSD, even in the interim. DZ and Cortines are of the same mind set and allowing DZ to remain in LAUSd on ‘special assignment” is just allowing him to continue his messes. This is not a change as much as a continuance of policies that Cortines also supported. This is another bad BOE decision that keeps them from having to accept their culpability in the bad decisions DZ made. I say the BOE has to be reconstituted. Any time Monica Garcia and Tamar Galantan support this decision, something is rotten. Bet on it.
Sorry Diane…but I am 100% with Rene, Susan, and Paula on this one. Cortines has a terrible reputation in California. And he is a Broad enthusiast. We should not have had him back, but I suspect Eli is still in charge at Beaudry…and maybe this was part of the final deal…to get another Broadie in as interim…and maybe they will get Byrd-Bennett to leave Chicago, and will tout her as a Woman in Charge. Fates of change, please help us!
Joanna…Cortines is now in his mid 80s and has had a very embarrassing sex charge posted against by a much younger man.
Cannot understand why he was the choice, and not Jackie Goldberg, or Michelle King. Guess they just do not trust a woman to do a man’s job…of manipulation and dirty deals.
Ray Cortines is a competent superintendent. He knows what education is all about and doesn’t believe in corporate “miracles.” He will be a good Interim Acting Supt.
He may know what education is about, but those of us who were veteran teachers, remember what he did to the teachers…. and he will do the same in LAUSD… same old…. You are mistaken, Dorothy.
Agree with you Susan.
This cost LA $200k
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20700890/l-unified-will-pay-200k-over-alleged-harassment
Be certain to read Mark’s link to the MercuryNews above. It tells the Cortines story…not a role model kind of guy to have in the highest position at LAUSD. Poor judgement and very bad behavior.
Let’s hope they find a replacement quickly…and if others here come to the next BoE meeting on Oct.21, feel free to raise your voices about who would be a better interim superintendent. Almost embarrassing to have Cortines back after all the articles about his behavior and how much it cost the taxpayers to settle his sexual law suit…for over $1/2 million.
Kind of a thumbing of Broad’s nose (and Garcia and Galatzan) at the students, teachers, and taxpayers. Seems to be the way of it at LAUSD that slimey behaviours causing slimy lawsuits are de rigeur. What the hell, the taxpayers will pay for it all.
Please do not hire another Broad affiliated person.
Here is the scam that goes on when a district is looking for a new Commissioner. There is a company/search agency called ProAct. Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas are in charge of the searches at ProAct. These are the same people that founded the SUPES Academy (a Superintendent training program).
You pay to go to SUPES or Broad and get “certified”. In our town it will be taxpayer funded for our Assistant Superintendent to go.
Then ProAct (Solomon and and Vranas’ company) gets paid to place the graduates via being hired to do “searches” for school districts. For example they received $55,000 from Dallas for their placement of Mike Miles. Then Miles pays ProAct to find members of his cabinet at a proposed cost of $200K for ProAct to complete the search. Meanwhile, all ProAct is doing is matching their hand-picked graduates from SUPES and Broad and placing them in available openings.
All at taxpayer expense.
Here is an article from Chicago where SUPES was questioned for being chosen as the training program when there was no open bidding for contracts.
http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/2013/07/30/21797/20-million-no-bid-contract-raises-questions-about-supes-academy
Word has it that “Dr” Carter is looking for a job, having just finished a very successful term in New London, CT. He has impeccable credentials and comes highly recommended, by the way.
“LA lies in
WoBlPlDunderland”“Wonderland”? or “Blunderland”?
Or subject for a muse?
“Dunderland”? or “Plunderland”?
It’s Deasy to confuse.
OMG! Cortines? We in NYC remember this incompetent hack who allowed the rubber rooms to become the de-facto way to remove veteran teachers without offering any due process.
This is how it is done…the play ‘musical chairs’ with the chancellors, ensuring that th e schools continue to fail, and thus, they can ‘reform’ them. They invent failure
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/opinion/krugman-inventing-a-failure.html?_r=0
But in LAUSD it was never about education and always about money
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/02/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
and targeting teachers was the process…
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-continues-to-target-teachers.html
Susan, you nailed it ABD it pains me deeply to see people debend this monster. How dare they defend him ? It is absolutely unconsionable .
Agree.
Right on Ellen… I answered you as a post to the blog.
You can bet that Blume will be a heavy hitter in the selection process of the replacement. The oligarchs will want another Deasy—-someone they own.
They owned Cortines in NYC, but he was so incompetent they replaced him… and now, LAUSDjhas this hack…again!
Susan, we disagree about Cortines. No one owned him in NYC. Guiliani drove him out because the mayor was a bully.
My goodness. I was there and didn’t know this… but I do know what he did not do, and what he did to fine teachers.
I think you mean Bloomberg, Lloyd. Yes, the billionaire money is funding the State Supt race. They have poured about 4.8 million into the Tuck pockets so far.
Sorry. Too many greedy, corrupt billionaires. Easy to get confused. Maybe a cheat sheet that lists them with a brief description of each billionaire’s part in this scam would help.
Maybe someone should make a deck of cards like they had for all the bad guys in Iraq but with education reformers on them.
“We know where they [education WMD] are. They’re in the area around LA and NY and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
Good idea. A deck of cards that everyone in the resistance could carry. And that info could be posted on line so the whole world could discover easily who these monsters are.
@SomeDAM Poet Cards. Great idea. Sounds like a fund raiser to me.
Cortines ? He is just as bad. No way to celebrate that. Our work in LA is not even close to done yet. Be there in Tuesday to put the BOE on notice . We cannot let a rapist guilty of conflicts of interest replace the other criminal , it is an insult
Agree that is a terrible choice and we need to let them all know it by writing letters, emails, and coming to the Oct. 21 BoE meeting. Never to late to make a change. Mght even be a put up job to give the position of interim to an insider Broadie. Do NOT trust anyone.
But Diane, please read up on all the Cortines messes in California. You will change you mind.
A replacement from among his peers…Oh, sorry, that should be a jury of his peers, but not really in this case. My error, I’ll pray for you.
What I wrote about Cortines in 2010: http://www.examiner.com/article/mr-cortines-leave-lausd-now
Thanks Stuart for this reminder of that big waste of taxpayer money. I have really agreed with all you have been writing lately. Particularly liked your list of Deasy grievances.
Diane, I don’t know what your experience was like with Cortines but you are wrong about L.A. What we wanted was to improve our reputation and bring competent, respected educators as leaders. Cortines has had his day and its over. Teachers in teacher jail don’t get to get accused of misconduct and return to their jobs, They are terminated. This is a bad decision all around and makes me realize, the board needs reconstitution. Count on it.
Paula…how close were Vlad and Cortines in the old days? Am coming around to your thinking re the BoE. We have some elections coming up…must get rid of Galatzan…then Garcia terms out, right?…and maybe Vlad and Zimmer who continue to be wimps and sway in the breeze…let’s see some show of leadership by not only Ratliff, and maybe Kayser and McKenna, but the teacher five should certainly be acting, unafraid of Broad, and do what’s best for their district, not their personal futures.
Hey, Carl Peterson, speak out. Who else is willing to run? No more feudalist appointments of charter supporters like District 1. McKenna hopefully will run…but he must back up Ratliff loudly.
So far, I only see Ratiliff taking uncomfortable, but moral, positions. Her report opened to door to facts. Hope she is the next Prez of the Board.
It is all moot re Cortines…Michelle King has just been appointed interim as reported moments ago by LASR.
correction…LASR fooled us again and it was Cortines who was appointed. Big bummer.
If it’s any consolation, it’s probably King who’ll actually be running things.
Let’s see when we can see Deasy doing push-ups in his coffin by pushing up Daisies.
I am responding here to ELLEN LUBIC’S crucial observation. She says:
“But most important, his deal seems to include the agreement not to investigate, nor prosecute him. Only Ratliff objected to that. So off he goes to destroy some other district. ”
Exactly! This is indeed the most important factor.NO ACCOUNTABILITY under the law, or even in the media. AND,MOREOVER, THE OPPOSTIE IS TRUE… THEY ARE REWARDED; these destructive immoral, unethical an flawless failed human beings get to go into retirement or to another job, with REWARDS for their malfeasance.
We saw how the criminal banksters who robbed this nations wealth were allowed to ‘settle.’ You and I , if we steal, or commit fraud, go to jail!
It is the LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY that allows not only superintendents and chancellors, but principals to escape prosecution and the end of their careers, but to move forward despite incompetence, malfeasance and criminal behavior. Dania Hall, in Long Island lost her job to outright slander, but the superintendent of the Belmore system, went on to become the superintendent in a NJ district, collecting as a reward for his incompetence and lawlessness — a retirement bonus and a new, huge salary.
Our right to due process disappeared when the administration could say anything they wanted, and no grievance (according to our contract) moved forward.
I wrote this in 2004, four years after I experienced the lawlessness in the silk stocking NYC district 2.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
It is only the teachers who pay with their careers, losing everything, as I did, despite their excellence and dedication. MY resume is available at OPED News where I write.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
Principals are safe from prosecution, as Lorna Stremcha discovered when her Montana principal set her up to be raped. This is a true story. She had to take him to civil court because neither the union or the law could hold him responsible. Her book “Bravery, Bullies and Blowhards” tells how top-down administration lawless can be.
http://bravery-bullies-blowhards.com
I have put her congressional Testimony for the film “Lawless” here many times, but here it is if you missed it
And IF you are new to sleazy Deasy,– who lied about his credentials from the get-go– go to perdaily.com and put Deasy in the search, or just go back and read the incredible posts that describe the destruction of the schools and the lives of the teachers, not to mention the future of the kids in LA.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/10/lausd–is-there-meaningful-life-after-deasy.html
and if you wonder why no one is held accountable there
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/03/lausd-and-utla–connecting-the-dots-of-blattant-corruption.html
or
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE TOP HONCHOS, and endless evaluation and blame for the classroom practitioner following their mandates, and working with no support.
That has been going on for TWO DECADES, and it is only now that some of you are beginning to realize the reign of terror is THE PROCESS for keeping the budget low, and the voice of the teacher-practioner SILENT!
As for the public… they are, for the most part… clueless, as there are 15,88o districts in 50 states, and few or our citizens know what is happening in the schools next door, let alone across the country. We are divided and they are the conquering villains.
Comment on NPR Morning News Coverage of John Deasey’s resignation: First, I am not sure why the resignation of John Deasy, the L.A. School Superintendent, gets selected for national news. Second, the coverage reminded me of Fox news in which opinion rather than a straightforward presentation of the facts characterizes the interview. The focus became teachers not willing to move forward fast enough for change, emphasized by references to Michelle Rhee. Only the on-line version makes reference to the so-called i-pad controversy which never gets attention in the interview. Third, The most serious of all charges is when any public official, especially one charged with leading a school district, operates unethically. Using money designated by taxpayers for building and construction, and seeking to purchase computers with the billion dollars from a company to which he has ties is not putting students first. Four, Michelle Rhee’s accomplishments have been marred by charges of data scrubbing that the commentary ignored. Five, how necessary computers are to student learning has been questioned not only by educators but also by a PBS New Hour program on a Kipp school in L.A.. The program ended by highlighting the use of computers and the cost savings that resulted from fewer teachers and every student assigned a computer. However, in the conclusion one of the staff noted that their use was undergoing a reassessment as too many students were simply playing.
NPR needs funding, now that austerity ended everything. The news we get there, I have noticed for sometime, is slanted and incomplete… shame on them!
I think this post on Perdaily.com, says it all;
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/10/post-4.html
DEASY TO CORTINES…FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE FOR LAUSD?
Caution Memory Loss Ahead
Los Angeles Unified School District
Given this latest soap episode at LAUSD, one might reasonably start to wonder if there is such a medical condition as Collective Alzheimer’s Disease (CAD?), the worsening symptoms of which seem to have afflicted the LAUSD Board for a long time now. Case in point, the LAUSD Board seems to have forgotten Ramon Cortines’ own recent rather colorful departure under fire from LAUSD and an equally morally challenging past to match John Deasy’s present.
How soon the Board forgets Cortines’ sexual harassment charges, that were brought against him in 2012 by fellow Cortines hired LAUSD employee Scott Graham for sexual battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. These charges were dismissed on a legal technicality and not by an adjudication on its merits.
And even though Cortines was given a pass by LAUSD Board Member Monica Garcia on conflict of interest charges for having taken $150,000 a year for several years from Scholastics Inc. at the same time Cortines was LAUSD superintendent and contemporaneous with a $16 million a year contract Scholastic had with LAUSD, LAUSD’s memory deprived board didn’t seem capable of factoring this in before making him Deasy’s interim replacement.
Only in the long failed insular culture of LAUSD, that steadfastly refuses to go outside its own incestuous administrative short list comfort zone of “qualified” public education insiders, would a Ray Cortines even be considered. When all is said and done, Cortines or any other candidate for superintendent must guarantee entrenched power at LAUSD that they will leave the district as dysfunctional as it was when they were hired. And sadly, that is a job qualification pretty much written in stone for holding any administrative position at LAUSD.
Clearly and inexplicably, state and federal public officials have tenaciously refuse to hold LAUSD administrators accountable to the same standards that exist in the outside world and, more specifically, in the privileged world of private schools. LAUSD administration has never been held accountable to anything even remotely resembling good business practices in this $6 billion a year plus endeavor and any who have tried to do this have been blocked by LAUSD political juice.
There is a certain irony to the fact that what Deasy and Cortines and their predecessors have done at LAUSD would have gotten them immediately fired at a prestigious private school. And as any targeted teacher at LAUSD can tell you, that which gets you charged and removed from your teaching livelihood at LAUSD would get you lauded as a great teacher at a private or parochial school, where those with money and the social capital necessary to change LAUSD have escaped- much to our collective loss. Could that be what the Brown vs. Education court meant 60 years ago when they said, “Separate but equal…is inherently unequal.”
In determining who will even be considered for the superintendent’s job, the seal of approval must also come from privatizers and charter school supporters Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and the Waltons, which is far more important than whether a candidate has ever had any success in finally turning around what at this point can only be described as a purposefully failed and segregated public education system at LAUSD and around the country.
“Those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it,” according to George Santayana. An LAUSD that remains close to 90% Latino and African American is more and more resembling similarly polarized Greek, Rome, French, and Russian societies of the not too distant past that led to those societies decline and fall. As a history teacher, it saddens me that this lesson seems to be lost on the LAUSD Board and the puppet masters who these politically ambitious people take their orders from.
In the final analysis, John Deasy has done his job of moving an ever increasing number of LAUSD schools into charters in fulfillment of the privatization agenda, while carrying on a purge against costly high seniority teachers, through Reductions in Forces (RIFs), displacements, and housing and ultimately dismissing them on false charges. There is no doubt that he has exceed the expectations of his handlers at the Broad Academy, where he was trained. But in the process of doing this, he has become too visible, so now it is time for him to take one for the team and move on. One should always keep in mind that Deasy was never his own man. Rather, he was put into office by those seeking the privatization and monitizing of the $1 trillion a year public education cash cow.
And who knows, given the short memory of the LAUSD Board and the general public, we should not be surprised if, like Cortines, who has already done two stints at LAUSD, we find Deasy’s smiling face at some point in the future before the Board to yet again be considered for the position of LAUSD superintendent.
Agtee Susan that Lenny Isenberg spells it all out correctly. My great fear is that the failed fraud, but Eli Broad darling, Michelle Rhee, may be the next disaster superintendent that Broad mandates be hired by LAUSD.
She is out of a job right now…changed her name (to cover up her personal and professional disasters)…and would probably love this gig.
Nothing surprises me. LA is lost to its citizens. In fact, the institution of public education is over, and these oligarchs who run the show will place only those managers who will do their bidding. Rhee is top-shelf to them. No real educator will ever get to save LAUSD.
15,880 school districts in 50 states make it impossible for you to know the huge fraud that is perpetrated now that the public schools have been ravaged to remove the authentic professional teachers so they will tail.
Cortines is a bad choice for interim supt, Very surprising that they unanimously appointed him.
However, I don’t think we should put much energy into the interim supt position. That is a waste of energy and time.
We need to pressure the board to find a good superintendent,. someone who will steer a fundamental radical course change from that of recent years, not more of the same.
For such a radical change of direction to take place, all four teacher-elected board members (Ratliff, ZImmer, Kayser, and McKenna) will have to stand together as a new majority and insist on that, and a new superintendent to totally change course from Deasy.
Zimmer is a major cause of concern. He has gone way beyond the praise of Deasy in the separation letter. Listen to him in the interview at: http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/lausd-superintendent-john-deasy-resigns-marvel-ventures-into-ya He praises Deasy highly, and talks about how “excruciating” it was for him to agree that Deasy leaves. He talks about how Deasy started a great “trajectory” for the district, and now we need someone new to continue it. What??
Is this the same Steve Zimmer who introduced Diane R at one of her last LA talks? He seems to want to please everyone, including Eli Broad.
In a way I think Zimmer is the most dangerous LAUSD board member. Not the worst board member, that prize would have to go to Monica Garcia, with second prize to Galatzan. But everyone knows who those two women are, and what they stand for. I doubt they have any influence over other board members, except it seems they may have blackmailed Vlad into submission. But Zimmer is a snake, pretends to support teachers, etc., and at times I believe has had influence on other board members. (My guess is that he somehow influenced Kayser to vote yes on the Deasy contract last year, as he (SZ) did.
I think it should be made clear to each of the teacher-supported board members, that they will never get any teacher support for re-election again, if they vote for a broadie-deformie supt.