Karen Wolfe is an activist for public education in Los Angeles. Here she responds to the news that Eli Broad and the Walton family plan to pour millions into increasing charter school enrollments in Los Angeles; their hope is to capture 50% of the children for the privately managed schools. Despite the fact that studies show that charters on average do not outperform as compared to public schools, despite the fact that twenty-five years of charters have produced no innovations (other than to go back to the 19th century way of doing things in the strictest manner possible), despite the numerous frauds and financial scandals associated with charters, Broad, Walton, and a few more billionaires want to destroy the public school system of Los Angeles to have their way. Public education belongs to the entire community; it is undemocratic to allow a handful of billionaires to take possession of half the children enrolled in the public schools and turn them over to franchise operators.
Karen Wolfe writes that the outcome depends on Steve Zimmer, the recently elected school board president, who has walked a fine line between supporting public schools and placating the privatizers (who spent $4 million trying to defeat him when he last ran for re-election):
The timing of this plan is no surprise at all. The powerful California charter lobby seems to be at their wits end after recent losses. Let’s assess.
The first big loss was Steve Zimmer’s election two years ago, despite their spending more than any previous school board race in US history, according to published reports at the time. Subsequently, the corporate privatizers have lost almost every time a vote has been put to the people.
Last year’s election of Tom Torlakson for California’s State Superintendent was seen as a referendum on corporate privatization–and we public school advocates won. California is one of the few states that resisted Race to the Top reforms.
The LA teacher’s union election also brought in leaders with a broader understanding of the fight for public schools. They still need to prove their mettle at building support among parents and student groups who seek an ally in improving our schools without selling them off. But the potential looks better than before. CTA, the state teachers union, remains a strong force in the state capitol, despite the charter lobby’s increasing presence.
The L.A. Mayor’s office is no longer carrying the water of the corporate privatizers either. New Mayor Eric Garcetti has resisted the repeated taunts of Broad and the other plutocrats to push their agenda. Garcetti is a distinct departure to his predecessor, the self-proclaimed “Education Mayor” Villaraigosa, who was trying to share the national charter stage with Bloomberg and Emanuel.
A notable exception is the election of disgraced PUC charter founder Ref Rodriguez to the school board, joining his charter cheerleader Monica Garcia. But now Steve Zimmer is board president and, if that position carries any weight, it might be making the charter lobby nervous. Often the swing vote in a split-down-the-middle board, Zimmer is now presiding over a new board that should give him more courage than he has previously displayed. His unwavering support of John Deasy and his support of almost every single charter school petition that came before the board have alienated many of Zimmer’s backers. We are anxious to see him prove himself to be the champion of our neighborhood schools that he recently proclaimed he was (in an AFT video posted on this blog).
This revelation that the charter groups have lost their patience and are announcing a public attack should be met with redoubled resistance. We have done the work to elect officials who will champion our public schools, even against wealthy special interests like the groups in this article. But the board needs to listen to community members and truly consider the supports that are necessary to enable our neighborhood schools to stand up to the threat of charters. We advocates need to know our school board is behind us as we fight for the very survival of our schools. I wrote this article for our local newspaper about what we need in Zimmer’s district, where I live, and have never heard from the school board about it.
http://argonautnews.com/power-to-speak-school-choice-whose-choice/.
There are advocates in other neighborhoods that have come up with similar plans and the board should solicit them. The point is that the board needs its public constituency or eventually no one will care who wins this policy debate.
No one put the local public schools up for sale. Charter schools, especially in California and in LAUSD, continue to expand, steal students from the local public schools, appropriate facilities from the local districts, and take our tax dollars designated for the public schools systems.http://www.changethelausd.com/our_country_is_for_sale_our_schools_are_not_but
As we see on this blog, LAUSD has so many internal problems, and it operates, as does the BoE, with ZERO transparency. The public rarely has an inkling of what goes on in this public organization, paid for by the uninformed but mandated taxpayers.
The Superintendents work closely with the billionaires and allow, actually encourage, the privatizers like Eli Broad, to pay salaries of LAUSD employees who are imposed on the district by the single minded Wall Street crowd who now want at least 50% of all schools to be rapidly charterized.
Although Karen Wolfe tells how some few BoE members have in the past been able to overcome the huge donations to privatizer candidates, it did not happen with Ref Rodriguez, who both Cortines and Zimmer have welcomed into their inner sanctum . Cortines hired Cole-Gutierrez to oversee the district charters, but this is the same man who worked for and with Rodriguez in his 16 charter school PUC chain, and who worked for and with California Charter Schools Association.
Why is the Superintendent and the BoE, including Zimmer, allowed to so blatantly use public funds to protect and encourage the proliferation of charter schools in this district?
And why does the LA Times (run by Austin Beutner, a Wall Street billionaire privatizer supporter), as today in the article lauding Cortines, not do a major investigation into the hidden agendas which are destroying LA’s public schools?
Broad and his billionaire privatizers spent tens of millions trying and failing to subvert LAUSD’s democratic process, and effectively buy control of the LAUSD school system. Alas, for all that payout over the years in supporting their various school board puppet candidates, they only managed to grab 2 out of the 7 LAUSD Board seats.
On top of that, two of their most fervent opponents sit at the head of LAUSD School Board: LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer, and LAUSD Board Vice-President George McKenna.
But that doesn’t seem to phase them in the least.
Now, according to the L.A. TIMES piece, Broad and those same billionaires are pretty much telling us…
“You know what, everybody? We really don’t care that we lost at the polls, and you 15 million voting citizens of LAUSD rejected our plan to privatize Los Angeles schools.
“We’re just going to go ahead and do it to you anyway, and we’ve still got more than enough money, and bought more than enough clout and connections—TFA, CCSA, & politicians at every level—to put our plans into effect.
“And we don’t even need any Katrina disaster to make that happen, either. Just face it, folks. When it comes to schools, we know better than all of you citizens and parents and teachers what’s best for schools, so why don’t you just make this whole process easier on all of us?
“Why don’t all of you just accept the new privatization of schools that we’re bringing, stop complaining, and get the-hell out of our way?”
With public support, we can fight the domination of billionaires and regain support for democratic public education.
“What John Deasy tried to do to this school district. He tried to bring public education DOWN. And the MISIS crisis was NO accident. That is… that WAS INTENTIONAL.”
— STEVE ZIMMER, May 2015
————————
Steve Zimmer was on the fence for the longest time, but it was through 1-on-1 persuasion of Bennett Kayser that Steve finally ‘got it’—along with witnessing the vicious way corporate reformers went after Bennett during last spring’s school board election.
————————————-
In May, Zimmer recently gave this speech
in support of fellow Board Member
Bennett Kayser’s re-election—
given at a Kayser fundraiser:
(try reading along with the transcript
BELOW, in the following post…
it’s so poetic you can set it to music)
What’s telling is how Zimmer has done “a total 180″
on John Deasy. Remember the days when
Zimmer would reverently refer to Deasy as
“a catalytic change agent” for schools and children?
(That “change agent” quote is from a radio i
nterview with someone (Adolfo?) that is somewhere
on the net… right after Zimmer’s & the Board’s
October 2013 Board vote to keep Deasy and
extend his contract.)
Well, Zimmer’s “catalytic change agent” gushfest
days are totally OVER apparently.
In this latest speech, Zimmer channels
Emile Zola (“J’accuse!!! J’accuse!!!) and boldly
claims that Deasy deliberately caused severe
“disruption”, and willfully wrecked any “stability”
in LAUSD, in order to further privatization, even
if that meant causing “real collateral damage to
real children EVERY DAY” in the process.
In essence, Zimmer argues, and makes the accusation that …
… corporate reformers’ / privatizers’ ultimate and ignoble “ENDS”– privatization and teacher union-busting—in the long run…
… JUSTIFY…
… the corporate reformers’ / privatizers’ strategic and ignoble “MEANS” —“real collateral damage to real children EVERY DAY”—in the short run.
That’s some pretty rough stuff.
In the middle of the speech, Zimmer concedes
that Bennett Kayser had tried to enlighten and
give warning to him about all of this, but
Zimmer says that he had long dismissed
Kayser’s dire forewarnings…
… until NOW., that is.
Zimmer proclaims that… finally (!!!)…
he (Zimmer) gets it regarding what Deasy
is / was all about, and what his corporate
backers are all about.
Thank Jesus.
As promised, here’s the full transcript:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
STEVE ZIMMER:
“This (election) is NOT just about Board District 5.
This is about the ENTIRE CONTROL and FUTURE of LAUSD.
“This is about CONTROL. Make NO mistake about it.
The control of the (LAUSD) school board hangs in the balance.
“And listen … you don’t have to applaud on this line,
but you can.
— (CROWD LAUGHS)
“I have a lot of dear friends in the room,
and sometimes we have disagreed,
and sometimes we look at an issue,
we see it from a different lens,
and sometimes there are painful moments.
“That’s true for me.
That’s been true for Jackie (Goldberg) in her service.
That’s been true for Bennett.
“But the difference between the people
who believe that it’s ALL of us TOGETHER—
—that it’s ALL of us working together,
that… that… that our employees,
that our teachers are our greatest partners.
“NOT our enemies,
NOT … NOT… litigants to be challenged in court,
NOT … NOT…. people to be blamed for
the crisis that is facing our children,
but the VERY PEOPLE who can
lift our children out of this crisis.
“Even if we disagree on some issues,
the difference between
the folks like Bennett Kayser,
the folks like Jackie Goldberg,
Jeff Horton before her…
“ … the folks… the folks who have tried
to fight the fight over the years that
I am proud to associate myself with.
“The difference between THAT and…
“And what the folks who are
trying to destroy Bennett Kayser—
NOT BEAT Bennett Kayser—DESTROY him
AS A PERSON, not just as a political figure, but
DESTROY him as a person.
“The difference between…
we who believe that it’s ALL OF US together.
“and …
“those who believe that it’s ‘us against them’…
“It’s NIGHT and DAY.
“We CANNOT let them
take control of the school board
because if they take control of the school board,
they’ll have control of who becomes the
next Superintendent of this district.
“They’ll have control over the budget.
They’ll have control over the policies.
They‘ll have control over the schools.
“And it took us too long for us to realize it—
Bennett realized it WAY before I did,
and I give him credit for it EVERY day—
“What John Deasy tried to do to this school district.
“He tried to bring public education DOWN.
And the MISIS crisis was NO accident.
That is… that WAS INTENTIONAL, because
if you read their websites,
if you read what they’re trying to do…
“ ‘Stability’ is an ugly word.
“ ‘Disruption’ is what it is about.
“But WE know
WE the teachers
WE the principals
WE the school workers
WE KNOW
WE THE PARENTS
WE KNOW that disruption causes
REAL collateral damage
to REAL children EVERY DAY!
“And Bennett and I have been
about trying to re-STABILIZE and
re-HUMANIZE our schools.
“And at the end of the day,
we are about an ALL-kids agenda—
ALL kids, NOT SOME kids.
“And if you go to a door, and if you’re on a phone.
and people say,
“ ‘Why should I care?‘
“ ‘Why should I vote?’
“PUBLIC education is about
EVERY CHILD that comes to the
schoolhouse door—those who are the most gifted,
and those who have the most DIFFICULT
of challenges that are facing them.
“What makes public education PUBLIC education is
that it’s EVERY child that comes to the schoolhouse door,
and no one, NO ONE—NOT ME, NOT anyone else—
has been a better champion of that than Bennett Kayser.
“That said…
the MOST reprehensible,
the most DISGUSTING thing that they have done
is to somehow challenge—that while
Bennett has struggled, and continues to struggle
valiantly, publicly, VICTORIOUSLY
against Parkinson’s disease,
they have SOMEHOW THOUGHT that it is okay
to suggest… to suggest that somehow,
because of this struggle, he is incapable of serving.
“Every … ANY one of us could go to a neurologist
some time over the next year,
and come out with that diagnosis—ANY ONE of us.
“And thank God we have Bennett Kayser to
show us that this is NOT a death sentence,
that it’s NOT a way of having to fade into
the background,
that you can serve with pride,
with integrity,
with intelligence
with capability.
“And DAMN THEM, DAMN THEM
for questioning that!
Damn them for questioning that!
“Don’t let that win!
“Because I’ve known Bennett for over 20 years,
but in our private conversations…
what he now knows is that there is a new
empathy for what our children with
the most challenges face.
“THERE IS NO ONE MORE APPROPRIATE
to serve on the Board of Education.
than someone who INTIMATELY
and PERSONALLY understands those challenges
because he will NEVER turn way from them.
“So these next three weeks, Bennett…
these next three weeks…
they are about you, but they are also about
the future of public education
in this country, and in this city.
“We will NOT let this stand, Bennett,
and we WILL stand by you.
“But the last thing I want to say, Bennett, is….
“Thank you for your courage, for enduring this
on behalf of all of us, and most especially
on behalf of all the children who need you
the most.
“Thank you, Bennett!”
——————–
Later on, Steve gave an interview about this speech, and he said any attempts to work with corporate reformers was futile.
http://laschoolreport.com/zimmer-damns-rodriguez-and-his-supporters-for-attacks-on-kayser/
STEVE ZIMMER: “I come to them with olive branches, and they respond with napalm… their message to me is ‘We hate you! We hate you! WE HATE YOU!” he said. He accused corporate reformers of “crossing new frontiers of depravity” in their attacks on him and Bennett Kayser. “This is the most amoral type of campaigning, using a type of lies and distortion, that lowered the entire moral climate of political discourse.”
I love what Zimmer SAYS. I have yet to love what Zimmer DOES. It is painful to watch someone who says he “gets it” sell us out over and over and over again.
I really want to believe him, but part of me feels more betrayed by Steve Zimmer than anyone else on this creepy BoE. At least we know where Garcia is coming from.
I just love that speech.
BTW, I was in the audience when he gave a similar speech at UTLA’s August 2013 Leadership Conference. His impassioned pleas for us to stop valuing students based on their test scores brought tear to my eyes and the eyes of those around me. I later stayed up one night transcribing my favorite parts.
Here’s a link to the speech:
(from 07:35 … on)
Here’s he exact minute where the following transcript excerpt starts:
07:35 – to the end of the speech
This speech is like Dr. Ravitch’s book summed up in 10 minutes or so. He attacks everything from Deasy, to Walmart (Deasy’s backer and helped organize Tuesday’s astroturf rally outside to the LAUSD Board), to Teach for America (Steve was TFA Class of 1992—same as Michelle Rhee—by the way) to the true meaning of his election victory of corporate and privatization interests.
He also gives a historical context to today’s attack on teachers, linking it to the 1%’s attack on the middle and working classes.
–
Again, this transcript starts at 7:35 at:
– – – – – – – – –
(at the August 2013 UTLA Leadership Conference at some hotel near LAX airport):
Steve Zimmer: “The budget crisis (of 2008 onward) was absolutely intentional. It was caused by corporate greed… corporate greed! It was caused by privatization, and it was caused by radical de-regulation of the housing market, of our economic system, and of our banking system. It was very clear. People got rich as our kids suffered. That’s what happened. It wasn’t an accident.
“It was intentional. It was purposeful.
“And the same folks, the same millionaires and billionaires, and privatizers who caused this economic crisis that our school communities suffered so much from…
“… are the very same people who are donating millions and millions of dollars to the privatization movement, to charter schools, to Teach for America, to everything that is intended to privatize and corporatize this last vestige of a public sector, of unions.
“They did NOT come after just ME in this last election. They came after ALL of us.
“Throughout the 1990’s… and my long-time friend and sister in the struggle, Cheryl Ortega is here today as well, and she’ll remember that when were out fighting against Proposition 187… we always use to say to our brother and sister teachers to motivate them, to get more involved:
” ‘That when they come after our kids, and when they come after our families, they come after US! They come after our profession! They come after public education!’
“And that’s what we said during the 1990’s, when the racists, and the xenophobes, and the Republicans were coming after immigrant children and their families. ‘When they come after our families and our kids, they come after US!’
“And now in 2013, we give the same speech in reverse, and that is that when the come after our teachers, they come after our children, and our families, and the whole thing has come full circle.
“So when we oppose Academic Growth Over Time, and Value-Added, we are not afraid of accountability, we are not afraid of responsibility. We just want a system of training and support. Let me say that again—training, support, and evaluation—that is based on improvement of instruction, and is based on real information about children and their academic growth. We did not come into teaching to check off boxes. We came into teaching because we believe in our kids and because we are about student growth and academic improvement….
“But student growth and student improvement can NEVER be measured by a single standardized test score, and what we suffer from in this district is what I like to call a ‘data addiction.’ It’s what I like to call a ‘religious addiction’ to ‘the numbers,’ and to a ‘spread sheet,’ and to a ‘bottom line,’ and we’re taught that this is ‘objective,’ that this is ‘fact,’ and that everything else is ‘soft’… that we should go into ‘The Temple of Data’ and kneel down, and that we should bow down at an ‘Altar of Objectivity.’
“But we WON’T and we CAN’T because the gods that WE believe in teach us that EVERYTHING that is wondrous and beautiful about children cannot be measured by a standardized test score!
“We know!
“The beautiful names… and stories… of our kids—we never met a kid that was named ‘Proficient,’ and we CERTAINLY never met a kid that was named ‘Basic,’ and NEVER ‘Far Below Basic!’
“Our children have names, they have stories, and if we are to fight the battles against corporatization and privatization, we must be the warriors of re-humanization of public education that is about our children, their families, our communities, and their stories!
“And that starts with humane school communities!”
“We are not opposed to charter schools because we are opposed to choice for parents and families.
“Choice is a core value in public education, and we are creating more and more in-district programs (i.e. teacher-led schools, not private charters, Julie) for choice, and options that are built around instructional pipelines that we (unionized teachers) create with families and children.
“What we oppose… is radical de-regulation.
“What we oppose is the attack on the basic promise of public education, the basic contract of public education. That is we serve EVERY child who comes to our door—EVERY child who comes to the schoolhouse door.
“And if you don’t serve EVERY child—those who are the gifted to those who have the most special needs, and the entire spectrum in between.
“If you are not about EVERY child, then that is NOT public education, and we stand against it, and we stand against the corporatization and privatization that is embodied in the charter school takeover.
“The thing that I want to also impart to you is that this fight is a fight across our city, across our nation, and it is a pitched battle, and we need to stand in union solidarity.
“We need to stand with our brothers and sisters who are our hotel employees, and if we can give a hand to all the H.E.R.E. (hotel union) members that are here today hear serving us.
(APPLAUSE)
“We need to stand with carwash workers.
“We need to stand with our brothers and sisters from the UFCW who are at our supermarkets unpacking our groceries, and packing them up very day.
“We need to stand with the union families and the non-union families that are the parents of our children.
“We need to be out there, just like we were in the 1990’s, and in the many strikes—whether it was the UFCW, H.E.R.E., right here on this boulevard (Century Blvd., a strip near the airport where the high-end hotels are… Julie) , or the ‘Justice for Janitors’ strike right here in 1999.
“The Labor Movement needs to see that our teaching force is a force of social justice for ALL families in the city of Los Angeles.
“But let me say this… to my friends… and my brothers and sisters in the (L.A.) County Federation of Labor. If you ask, and if you expect us to stand against Walmart during the DAY, you had better stand with us as we fight Walmart’s effort to take over our schools by NIGHT.
“It is the SAME fight, and we need to hear our labor leadership across this city defend public education, as we defend the rights of workers and our parents and our brothers and sisters
Audience member: “FIRE DEASY!” (Thankfully, Steve did exactly that, eventually, in October 2014.)
“The last thing I want to share with you is that we almost lost in this election the promise of public education.
“And in this room are teachers, families who slept on the floor of my campaign office, people who had the courage to go out and speak truth to power.
“We didn’t change who we are, or who we were. We became more of who we were through this election cycle.
“The promise of public education is at great risk.
“But I need to tell you, and we need to be honest with ourselves, that the promise of public education has not been realized for all students, and we know this.
“It’s been realized for some, but not for all.
“… and until the promise of public education has been realized for ALL students, it’s a broken promise for EVERY student.
“It’s not going to change by corporate or private sector intervention.
“It’s not going to change by some performance metric come up by McKinsey Company, and produced by John Deasy.
“It’s not going to change by competition, but it is going to change by us working together.
“In a few days, we’re going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘The March on Washington’…. I feel like I can say this… ”
——–
and Steve continues on with quotes from King…
The campaign begins NOW to save Zimmer’s Board seat, and to re-elect him in the 2017 LAUSD school board election.
The campaign also begins NOW to save Monica Ratliff’s Board seat, and to re-elect Ms. Ratliff in the 2017 LAUSD school board election.
Finally, the campaign begins NOW to take back (corporate reformers’ fave) Monica Garcia’s Board seat, and instead, to elect someone new—and replace Ms. Garcia with a pro-public-education, anti-privatization board member—preferably a teacher— in the 2017 LAUSD school board election.
I certainly hope Zimmer is for public education instead of charters but I don’t see him as a savior for the cause just as I don’t blame Dz for whT happened at LAUSD. He had plenty of company in the BOE. Approving every expansion of charters, approving every termination of innocent veteran teachers, approving every failed policy of Dz. So, in other words, he, they, did as much damage as Dz and they knew he was going to do it because they hired him without any type of search for other candidates. This turn to privatization was planned And orchestrated by the BOE and deformers to weaken the union, get rid of high salaries teachers and open the door for greedy corporate raiders to raid public education,
Agree Paula…Broad and Villaraigosa told the BoE to hire Deasy without any search, and the BoE did as they were commended.
typo…commanded, that is…Eli rules.
Julie, if I may, here’s one correction.
John Deasy RESIGNED from his position as LAUSD Supe… but yeah, the writing was on the wall, so his firing was probably imminent. He had definitely lost the support of at least 4 of theLAUSD Board members needed to remove him, (perhaps 5, from what I heard). Credit for that goes to a lot of situations and a lot of people, chief among them radio KPCC reporter Annie Gilbertson:
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/08/27/343549939/the-l-a-school-ipad-scandal-what-you-need-to-know
Gilbertson’s reporting on Deasy’s sham bidding process for I-pad purchase was devastating. She uncovered emails showing that, two years prior to the supposed opening of the bidding, Deasy had told Apple—for which Deasy held stock—that Apple’s selection as provider was in the bag, “so we need to start working together now… ” or words to that effect.
The MISIS crisis was yet another debacle that threw LAUSD into total chaos, and for which Deasy was responsible. Against advice, he insisted on implementing MISIS in one fell swoop, or district-wide, when a small test roll-out would have uncovered the problems and prevented the notorious district-wide disruption continued throughout the entire 2014-2015 school year.
As I recall what happened next, Deasy even joined a lawsuit suing the 7 LAUSD Board Members—his bosses!—for… I don’t know… for something that I can’t remember right now… as a way to deflect attention from his own malfeasance. Not a smart move.
There was only so much that even those middle-of-the-road, mildly pro-Deasy LAUSD Board Members could tolerate without activist parents and the general public saying “WTF?!” Unlike the events of one year prior—October 2013—Broad and other Deasy allies did not step into save him.
Thanks for adding this fact, Jack. Holmquist never bothered to look for the two year old emails that finally caught Deasy in his maneuvering with Apple and Peason, and which still may bring him down. Only Marguerite La Motte voted against his second term as Supt. and Ratliff abstained…so Zimmer was his supporter. Then they let him resign with stipulations that he would not prosecuted by the district and the BoE. What a sham.
Karen Wolfe has been a tireless voice for true education in L.A. and her efforts and commitment are appreciated by so many in the community.
The forces that Eil Broad represent are relentless. Their money buys them access and political clout. We are engaged in an endless war with the privatizers.
Eli Broad’s methodology is much like TFA’s. You work and groom your people and offer them to the system so that they can implement their corporate ed reform policies from the inside.
John Deasy’s tenure at LAUSD is the perfect example. Groomed in the Gates/Broad laboratory, he was offered to former Mayor Villaraigosa for detonation within the school system. Deasy performed his function brilliantly and the collateral damage from his tenure still is roils the district.
With LAUSD battered by his recklessness and arrogance, Deasy escaped LAUSD without answering publicly for his crimes to education. He found cushy refute with Broad who harbors him in the inner sanctum of his foundation. Deasy remains a Napoleon in his luxury skybox Elba but still manages to dictate policy.
The intense bond between him and Arne Duncan is legendary and both advise each other on policy matters.
When Broad’s 50% plan to charterize LAUSD was reported, it was as unsurprising as learning Dick Cheney wanting to go topple Iran. The writing had been on the wall for years and Broad’s Foundation has the cash and resources to bulldoze his way to that end.
Broadism is all about the ENDS. Deasyism is about the MEANS.
These two cowards will not come out to debate their positions in anything but a FOX NEWS friendly audience. They are much like the Koch Brothers in this way and use their money and connections to bypass the public and go right to the politicians who will make the rules.
Broad and Deasy are shrewd at the political game. Their entire careers are testaments to how well they have courted the rich and powerful.
Thank you Karen for staying on this.
Engaged citizen activists are the ONLY thing standing in their way from the control they have mapped out from Day One.
.
For Cheney it was Baghdad.
For Broad it is Beaudry.
No small irony that it was real estate tycoon Eli Broad who sold the Beaudry building to LAUSD. In writing on Broad and his ilk, I’ve said: “The more of our schools that are handed over to these private sector organizations, the less agency our communities have, and the more control those espousing neoliberalism have over our lives. Our rulers don’t just want exclusive control over the governance and finances of our schools, they want to control both what is taught and by whom.” ( http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31748-the-non-profit-industrial-complex-s-role-in-imposing-neoliberalism-on-public-education )
That’s right, Robert. I sometimes hear “Well, if the nonprofits want to run the school district, let them!” People overlook the fact that there is virtually no transparency when private nonprofits take over our public functions. There would be no open meetings where new policies, personnel changes, huge contracts including land deals would be hashed out. The public would be eliminated from the process. That is a major hit to democracy.
Gerronimo…Karen Wolfe would make a good BoE member, and would give the board a most informed parent’s voice. And Robert Skeels would be a superb voice on the BoE as the best informed community activist and historian/journalist. In any event, these voices of the informed public should be on a committee to choose and vet a new Supt.
You are right, Ellen. Is there going to be such a committee this time around? I have noticed the Broadies and Privitizers jostling into position lately.
I agree with you about Ms. Wolfe’s possibilities as an LAUSD board member. She would be awesome.
If Mr. Zimmer chose not to run in the next election… or, in the interim, if Zimmer is not militant enough in his opposition to the privatizers, then yeah, Karen Wolfe would be my choice to take Zimmer’s place. (I think she lives in Zimmer’s district.)
Ellen, you have great confidence in me! I am happy to remain a dedicated advocate for our schools. We are over 3 years away from the school board elections anyway so the need Formpur elected officials to stand up for our schools is more urgent than ever.
Jack, I would not be so trusting in Zimmer. He has been very two-faced all along, trying to get both sides to like him.
No time to explain more now though.
Last time I heard Steve Zimmer speak was fairly recently at a school board meeting. It was the end of the iPads. He gave an impassioned speech about how sad he was at the loss of the iPads instead of teachers plan. He concluded with a vague hope to continue down the iPad path one day, saying something like, “I know there is an online curriculum out there somewhere.”
I realize it’s possible that the very recent debates in the U.S. Senate and the presidential race about Commoners Core and the undue influence of the rich on politics might have convinced him to change his ways. That would be very perspicacious of him because if he doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee, and stop marching to the beat of the drums of the few, HE is going to be one politician-Child Left Behind by the many. BoE election is in 2017. Or recall sooner if necessary.
I agree it would be great to have Karen Wolfe on the school board. Have you considered that, Karen?
Two articles just came out regarding expansion of charter schools in LAUSD.
The first is about Monica Garcia and her support for such expansion.
The second is an interview with Steve Zimmer, who is against such expansion
First, corporate reform’s bought-and-paid-for
Monca Garcia welcomes charter expansion,
and dismisses the damage it will do to existing
system of public schools, because regarding that system…
she “hope(s) that system ends.”
http://laschoolreport.com/garcia-welcomes-foundations-promoting-charter-school-expansion/
School board member Mónica García said she is open to the group of foundations that plans to expand the number of charter schools in LA Unified.
She contrasts the charters, as a “one system emerging is a
learning organization that meets the needs of kids” with
the traditional public schools as a “the system that didn’t serve
(students) as well, I, too, hope it ends.”
L.A. SCHOOL REPORT:
(Garcia) also doesn’t believe more charter schools will spell the end of LAUSD.
“A successful LA Unified cannot be over, we will only get stronger (with charters comprising 50% or more of LAUSD),” García said. “We’ve had people talk about one system dying and one system emerging. That one system emerging is a learning organization that meets the needs of kids. The (old) system that didn’t serve (kids) as well. I, too, hope it ends.”
…
“I would go to any philanthropic arm and say ‘Please invest in our kids,’” García said. “We have many, many good strategies that need support.”
Her sentiments come in sharp contrast to other board members who view the proposed expansion with skepticism or even as a threat for the possibility that it would drain public dollars from the district’s traditional schools.
Board president Steve Zimmer told the LA Times last week that an aggressive expansion of charters could undermine the district’s own improvement efforts, saying, “The most critical concern would be the collateral damage to the children left behind.”
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Meanwhile, Zimmer pulls no punches, saying this
is not just an attack on public schools that will
have collateral damage for kids. It’s not about
just adding charters, it’s about changing the
idea of what public education is.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t use the words “privatize”
or privatization”
He also says this charter expansion is also an attack
on unions as well.
Charter expansion, Zimmer says, “is not about children.”
LAUSD board president Steve Zimmer talks about getting back to basics | Education
http://www.jewishjournal.com/education/article/lausd_board_president_steve_zimmer_talks_about_getting_back_to_basics
Some highlights:
STEVE ZIMMER: I think there is a difference between support for existing charter schools that parents have chosen [and support more for new charter schools]. I respect and support those choices as long as the charter is doing very well, and I mean very well.
Jewish Journal: Why a different bar for charter schools?
STEVE ZIMMER: Because that’s why charters are supposed to exist: either to provide something better, or unique and innovative. Otherwise there’s no compelling reason to authorize them.
Jewish Journal: Do you think there’s any chance to roll back the charter trend?
STEVE ZIMMER: We have the most charters of any school district in the nation. We have incredibly high levels of saturation. If choice is so important, the California Charter Schools Association’s agenda and the Walton Family Foundation and other foundations’ agendas to situate more and more charter schools within the LAUSD boundary is not about children. It’s not about choice. It’s not about innovation.
It’s about a very different agenda of bringing down the school district, an agenda to dramatically change what is public education.
It’s about altering the influence of public sector unions. I just happen to disagree with that agenda. But folks should be explicit about what their agenda is.
Jewish Journal: It seems like a lot of the dialogue relating to LAUSD pits teacher against student. If something is good for students, it’s bad for teachers and vice versa.
STEVE ZIMMER: How it’s said in my world is whether you have a kid agenda or an adult agenda. That is an incredibly deceptive political construct. Anybody who has spent their career in public school knows that’s a lie. When you’re supporting teachers, you’re supporting kids. When you create a better environment for learning, you’re supporting kids and everyone who works with them.
That lie — kids versus adults — that lie is a subterfuge about what part of the reform movement is about, which is eviscerating or lessening the influence of public sector unions. A lot of that is focused on teacher unions. Teacher unions are teachers. I’ve been very critical of my own union and the union I consider to be an ally. [But] there’s a difference between being critical of different policies of a labor union and believing that union should not exist.
And a lot of money that fuels the charter and reform movement is by people who believe teacher unions should not exist.
STEVE ZIMMER: I’m actually very proud we have some of the highest-performing charters in the country. It takes a lot for me to not renew or to close down an existing charter. But at the point we’re at, a new charter has to be compelling. It has to offer something we don’t have right now, and that is a high bar. I am unapologetic about it.
I believe in choice, but I am very, very wary. I am very cognizant of the damage that competition (from charter expansion) has done to our schools. And we became obsessed with data instead of being data-informed. When a system becomes so obsessed with competition that they view children through their potential to score versus their overall humanity, the dehumanization of that public school system is not something that is attractive to parents, is not something that is warm and inviting. And our public schools, to my great regret, have become test score-obsessed. A lot of charter schools have, too.”
Speaking of recalls…Monica Garcia should be recalled…although that route failed some time back. She is completely devious and has NO place on a public school BoE. She is neither an educator nor a parent, but merely a political hack who consistently plays dirty. We are often told that she lives out of her district, in classy Pacific Palisades…but that is gossip. However, she pays her constituents with perks of parties, food, money, to get them to perform for her in street drama.