The good guys lost. The guys with the backing of the billionaires won. The public schools of Los Angeles will shrink in numbers as the charter industry takes charge of the district.
Although the charter candidates wrapped themselves in the banner of Obama and Duncan, their victory is indeed a victory for the Trump-DeVos agenda.
A teacher in Florida reacted:
I am sitting here at 6 am in So. Florida crying. I feel like I am living in a nightmare and can’t wake up. So many good teachers jumping ship and the new ones coming in are doing so with no intention of making this nearly impossible job a career. With the chaos of moving ESE behaviors into the gen ed popuation as it is “least restricitve” to “restorative justice” (time out for desk throwers and send ’em back to class), overworked and overwhelmed guidance counselors, shared psychologists with 3-4 schools and an IDIOT state legislature that loves “births”, hates “lives” and depises the poor. Does anyone else see this as the beginning of the end of a free society or am I catastrophizing? What is wrong with this country? Why can’t the public see what is happening? If they see, why don’t they care? The defeat in teacher’s eyes is palpable. It can’ t continue.
As devastating as the defeat in Los Angeles is, we cannot give up hope for the future. As the saying goes, it is always darkest just before the dawn. This darkness is deep right now, and the dawn is nowhere in sight.
But the only certainty of defeat is giving up. The loss in Los Angeles was due to money and lies, but also apathy.
The message is clear: if we don’t rally the people, the parents, the citizens who owe their education to public schools, we will lose. If we give up trying, we will lose. Those of us who believe in democratic control of public schools that take responsibility for all children, that are financially and academically accountantable, that hire only certified staff, must fight on.
We must not lose hope. Without hope, we are lost. Hard as it is to sustain hope, we must persist. To abandon the struggle is to abandon our belief in a basic democratic institution. We can’t and we won’t. The struggle is not over, nor is it lost. Consider the loss in L.A. to be a loud wake-up call to fight the free-market ideologues and entrepreneurs. Consider it a challenge to redouble our efforts to save public education and resist privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Charter School destruction of LAUSD was in full force on Obama’s watch. I was a classroom teacher there from 2003-2011. Include Obama’s Rahm Emanuel and his Chicago Public School meddling. Plenty of blame for billionaire “reformers” who have corrupted our struggling democracy and it’s public institutions for profit.
I would like to know why voters made the choices they did. Are they people who really believe charters are the only hope for their children? If so, why? Are there public schools in LA that have succeeded by applying the research based methods that can be used as examples? Has anything been done to address poverty or the other real causes of poor results in poor urban schools?
It seems that attitude is “It’s too expensive to fix these schools so lets sell the kids and at least make a profit for ourselves.
I will never forgive Obama for supporting this agenda.
Mary
I just hope they tell parents and students they’re withdrawing support for public schools. It’s not fair to promote charters over existing public schools without letting the people in the public schools in on the plan.
If you’re part of the 84% in a public school that is slated to be “wound down” and eradicated that’s information you need. What happens to them during the transition to a wholly privatized system? They just unknowingly volunteer to be sacrificed in service to The Vision?
If the vision is 50% charters and it’s now 16% charters what does that mean for the 34% in public schools slated to be closed or converted? Were they even considered?
What if you’re a public school parent or student who actually supports and values your existing school? You’re just out of luck? You don’t get representation? Not even one board member? How is that “equitable”?
Here;’s the California Charter School lobbying org celebrating their win:
https://twitter.com/ccsaadvocates?lang=en
Not one word about kids in existing public schools, even thought that is 84% of kids in that district.
So much for “agnostics”, huh? It’s a great time to be a kid in a charter school in LA. Not so great if you happen to attend the disfavored “public school sector” schools.
A decade ago.
Lenny Isenberg, created Perdaily.com, to chronicle the destruction of LAUSD.
Now, it has sunk into the abyss, taking with it thousands of teachers
He wrote about the thens of thousands of teachers were sent packing on fabricated charges,
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646 while the union let it happen
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-and-utla-collude-to-end-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-teachers-part-2.html
It isn’t as if this has not been the plan forever.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE LAYS OUT THREE PRONGS OF THE PRIVATIZATION BATTLE PLAN (VIDEO) – Perdaily.com
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-teacher-kilroy-was-here-and-retribution-wasnt-far-behind.html
Big money often wins. They make the most noise, and they can afford to run negative ads around the clock. Regular candidates are in the David versus Goliath position, and sometimes money and prevails, especially in a city with so many recent immigrants that have no rights to voice their opinion through their vote.
If my math is correct, each vote cost about $187.00. I wonder if the messaging campaign ever went beyond attacks on the candidates.
Laura,
Melvoin ran a campaign of attack ads and lies. Zimmer maintained his dignity. The Sunday before the election, Melvoin’s campaign bought a two-page wrapper for the Los Angeles Times.
Now that they got rid of the single dissenter why even meet and debate? What’s the point? They can rubberstamp the directives of Eli Broad and the California Charter School Association from their homes.
Why put a patina of “public” on this at all? We all read the plan was 50% charter schools and 50% public schools. There are now no dissenters.
Just get on with it. A delay will just hurt the kids who have the misfortune to attend the disfavored and abandoned public schools during the transition.
It’s really the least they could do for those kids. At least tell them their schools lost this election.
Chiara, there are still board members in LA who support public schools but they are no longer a majority. Unlike Denver, for example, where the monied interests bought every single school board seat.
Diane,
Has the Denver school district had a total turn-around in student performance? Hmmm. Dont think so. I guess as we get up and dust ourselves off to get back to the work at hand, maybe we should start publicly voicing the outcomes of these “better than public” schools. If the retired teachers in our country would band together (employed teachers have the proverbial gag-order in place) and start speaking out at Board meetings and writing to newspapers, maybe the word would start getting out. It would be so gratifying for the unions to start buying up paper space in anti public school publications. Facebooks pages, Twitters, ewrite and share what is going on. MahJong meetings, sewing meetings, church meetings….the possiblilities for word of mouth are endless. Retired teachers think “who cares anymore”…….dont most of them have grandchildren? it should make them even ant to double down the effort.
Denver has seen no progress in academic progress, as former Denver board member Jeannie Kaplan has reported on several occasions, reposted here. The goal is choice for the sake of choice, not better education.
We still have Schmerelson who is a wonderful supporter of public schools, Dr. McKenna, and Dr. Vladovic. They have their needed majority of four. Funny to me is that fact that there never was a solid opposition to charters in our district which is why it has been so easy to establish them. Our so-called “progressive” leaders are pro-charter.
I think we had a pro-charter majority all along. They hired John Deasy. They kept him until they no longer could. They lauded Ray Cortines. They voted for the School Choice initiative. They voted for iPads. They voted for TGDC VAM evaluations. The list goes on, but I think I’m done for today.
You’re absolutely right about Scott Schmerelson being a stand up human being, though. He’s the good one.
Now I’m done.
The Obama ed reformers are all celebrating:
Now that Eli Broad’s bought himself a whole school system will he finally be held accountable for “results”?
I doubt it DeVos bought Michigan schools, did a horrible job, and got promoted.
There is no need to lose hope. After the “invisible hand” works it market magic, the pendulum will eventually swing back following a big crisis. Unfortunately this seems to be how our democracy works…
“After the “invisible hand” works it market magic, the pendulum will eventually swing back following a big crisis.”
David,
May I assume that your statement, or at least the first part is being facetious?
The first part is more than facetious; “sarcastic” might be a better word.
It’s not all bad. American companies are going to be Great Again. In August, I will return from summer break to teach in Nick Melvoin’s district. I will expect to shortly thereafter deliver a Bank of America-Khan Academy “curriculum” via Netflix on Chromebooks made by oppressed workers in China to students wearing school uniforms made for The Gap by oppressed workers in India and Saipan, after serving greasy, syrupy, Walmart breakfast (already doing that). Soon, my school will host a charter school so that AIG-SunAmerica can own more expensive property in West L.A., and my pension will be reduced and converted into a 403b so that Wells Fargo can take a bigger share and set up more fake bank accounts in my name. While wreaking all this havoc on the lives of Angelenos, Melvoin will take frequent globe trotting trips on the district credit card to promote the corporations that conspired to place him in office, but he won’t fly United Airlines because people of billionaire-supported privilege like him do not have to give up their seats and get dragged down aisles by companies that see human beings as cattle like the rest of us. Eventually, I will be laid off or retired early below the poverty line and replaced with an app. Life is good. All is well.
Why fight back? Let’s just let the cradle of democracy devolve into what Broad shill Monica Garcia repeatedly calls the cradle of “reform”. Dude, let’s go shopping!
(Just in case: all sarcasm.)
This will not be a popular comment. LA School District has been in trouble for decades. Those residents who can afford it put their children in private schools. At least they are trying to improve education in LA. Not sure it will work but what else is there?
Actually, while I complain about the LAUSD administration and Board, that fact is that LAUSD schools are excellent. We serve a population that is mostly living in dire poverty by developed nations’ standards, a terrifying percentage of which is homeless or transient, living with violence, etc. We still have “great schools” and great teachers working tirelessly in them.
The media persistently, at the beckoned call of billionaires, paints a picture of the district as a madhouse in need of being broken up, but it’s a false portrait. People like their own local schools, for the most part, but are prejudiced against the district as a whole, just as people like their own senators and congressional representatives too, for the most part, but dislike Capitol Hill as a whole. (I complain about them too, but they’re actually a fairly dignified, hardworking bunch.)
And the fact is, charters do no better with the same population, and private schools don’t bother trying with the same population. No, LAUSD is in fine shape. Don’t believe the hype.
Thanks for being brave, Sue! Many here will probably disagree with you, but hopefully the discussion will be polite. One of our biggest problems is the death of civil dialog between people of opposing views. Intead people shouting past each other on TV and spouting profanity on Twitter seem to be held up as our norms now.
Longing for the days of boring talking head discussions…
Stock market is down about 270 points right now due to concerns about Trump. Perhaps a “correction” is in the works….
For years those supporting public education have supposedly had a majority, but somehow Los Angeles has more charters than any other district in the country. In the last five years, only nine charters have not been renewed. Celerity had their offices raided by the FBI and was still offered a Prop-39 co-location.The head of the Charter School Division is a former staff member of the California Charter School Association (CCSA)! I can’t even begin to imagine how much worse things will be with the CCSA in complete control.
This loss is devastating on so many levels. We must find a way to fight back because whatever we have been doing hasn’t been working.
I can easily imagine how it can be worse. We could have another Broad superintendent like Deasy bringing more scandals, lawsuits, FBI investigations…
You forgot bankruptcy as charters continue to cherry-pick the easiest (and cheapest) to educated students while public schools serve all students.
Oy vey, that’s right.
This is a devastating loss, however there must be clear-eyed thinking about the history of Mr. Zimmer on the Los Angeles School Board. As a long time teacher in LAUSD, I find UTLA’s endorsement of him a relationship of convenience and it is disappointing. If one reviews Mr. Zimmer’s history, he was for several years a strong supporter of Mr. Deasy, a destructive Broad Academy superintendent. While Mr. Zimmer has clearly seemed to have had a change of understanding, which I have no doubt is genuine, it does not forgive the several years of working with the destructive anti-teacher Superintendent Deasy who changed the course of the school district, which is still “recovering” from his poor leadership. Deasy’s leadership was destructive to morale and support for services that address a holistic view of education and student needs. Zimmer knew this when he was working with Deasy. If advocates of public education want to build a strong movement in Los Angeles, such accommodations of convenience must stop and a true reserve of strong candidates with educational and teacher backgrounds must be built. I have confidence in the current UTLA leadership under Mr. Caputo-Pearl, who is working to build coalitions and organizing, but this change takes time.
Sad out come. I’ve never had the opportunity to belong to a teacher’s union but I strongly support labor unions. Unfortunately, since the decline of unions in the private sector (and depressed wages along with that), I’ve noticed resentment by many non-union workers towards people that work in virtually any capacity for government who are unionized, including teachers. I’ve heard some say they think their tax dollars should not be going to pay union workers’ high salaries.
Of course, what constitutes a high salary is really relative to the cost of living in different locations, as well as the position, education and experience necessary for worker competence. Since getting rid of unions is one of the chief aims of billionaire corporate education reformers, I think that in addition to all the info about why public education is preferred over unaccountable, undemocratic privatized schools, you’ve got to educate voters about why unions are necessary and came into existence to begin with, including about how corporations exploited workers and how government jobs virtually everywhere used to be a revolving door of patronage work (like we are seeing in the WH now) and about how that spoils system is corrupt and doesn’t belong in education.
We seem to have a large number of people who think that big business is their friend and are willing to vote wealthy businessmen into office, such as Trump, Rauner, Bloomberg, etc., or people who the rich support. Voters need to understand that greed is a huge part of the problem and we have yet to find any more wealthy Roosevelt types who genuinely care more about the struggling masses than their rich cronies and themselves. We should get the message out there that government MUST be the model for paying a middle class income to unionized workers, because if our government won’t do that, how many companies will?
Don’t blame the voters. Blame the Democrats for forgetting about the smallest of local elections. The Right Wing billionaires have been funding small local elections—if dog catcher was an elected position, they would be pouring money into it!! The Democrats, especially Obama saw no reason to concentrate on local elections. Well school board elections lead to privatization and vouchers (although charter people are now against vouchers). City council elections leads to mayor, commissioners, and powerful judges.
Then there are the state elections that lead to laws dismantling public education and a governor who sign these laws. Later they run for Congress and before you know it, the Right Wing is controlling every aspect of government.
Obama didn’t allow the DNC to share this vision. And the new DNC leader promised he would. So how much money came from the DNC for this election??? ALEC and many other conservative outlets started with grassroots elections. Democrats have to catch up, but they let that hill grow into a mountain that won’t be easy to climb.
The victors were Democrats.
http://www.changethelausd.com/the_bipartisan_attack_on_public_education
Dear homelesseducator,
I am all in favor of having teachers’ unions to negotiate salaries and benefits, and represent teachers that have been wronged by the system. I am also familiar with the history of the labor movement from sources like Howard Zinn, etc., and am extremely sympathetic to the long and often bloody struggles that people in decades past went through to earn a fair wage, so please do not take what I am about to say in the wrong manner.
The one thing that gets to me about blogs is that they have a tendency to turn into echo chambers with people of a like mind repeating the same ideas.
When I returned to teaching after a long absence, it was becuase of my total frustration with the education system. Please take the time to read this article:
Click to access 08_Never_Believe_Educational_Experts_or_Me.pdf
There is a clear reason that charter schools continue to make inroads, with the LAUSD election being the latest warning shot. It is not simply because of the bogeyman of evil, greedy billionaires that is always repeated here.
Parents are fed up with encountering problems like I describe in my article in the link above. They are fed up with parent-teacher conferences where they are treated like idiots and fed condescending “eduspeak” pablum. They are fed up with seeing education experiments like I describe in the article that enrich publishers and pad the publication lists of education school professors conducted on their kids without their consent. In math, they are fed up with supposed experts telling them that their elementary school kids are better off learning several different methods to do the same basic calculation (which often results in the parents not being able to help their kids with their homework and having to hire high-priced tutors if they can afford them).
Finally when their local middle schools trashes the math education of students for several years running, leaving the kids at a substantial disadvantage in high school compared to other middle schools in their district, they are fed up when changing personnel is virtually impossible due to union protections!!!
Unions need to change with the times to stay relevant, but they persist in a state of denial about the problems that I mention above.
Until they finally wake up and come to the negotiating table with solutions to the problems above, the charter school movement will continue to gain ground and trash public education. That is not the outcome that I want, that is not the outcome that you want, nor any of the rest of us that read this blog. But it is the outcome that we will get if unions do not address these problems!!!
Take the time to talk to any well-educated parent instead of approaching them like they are ignorant slobs that need to learn progressive education “research,” and you will get the SAME STORY!
Duane Swacker, a retired teacher who often participates in this blog and lives in a totally different part of the U.S., read my article above and commented that he was astounded by how similar his experiences with his kids’ education were to mine. This is probably because education schools are spreading the same B.S.
I worked in biomedical research for many years. All one has to do is read the newspapers to see how often medical studies contradict advice that was considered “gospel” just a few years ago. These studies are FAR BETTER than 99.999% of educational research, and yet in education all one has to do is use the words “research says” followed by illogical garbage, and it seems as though all critical thinking is suspended…
David,
When it comes to union leadership, you are preaching to the choir! I have been an advocate for teaching deeper, not wider. I have been against Common Core because NY had good standards in place. When we were forced to go into Everyday Math, it was just as confusing to teachers as it was to parents. There is nothing wrong with teaching concepts and different strategies. But one strategy should not be the only path used to determining a solution. Unfortunately, our union has embraced all types of Reforms.
So do not blame teachers for being forced to follow mandates especially in districts where they can lose their jobs if they tell the truth. This is why parents have to be activists. And it has been the parents who are changing rules because pols are more afraid of losing votes. And the majority of these parents support public education over charters!! They started Opt Out!!
As for teachers who treat parents disrespectfully, that’s wrong and that’s on the administration not the Union. I have never attacked any parent and take issue with your generalization. There are wonderful parent organizations and activists who are not affiliated with Union or charters that work tirelessly for public schools students!! Those who attacked parents have come from Reform organizations and politicians who are paid by lobbyist. I include Duncan and King both Democrats in that category along with Jeb Bush.
There are many factions growing within the union who are now winning elections. They stand with their students and teachers alike and work closely with parents. You should seek them out!
Also investigate PAR. Many articles have appeared in the NYTimes. It is a program with Union due process and support. It empowers teachers to help strugggling teachers and fire those that can’t cut it. The only reason it’s not promoted is because of the testing lobby and charter industry. PAR doesn’t use standardized testing. It’s an interesting model that is fair and balanced.
Also, when you describe unions, keep in mind that they are the only force who keep classroom sizes manageable and fight against health hazards in the school. They with parents have been fighting for recess. It’s not always about protecting teachers.
There are just as many good public schools than charters. In fact many charters are not held to the same accountability even though they take public tax dollars. There are many scandals there as well. Not just about finances but discipline–doing things that would get the average public school teachers fired!
Charters grew from well-intentioned teachers and parents before it was usurped by Wall Street for profit. Even TV show scripts are embracing charters. Talk about product placement!!!
I would like to follow that money. What is from the DNC or DFER or even AFT? DFER would put up a Reformer as would Neo-Liberals. Either way, the Democrats have to come clean on this issue so no more union money can go into these pockets