The Los Angeles Unified School District hired billionaire banker Austin Beutner as its next superintendent of schools at a meeting on April 20 and kept the decision secret until May 1.
The vote to hire Beutner was 4-3.
Board member Scott Schmerelson, a retired educator, voted no and issued this angry statement.
Beutner was briefly publisher of the Los Angeles Times. He is close to billionaire Eli Broad. His investment company Evercore purchased American Media Inc., parent company of the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid. Beutner was a member of AMI’s board of directors. Ironically, his father was a top executive in Amway, the DeVos company in Michigan, where Beutner was born.
Schmerelson wrote an apology to the parents and educators who had been writing and emailing to express their views, not knowing that a decision was already made.
He wrote:
”I do not believe that Austin Beutner, who has absolutely no experience in the field of public education, is qualified to manage the largest school district in the nation with an elected Board. He has never taught in a public school, never managed a public school, has no instructional background, and has never worked for a school district of any size. The Board majority refused to exercise due diligence regarding Mr. Beutner’s lengthy and tangled business affairs including the disputed delivery of services and breach of a $3 million contract between LAUSD and Vision to Learn, an organization that he founded and continues to lead.”
I agree. Beutner is totally unqualified. The LAUSD board should be ashamed of this decision. They did not put students first. They put their campaign contributors first. They put students last.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Scott Schmerleson statement of dissent is an articulation of honor and integrity that has always been shockingly rare in LAUSD.
There will be plenty of opportunity to address all the problems with this appointment and the entire structural pedagogy and priorities of the LA School Board.
For now, I want to express my admiration to Scott Schmerleson and let him know that his voice and conscience will continue to be vital to the well-being of our students, teachers and greater community.
This was my public comment at the Board meeting from today. I do not like public speaking, I get nervous, and so wrote up my comments last night. I added the few ad libs I made during my 3 minutes.
Based on what I’ve heard today [other public speakers said the decision was already made], my comments appear to now be of historic value.
From what I’ve read about Mr. Beutner, some of his qualifications exemplify how poorly qualified he is for the job of superintendent:
He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the hometown of Betsy DeVos. This makes sense because for 25 years Beutner’s father worked for Amway, the DeVos family business.
Beutner as a young man worked for the private equity firm, Blackstone. There he learned how Wall St. doles out misery to Main St.
Next, with his own investment banking group, he went to Russia. Under Yeltsin, he made millions for himself exploiting the looting of public enterprises by oligarchs of the future. Some of whom are now probably friends of Trump.
His “Vision to Learn” company which was supposed to help children get eyeglasses to help them read has underperformed. Apparently it was the fault of others’.
Recent history has shown us that education systems run by financial managers with no education expertise have done poorly. This experiment in Michigan, New Orleans, DC and Miami – have all wound up as disasters for public education. Why would this board vote to repeat the same failed experiment in Los Angeles? Oh, wait you already have.
The financial problems of LAUSD will not be solved by the interests and skills of Mr. Beutner. Those very policies to which he is beholden are exactly those which have created a large part of the present problem.
Watching President Trump, the businessman-as-president, should finally put to rest the idea that a businessman can competently run large organizations meant to serve the public good. He’s put in one businessman after another in charge of departments they know nothing about and care less. And we have watched the parade out the door of these departments they are leaving in chaos and ruin.
Will this board vote for the same failed experiment? Oh, you already have.
Obeying the gods of commerce at the expense of children’s teachers got us ipad-gate, collusion with Apple and with Pearson. We cannot solve our childrens education problems by conflating profit-making with managing the teaching of our children.
I urge a vote for Ms. Ekshian. Otherwise, we are watching billionaires buying CA one politician at a time. [looking straight at Melvoin]
Somehow I’m not surprised. Tsk, tsk, though.
Also, the vote was 7-2. Schmuelson and McKenna were the two nos.
I meant final vote today was 5-2. The 4-3 vote was 4/20.
Eli Broad made an investment when he purchased four Board seats. That investment has now paid off. I’m a retired LAUSD teacher. This will not be good for the District, but Eli and his buddies will cash in bigly.
This article says that the vote was 5-2.
Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools
…but then later in the article it refers to a 4-3 vote. Go figure.
The first vote, to choose Beutner, was 4-3. The vote on his contract was 5-2.
When will the L.A. Teachers ever learn? The UTLA supported candidates that are now voting against the teachers. Perhaps when teachers are fired, or lose their benefits they’ll wake up in the next few months.
Will Beutner buy another $1Billion in iPads?
When will CA stop funding the biggest school district who is bleeding children’s school monies?
I am reading this, and thinking, how is this different from how higher ed in this country? The vast majority of college boards (even the public college boards) are led by businessmen with no education background. It’s an accepted fact, like ads every 5 minutes on television.
Business and businessmen have infiltrated every facets of life.
He worked for Blackstone?
Then you probably have a fair idea of what he’s going to do… Just as private equity parasites load up target companies with debt and pay themselves huge fees, this character and the faction he represents will divert money to charter schools, technology/robotic learning, and divestment of publicly-owned real estate – his patron, Broad, started as a real estate developer – into private hands.
The Many will pay, and pay, and keep paying, to further enrich the Few.
Thanks, Michael. Very cogently put.
What is the teachers’ union response to this outrageous appointment? Silence? This corporate stacking of local school boards is a national epidemic that requires the AFT to step up. This is the historical moment where Dems will have to choose between the elites and the working class.
The national Dimocrapic Party had already chosen (yes, pluperfect), oh a few decades ago, and it wasn’t for the working class.
Wow.
People must be furious, and rightly so. Why in the world would they perpetrate this elaborate hoax where they’re having people waste their time at “listening sessions” when the decision had been made 10 days earlier?
It WORSE than just installing him by fiat. They deliberately tricked people. They made fools of them.
Did they direct dissenting board members to go along with the hoax? Is that why he says he had to sit silent and watch as hundreds of people were fooled into thinking they had some input? Why not ignore the order and just tell people at the meetings “the decision has been made- they’re misleading you”? They can’t remove him for telling the truth.
Didn’t California recall the Governor?
Can they start a recall of the Board of Education members?
Very sad outcome to a failing district that literally has bee bought by Broad and his cronies. To call it a public school district is an insult to the public. Yes they will continue to drain the district for their private gain and in the end expect the taxpayers to bail them out. And they will. I’m glad i’m Out of this corrupt enterprise. I love LA but your school district stinks big time.
Broad and Beutner will pick out choice, publicly owned real estate in Los Angeles and sell it to themselves. They will build and then charge overpriced rent. The people will be homeless in the very city we worked to build. There will be no schools, just tents under freeway overpasses. Greed knows no end.
Please be assured that there has been a tremendous backlash from community groups all over the city. The LAUSD charter friendly board members clearly did not expect this. In particular, Melvoin, the board vice-president, can no longer depend on the small group of privileged white parents from his board district who think they control everything.
Backlash is good but slow and by the time the community reacts, the district will be fleeced. Something more drastic and quick has to happen now while you still have assets.
Can they recall board members in LA?
Only if Eli Broad and Reed Hastings pay for a recall
Would you mind sharing which community groups? I’ve heard nothing against Melvoin, the westside, or any other across the city – except for the lead up to May 1. Is there anything in print? Thanks.
“The LAUSD charter friendly board members clearly did not expect this. ”
NPR’s Market Place had a piece on the issue yesterday, and they mentioned that of the 500K students in LAUSD, 100K are in charter schools. That’s a very high 20%, and the broadcast mentioned it is the main reason for the huge financial problems the district faces. They also mentioned that charters have been pushed by Eli Broad.
As a public school educator for 19 years, 11 of which have been in LAUSD, I am outraged by the board’s choice in superintendent. My only hope is that it will get so bad that change will occur. School Board member Ref Rodriguez is going back to court next week for campaign fraud. Hopefully he will be indited and we can choose a pro-public school board member, making for a pro-public school board. The board makes most of the important decisions and the superintendent doesn’t have a lot of power anyway. With a pro-public school board we can get rid of the superintendent as we have in the past. We have DeVos running our American Education system with no background in education and now the second largest district in the nation has the same. Pray for LAUSD! We need it!
I don’t know the answer to this entrenched privatization. Seems business and political leaders have all bought in to fleece the public but why can’t a special district like lausd be dissolved or reconstituted? If it doesn’t Represent the community as congressmen who don’t represent their district should be voted out. If the school board super we’re voted in by the public would it look any different? Who knows.
“LAUSD Board Hired Billionaire Banker with No Education Experience, Kept It Secret”
Well, what did you expect, the Spanish Inquisition?