The Los Angeles school board selected an unqualified person to lead its schools. The decision was made in secret, with no public input.
Carl Petersen points out that state law requires that Superintendents must have experience as teachers and administrators. There is provision for a waiver. Is the superintendent is unqualified, like Austin Beutner, he may be required to take an in-service training program.
35028.
No person shall be eligible to hold a position as city superintendent, district superintendent, deputy superintendent, associate superintendent, or assistant superintendent of schools unless he is the holder of both a valid school administration certificate and a valid teacher’s certificate, but any person employed as a deputy, associate, or assistant superintendent in a purely clerical capacity shall not be required to hold any certificate.
(Enacted by Stats. 1976, Ch. 1010.)
35029.
A local governing board may waive any credential requirement for the chief administrative officer of the school district under its jurisdiction. Any individual serving as the chief administrative officer of a school district who does not hold a credential may be required by the local governing board to pursue a program of in-service training conducted pursuant to guidelines approved by the commission.
No individual serving as the chief administrative officer of a school district shall be subject to the provisions of the merit system specified in Article 6 (commencing with Section 45240) of Chapter 5 of Part 25 of this division or any other similar merit system.
(Enacted by Stats. 1976, Ch. 1010.)
Will the board require him to learn about school administration or will they just let him bring his experience from the banking world as a source of “new ideas.” (Hint: buy low, sell high). Or from his service on the board of AMI, which owns the notorious National Enquirer (“catch and kill”) or from Jack Welch’s playbook for cut-throat businessmen (“fire the bottom 10% every year”).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
People don’t understand that each state crafts its own rules and regulations in concert with and in addition to federal law. Then, each individual school district creates its own policies to complement those laws. If LAUSD had hired a superintendent who had already worked in California, that person would be knowledgable about CA and federal law. If LAUSD had hired a superintendent with education experience from outside the state, that person would be knowledgable about federal law. But, LAUSD hired a person who has ZERO knowledge of any state, federal OR district rules, regulations or laws.
Sure, Beutner is most likely capable of crunching numbers, but every financial decision must be based on how best to serve kids while doing the least amount of damage. That requires a deep understanding of every aspect of how to deliver a quality education. So, who will Beutner turn to when he finds he doesn’t have enough background knowledge to make tough decisions? The answer is obvious….. his most ardent supporters from the school board and corporate world.
But, this time around we’ll be watching his every step. This is perhaps the first time that an incoming superintendent has garnered so much negative attention. I don’t think he’ll like being under the microscope, but that’s what he signed on for, knowingly or not.
Not in LA, but it is likely that Broad will step up and give him administrative training…with the bottom line the most important think to know. I will also be interested in knowing how he will respond to the legacy of LA being a CORE district, with prescriptions for school accountability set by superintendents in seven other California districts.
thing to know.
Since, as Peterson notes, the law requires that the results of local government meetings be made public, and the April 20th 4-3 vote to begin contract negotiations was illegally covered up, “no actions to report”, I wonder if an injunction could be ordered. (Parents, don’t expect the tragically beleaguered teachers union to do it.) Ref Rodriguez’s attorneys have delayed his trial until July. Delay the hiring.
Eli Broad will send him to the Broad Academy for a one-day service with a five-hour lunch break. For the three hours, he will be “serviced” he will be watching a flat screen video produced by Pearson or even Facebook. At the end, even if he falls asleep, there will be an online test but all the answers will be choice “C” so he won’t have to read anything and he will walk away with a perfect score.
The most cogent and revealing comment re the new rheephorm savior comes from that paragon of thoughtfulness, honesty and accountability, to wit[less], the LATIMES. *Hint: Sarcasm alert!
🤪
At the bottom of the opinion page [p. 11, section A, 5-5-2018] they preface their selection of comments they received about the new supt. with the following:
[start]
AUSTIN BEUTNER HASN’T BEEN on the job as the Los Angeles Unified School District’s superintendent a week, but he already has one group of vocal critics: teachers who write letters to the Los Angeles Times.
The new schools chief has an impressive resume by any measure (the former investment banker has served as a deputy major of Los Angeles and The Times’ publisher), but he lacks one important quality that even John Deasy, the embattled former LAUSD superintendent who faced unrelenting criticism from teachers, had in spades: prior experience in education.
Mot of the letters we’ve received express skepticism over the LAUSD’s new hire, although a few defend the district’s unorthodox pick. Here are some of those letters.
[end]
John Deasy had “prior experience in education” “in spades”?!?!? Lotsa good that stood him what with the iPad catastrophe and MISIS fiasco [by the LATIMES own admission]. Of course, potentially Pulitzer Prize-level reporting on the predictable waste of many tens of millions of dollars was close to non-existent during the Deasy “Reign of Error” despite the LATIMES alleged ‘prior experience in journalism and reporting’—
Because it were too busy being his MSM cheerleader!
And Beutner starts out with even less faux expertise to his credit?!?!?
The LATIMES should be the last to pontificate on the value and worth of skepticism. It is a backhanded admission that those running the LATIMES are well described by a predecessor of rheephorm’s “truthful hyperbole” who is reputed to have said: “A sucker is born every minute.” [P.T. Barnum]
So, for all you fans and followers of corporate education reform, never fear, for whatever the latest rheephorm fad or fetish or fixation: the LATIMES is all in.
Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
😎
I have recently completed a program as a school district and building leader.
A school leader must be aware of how to gather information on all the facets of a school community that the community believes is necessary, build systems to support that collective vision, and align resources with it.
It’s unclear what vision of education he brings with no experience in how an education is delivered.
If he is unaware of what he is sacrificing with every financial decision, then it’s hard to say how he can he can plan out how all his decisions will align with providing a comprehensive education.
Similarly, he can expect push back on any group he takes away from, or, any new group he creates that another objects to – planning for and mitigating pushback is also part of a leader’s job.
What happens if he takes away a support and a child gets sick or dies from the lack of that support? How will he support a community dealing with a crisis?
Does he know ANY of that? And how it will play out in detail? Where he will learn it from when he needs to access that base of knowledge? Who will be the true superintendent who tells him what he needs to know?
There’s only one reason he got the job … to continue the job of dismantling LA Unified and turning the public’s property and all of those children over to autocratic, private sector corporate charter schools because that is a major goal of ALEC and the Koch brothers.
SICK. Thanks for this info. Lloyd. Glad you pointed this out. Good comment.
He’s already had “in-service training” — in service to the oligarchs.
Otherwise, he would not have chosen his career path.
“In-service Training”
In service to the oligarchs
Is why Deformers train
From Gates and Broad a Walton sharks
There’s loads of buck$ to gain
“in service to the oligarchs”
Means he has to be willing to use his tongue in place of TP.
To answer the question of the post:
Yes
Via an “Eli Scholarship” to the Broad SuperAdminimal Academy.
“Broad Kill”
Bank adminimals
From the Broad
Rank, like animals
From the road