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Jeff Bryant: L.A. Teachers See Charters as “Existential Threat” to Public Education

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2019 //
13

 

Jeff Bryant went to Los Sngeles to interview teachers during the strike. He discovered that they see charters as privatization, and as such, an existential threat to public education. A few years ago, UTLA commissioned an independent audit of the cost of charters and learned that they drain $600 annually from the district.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/25/los-angeles-teachers-make-the-case-that-charter-schools-are-an-existential-threat-to-public-education_partner/

Jeff Bryant reports:

 

This article was produced by Our Schools, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
“Isn’t it reasonable to have some regulations on charters?” asked Ingrid King, a kindergarten and dual language teacher at Latona Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles. She and two of her colleagues spoke to me from the picket lines during the recently resolved teacher strike in her city. When she and over 30,000 teachers and school personnel walked off the job, it closed the nation’s second-largest school system of nearly a half-million students for six days and filled the streets with huge protests.The strike ended when the district conceded to give teachers a 6 percent pay raise, limit class sizes, reduce the number of student assessments by half, and hire full-time nurses for every school, a librarian for every middle and high school, and enough counselors to provide one for every 500 students.But the concessions teachers won that will likely have the most impact outside of LA are related to charter schools. The teachers forced the district leader to present to the school board a resolution calling on the state to cap the number of charter schools, and the teachers made the district give their union increased oversight of charter co-locations — a practice that allows charter operations to take possession of a portion of an existing public school campus.

Los Angeles Unified has 277 charter schools, the largest number of charter schools of any school district in the nation. The schools serve nearly 119,000 students, nearly one in five students. The vast majority of charters are staffed by non-union teachers. (Teachers at a chain of unionized charter schools in the city that joined district teachers on the strike are still on strike.) So the quick takefrom some is the teachers’ union made curbs on charter schools part of their demands because these schools are a threat to the union’s power.

But when you talk to teachers, that’s not what they say. They tell you they want to curb charter school growth, not because it threatens their union, but because charters threaten the very survival of public schools.

Read on!0

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Privatization

New York Times: L.A. Teachers’ Strike Was a Setback for Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2019 //
17

 

In a somewhat ambivalent article in the New York Times, Jennifer Medina and Dana Goldstein write that the L.A. teachers’ strike was a setback for charter schools. They say that in the age of Trump, charters are no longer popular with the Democratic Party, which is moving left. They point out that the teachers held a massive rally in front of Eli Broad’s museum to express their displeasure with his support for charters.

The ambivalence in the article comes in two parts. First, they treat somewhat skeptically the union’s accurate portrayal of the link between charters and billionaires. Second, they stress that charters are popular and have long waiting lists. They are wrong on both counts. The charter “movement” is a billionaire obsession. Think Waltons, Gates, Broad, DeVos, Koch brothers, Hastings, Bloomberg, Anschutz, etc. Read the NPE report, which the reporters obviously have not read, called “Hijacked by Billionaires.” Without the billionaires, there is no charter “movement.”

Second, they are peddling charter lobby propaganda when they write about the public demand for charters.

Why would unions support charters? Nationally, 90% are non-union. In L.A., 80% are non-union. Moreover, they drain $600 million a year from the L.A. public schools, which are underfunded already.

Contrary to the report in the Times, LAUSD board member Scott Schmerelson wrote on his Facebook page this week that 82% of the charters in L.A. have vacancies.

But the main point of the article is heartening: Charter Schools have become toxic for most Democrats. They even list Senator Booker as a supporter of the striking teachers, which is odd, as he announced his run for the Democratic nomination in 2020 at a charter rally in New Orleans. Maybe he whispered his support. The Democrats will have to choose: unions or charters.

 

The article begins:

 

LOS ANGELES — Carrying protest signs, thousands of teachers and their allies converged last month on the shimmering contemporary art museum in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Clad in red, they denounced “billionaire privatizers” and the museum’s patron, Eli Broad. The march was a preview of the attacks the union would unleash during the teachers’ strike, which ended last week.

As one of the biggest backers of charter schools, Mr. Broad helped make them a fashionable and potent cause in Los Angeles, drawing support from business leaders like Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix; Hollywood executives; and lawmakers to create a wide network of more than 220 schools.

Mr. Broad was so bullish about the future of charter schools just a few years ago that he even floated a plan to move roughly half of Los Angeles schoolchildren — more than 250,000 students — into such schools. In 2017, he funneled millions of dollars to successfully elect candidates for the Board of Education who would back charters, an alternative to traditional public schools that are publicly funded but privately run.

His prominence has also turned him into a villain in the eyes of the teachers’ union. Now Mr. Broad and supporters like him are back on their heels in Los Angeles and across the country. The strike is the latest setback for the charter school movement, which once drew the endorsement of prominent Democrats and Republicans alike. But partly in reaction to the Trump administration, vocal Democratic support for charters has waned as the party has shifted further to the left and is more likely to deplore such schools as a drain on traditional public schools.

When the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced a deal between the teachers’ union and the school district after the weeklong strike, it became immediately clear that the fate of charter schools was part of the bargain: The union extracted a promise that the pro-charter school Board of Education would vote on a call for the state to cap the number of charters.

It was the latest in a string of defeats for a movement that for over a decade has pointed to Los Angeles and California as showcases for the large-scale growth of the charter school sector.

Backers of charter schools argue that they provide a much-needed choice for parents in poor neighborhoods, where low-performing schools are often the norm. Many supporters expressed frustration that student achievement had not been a focus of the debate around the Los Angeles strike. Overall, the city’s public school students tend to perform worse in reading and math than their counterparts in many other large urban school districts across the country, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The low performance of district schools, charter supporters say, has led to about a fifth of the district’s students being enrolled in charter schools…..

But the defeat in the court of public opinion is clear: After years of support from powerful local and national allies — including many Democrats — charter schools are now facing a backlash and severe skepticism.

Over the past two years, charter school supporters were dealt painful political defeats in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states.

As the push for alternatives to traditional public schools has come to be more associated with President Trump and his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, the shift in Democratic Party politics has been especially pronounced. President Barack Obama supported expanding high-quality charter schools, and pushed teachers’ unions to let go of some of their traditional seniority protections and put more emphasis on raising student achievement.

But after a wave of mass teacher walkouts across the nation, and with a noticeable shift to the left in the party, ambitious national Democrats now seem more hesitant to criticize organized labor. Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who said they supported the striking teachers in Los Angeles. The city’s charter school leaders couldn’t help but notice that no equally prominent elected Democrat rose to the defense of Los Angeles charter schools as union leaders attacked them.

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Privatization

Los Angeles: Will the LAUSD Board Keep Its Promise?

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2019 //
11

 

Tomorrow we find out if the majority of the LAUSD board answers to the public or to Eli Broad and his fellow billionaires. As part of the strike settlement, the board agreed to vote on a resolution calling for a moratorium on charter schools. They will vote but will the majority vote for or against it? Tomorrow we learn which votes were purchased by Eli and friends.

The following press release came from Los Angeles Alliance for a Nrw Economy, which fights for a fair economy, for working people and for the environment.

 

MEDIA ADVISORY for TUESDAY, January 29 at 12 PM

 

Contact: Haley Potiker – 714-457-2852 – hpotiker@laane.org

 

Parents Bear Witness to School Board Vote on Charter Moratorium

LAUSD parents who were leaders in teachers strike support show up to make sure district keeps its promise on charter industry moratorium

 

WHO: Parent leaders in teachers’ strike support effort

 

WHEN: TUESDAY, January 29, 2018 at 12 PM

 

WHERE: LAUSD Headquarters, 333 S. Beaudry

WHAT: Parent activists will be available for comment at LAUSD board meeting

 

LOS ANGELES — The tentative agreement between UTLA and LAUSD includes a commitment by the Board of Education to vote on a resolution calling on the state of California to impose a moratorium on charter growth in LAUSD. Parents who have been organizing together with UTLA to combat privatization will attend the meeting to hold the board accountable to their promise.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: Please Help Jackie Goldberg Win Election to LAUSD Board

By dianeravitch
January 27, 2019 //
6

This post is an unabashed appeal for your contribution to a vital political race in Los Angeles. The billionaires (Broad, Walton, Hastings, etc.) have poured millions into buying control of the LAUSD board. That board hired a clueless hedge fund manager, Austin Beutner, who is bringing in every Reform retread to help him figure out how to do maximum disruption to the district.

I am asking you here and now to send Jackie Goldberg whatever you can afford.

The race for the empty seat on the LAUSD board is important for Los Angeles, but it is also important for California and for the nation. If Jackie wins this seat, her voice and her experience and knowledge will command a Quisling board.

Jackie Goldberg is a dynamo. She taught for many years, then won a seat on the Los Angeles school board. She then ran for the State Assembly and eventually became chair of the Education Committee. She retired from public service, but she was called back to active duty by her many admirers because of the crisis in Los Angeles.

The LAUSD board has seven seats. The billionaires bought four of them, the last time with the most expensive school board race in American history, when they spent upwards of $15 million to oust Steve Zimmer, the board president, and replace him with a TFA person. For a brief while, the Reformer Billionaires held five seats, but one of their board members was indicted and convicted of money laundering. Now that empty seat, representing District 5, will be decided in a special election on March 5. Jackie Goldberg used to represent District 5, and she is well known as a progressive firebrand in her district.

I attended a fundraiser for Jackie in her district, where she was surrounded by teachers and community members who love her. I spoke briefly and said that Jackie and I were sisters “with different mothers.” Which is to say, we had an hour-long conversation when I was in L.A. in December, and I found we saw eye-to-eye on the issues.

There are 10 candidates in the race. If Jackie wins 51% of the vote, there will be no runoff. The billionaires are waiting to see if there is a runoff, and if one is needed, and they will throw their millions against Jackie.

Jackie frightens them. She knows the legislature. She knows the district. She is knowledgable and articulate. She could stop their nefarious effort to destroy public education in Los Angeles. Even though she would be part of a three-vote minority (Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna, both experienced educators), their experience and expertise would shame the billionaire’s threadbare and vacuous four votes.

Jackie needs and deserves our help. Send $5, $10, $25, $100, whatever you can.

Categories California, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Resistance

Eric Blanc: Five Big Lessons from the Los Angeles Teachers’ Strike

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2019 //
14

Eric Blanc has covered the wave of teachers’ strikes that started in March 2018. He has been on the ground at everystrike, talking to the rank and file to get their perspectives as working teachers.

In this article, he describes the big lessons of the strike on Los Angeles.

He begins:

It would be hard to overstate the importance of this victory in the country’s second-largest school district. Against considerable odds, Los Angeles teachers have dealt a major blow against the forces of privatization in the city and nationwide. By taking on Democratic politicians in a deep-blue state, LA’s strike will certainly deepen the polarization within the Democratic Party over education reform and austerity. And by demonstrating the power of striking, LA educators have inspired educators nationwide to follow suit.

With new walkouts now looming in Denver, Oakland, Virginia, and beyond, it makes sense to reflect on the reasons why LA’s school workers came out on top—and what their struggle can teach people across the United States. Here are the five main takeaways.

Strikes Work: For decades, workers and the labor movement have been on the losing side of a one-sided class war. A major reason for this is that unions have largely abandoned the weapon of work stoppages, their most powerful point of leverage against employers. Rallies, marches, and civil disobedience are good, but they’re not enough.

Like the red state rebellions of 2018, the depth of the victory in Los Angeles underscores why the future of organized labor depends on reviving the strike. LA also shows that the most powerful strikes, particularly in the public sector, fight not only for the demands of union members, but on behalf of the broader community as well—an approach the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) calls “bargaining for the common good.”

The Status Quo Is Discredited: LA’s educator revolt is a particularly sharp expression of a nationwide rejection of decades of neoliberalism. Unlike many labor actions, this was not primarily a fight around wages—rather it was a political struggle against the billionaires and their proxies in government.

Like the electoral insurgencies of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, the upsurge of Los Angeles rank-and-file teachers, and the overwhelming support they received from the parents of their students, shows that working people are looking for an alternative to business as usual. Work actions like LA’s will be an essential part of any movement capable of defeating Trump and the far right.

That’s only lesson number one and two.

Keep reading to learn the other lessons.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization, Resistance, Teacher Education, Teachers, Unions

Los Angeles: Another Charter Executive Will Be Charged in Embezzlement of Millions

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2019 //
5

The charter schools of California continue to be riddled with corruption, and to date, the state has ignored the multiplying scandals. California has more Charters than any other state (about 1300) and virtually no regulation.

Another leader at the Celerity Charter Network will Be Charged with Embezzlement and other charges.

“The former CEO of Los Angeles charter school network Celerity Educational Group is expected to be arraigned next month on federal charges of conspiracy to misappropriate and embezzle public funds.

“Grace Canada, 45, of Torrance is the second ex-Celerity official to be charged with corruption by Los Angeles federal prosecutors. Celerity founder Vielka McFarlane pleaded guilty earlier this month to a conspiracy charge that she misspent $2.5 million in public education funds intended for students.

“Canada — currently principal of Kelly Elementary in Compton — was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in downtown Los Angeles on nearly the same charges as McFarlane and is expected to be arraigned on Feb. 11, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”

Categories California, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes

Los Angeles: UTLA Scores Major Funding Victories in Strike Agreement

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
43

The United Teachers of Los Angeles went out on strike on January 14. The strike will end if the membership approves a new two-year contract. The union won almost everything it sought. The teachers will get a wage increase; the district will limit class sizes and eliminate a waiver that allowed class size limits to be voided for economic reasons; there will be full-time nurses in every school, a librarian, more counselors. And more.

Here is the union’s press release with the tentative agreement included.

Here is the New York Times summary:

Los Angeles public school teachers reached a tentative deal with school officials on Tuesday to end a weeklong strike that had upended learning for more than half a million students in the nation’s second largest public school system.

The teachers won a 6 percent pay raise and caps on class sizes, which had become one of the most contentious issues between the union and district officials. The deal also includes hiring full-time nurses for every school, as well as enough librarians for every middle and high school in the district by the fall of 2020.

The city and county will also expand programs into public schools, providing more support services for the neediest students.

The settlement came after tens of thousands of teachers marched in downtown Los Angeles and picketed outside schools for six school days, and after a round of marathon negotiating sessions over the holiday weekend.

In addition to winning resources that were badly needed, the union won on other fronts, first, by injecting charter schools into their demands; and second, by putting Democratic politicians on the spot.

The victory for the teachers’ union goes far beyond the new two-year contract. In recent years, teachers in Los Angeles and all over the country have often found themselves on the defensive, as politicians and educational leaders have demanded that more be done to weed out ineffective teachers.

The Los Angeles strike was the eighth major teacher walkout over the past year, as a movement that calls itself Red For Ed spread like wildfire from West Virginia to Oklahoma, Arizona, Chicago and beyond. But the strike in Los Angeles was a union-led one against Democratic leaders who are usually on their side. It also was one of the first to highlight one of the most controversial questions in education: whether charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately managed, hurt traditional schools.

The charter issue was explained like this: The board will be asked to endorse a resolution calling for a cap on charter schools, which this billionaire-bought board is unlikely to do. But the union put out there the fact that charter schools harm public schools, and politicians had to choose. As “widely popular” as charter schools are, only 10% of the kids in the state attend them, and only 20% in Los Angeles.

In a summary released by the union, the agreement also includes a pledge that the elected school board for the district will vote on a resolution asking the state to “establish a charter school cap” and create a governor’s committee on charter schools.

That would be a major shift in California, where charter schools have been widely embraced by political leaders and have proved popular among parents.

This agreement is a major victory for UTLA and promises better working conditions in the schools and better services for students.

Categories Class size, Education Reform, Los Angeles, Union

Los Angeles: Board, UTLA Reach Agreement, Teachers Will Vote on Accord

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2019 //
15

The leadership of the Los Angeles Unified School District reached an agreement with the teachers’ union, UTLA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/01/22/los-angeles-teachers-reach-agreement-with-district-leaders-end-strike/?utm_term=.c3ff5c71aaea

“Beutner said the agreement provides for a 6 percent pay increase for school employees and a “meaningful class size reduction.” Further information about the pact, he said, would be released later Tuesday.

“
Beutner said that he is still has “tremendous” concerns about the school system’s financial health but that those concerns must be balanced with students’ needs.


“Today and tomorrow, when school opens, begins a new chapter in every classroom,” he said, noting that “40 years of underinvestment in public education” can’t be solved in one week.


“Caputo-Pearl said teachers will review and vote on the contract Tuesday. The agreement, he said, will bring crucial services to students and impose caps on class size.”

Not clear yet whether there was any action to limit charter school expansion.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Funding, Los Angeles

Los Angeles: How the Resistance Undermined the Propaganda About Teachers

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2019 //
12

Sara Roos, aparent in Los Angeles whose children are no longer in school, muses about the major impact of the Teacher Revolt. It seems there is overwhelming public support for striking teachers (as there was last spring in Red states).

Remember the bad old days when Michelle Rhee, Campbell Brown, and Raj Chetty (not to mention their billionaire funders) were demonizing teachers? I recall a PBS interview with Melinda Gates in which she confidently asserted that “we” (she and Bill) knowhow to make better teachers.

Where are they all today?

How many of the Reformers arespeaking out for more funding and smaller classes?

Let me know if you find them.

Roos, the Red Queen in LA, writes:

To and from today’s tremendous rally in front of LA’s City Hall, you could feel overwhelming support from random people, everywhere. On the expo a stranger tosses out: “Good luck with your strike”. From bus drivers in uniform and lunch couriers in beat-up Hondas, waiting at every intersection from downtown to our neighborhoods blares the staccato horn of support. Professional cameramen trained to remain unfazed and neutral nevertheless emanate waves of sympathy. Business and car windows display signs of solidarity. Workers at City Hall open their windows to hear. Supersaturated among our populace is a pent-up frustration with where we’re at politically, and how to get ourselves heard.
This is Resistance writ huge. This is our women’s march, the march of our teachers. Our teachers are leading the way and giving We the People a voice here in LaLaLand.

These teachers are actually kinda the same old apple-faced Good People they always ever were. There hasn’t been some gigantic social evolution. It’s just the propaganda that’s changed; the underlying reality, not surprisingly, is robust, centered on social service for the betterment of us all. Our teachers haven’t changed, only the corporate, capitalist-centered narrative surrounding all of it has.

By the way, it turns out the long-sought after solution to LA’s traffic gridlock may be simply: stop sending kids far afield to some school of “Choice” and choose to value and invest in your own neighborhood. Anyone else notice how empty the streets have been all week long? When parents aren’t racing their kids hither and yon in a frenzy of Choosing Excellence, everyone’s lives get a little more deeply vested in their surrounds. It is everyone’s right to have the same excellent education as the next families’. But education isn’t a value added commodity to buy off the shelf whether the salesman peddles snake oil, false promises, educational spyware or a social panacea. Like democracy itself it’s a collective activity valued by the value which we each add.

Categories Los Angeles, Parents, Propaganda, Resistance, Teachers

Leonie Haimson: The Lesson in Los Angeles Strike: Class Size Matters

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2019 //
70

Leonie Haimson has been fighting the battle to reduce class size for many years. She believes that the breaking point for teachers in Los Angeles was the outrageous numbers of children in many classes, in some cases approaching 50 students in a class. Haimson has the research to back up her contention. When students need extra attention, they will not get it if the class has large numbers.

She notes the popular refrain among reformers like Arne Duncan that one “great teacher” is more important than small classes, but there is no evidence that this is true, and it is very likely that the “great teacher” will no longer be great if there are 45 students in his or her class.

It is pathetic that not a single former or current Secretary of Education has supported the teachers in L.A. The public does, however. Polls in the city show overwhelming pubic support for their strike. For some reason, workaday folks understand what Secretaries of Education do not. The teachers are striking for their students’ learning conditions.

Categories Class size, Los Angeles
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