L.A. Charter School Takeover: Teachers, Superintendant Cortines Defeated as Mayor, Reformers Get Their Way With 7 New Charters

By Simone Wilson Wed., Mar. 16 2011 at 2:25 PM

Not this time, Cortines.

Private charter-school giants are pushing their way into the Los Angeles Unified School District one low-performing campus at a time -- or, as was the case yesterday, seven at a time, out of 13 district schools up for grabs.

The Los Angeles Board of Education's reform-minded decision to hand seven of the district's failures over to charter schools -- to the horror of unionized L.A. teachers and their supporters -- is a far cry from last year, when Superintendent Ramon Cortines and pro-union board member Marguerite LaMotte led the board in approving more insular plans, hatched within the district.

But the very apparent shoddiness of those plans...

... may have been what pushed education officials to the edge yesterday, lobbied by charter schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and radical education experts into defying their leader and welcoming in what many in the teachers' camp believe to be the enemy.

"I am much more satisfied this year than I was last year," school board member Yolie Flores, who authored the very Public School Choice process that put 13 L.A. schools on the reform block yesterday, told the LA Daily News. "I think we took more seriously our sense of urgency and the quality of the plans."

Flores is perhaps the most charter-friendly of all the board members, and for that, she was attacked earlier this month by the official student newspaper at Huntington Park High School (which happens to be Flores' alma mater, located in the notorious southeast circle of East L.A. County).

In a piece called "The Parent Center Smack Down," young Spartan Shield reporters accused Flores of mis-evaluating their school as needing change -- even though only 25 percent of students meet California standards in English, and only 5 percent in math. A mere 66 percent of Spartans graduated in 2008.

Their discourse smacked of classroom influence; arguments made by the same teachers, of course, who would have to reapply for their jobs in the case of a charter-school takeover.

Yesterday's school board meeting was a heavy-hearted one for outgoing L.A. Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who had recommended that many more in-district proposals be implemented. From the Los Angeles Times' Howard Blume, who takes a noticeable "political machine" stance against charters throughout his piece:

Cortines, for example, had wanted low-achieving Clay Middle School, in Athens, to be split between a team from the school and Green Dot Public Schools, a charter organization. He talked of the potential to demonstrate how a charter and a district operation could collaborate; charters are publicly funded and independently run.
Board President Monica Garcia pushed instead to have the entire school turned over to Green Dot.

Here are the final decisions, with charters in bold:

Clay Middle School: Convert to Green Dot Public School charter campus.
Mann Middle School: Make all teachers re-apply, but let Pride Responsibility Excellence Preparation at Horace Mann Middle School (an in-district group) help with school's overhaul.
Muir Middle School: Convert to union-friendly (but non-charter) MLA Partner Schools campus (even though Cortines rejected their application).
Central Region Elementary School 14: Convert to Camino Nuevo charter campus.
South Region Elementary School 6: Convert to Aspire Public Schools charter campus.
Central Region Middle School 7: Convert to Synergy Academies charter campus.
Central Region High School 13: Convert to Alliance College-Ready Public Schools charter campus.
Central Region High School 16: Convert to Synergy Academies charter campus.
East LA Star Academy: Reject in-district plan, accept more applications.
South Region High School 2: Convert to Public Service Community School charter campus.
South Region High School 4: Hand over to Local District 8.
Valley Region High School 4: Hand over to Local District 1.
Valley Region High School 5: Convert to (non-charter) Academy of Scientific Exploration campus.

Villaraigosa's statement was predictably triumphant following the big charter win:

"Today, the lives of more than 20,000 students and their families will change for the better. The opportunity to attend a revitalized school will set students on the course to a brighter future."

Incoming Superintendent John Deasy, who formerly worked for the biggest piggy bank in school reform -- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where board member Flores is headed next -- is likely to be smiling today, too.

The same cannot be said of board member and United Teachers Los Angeles favorite LaMotte:

"We're having a meeting at a time that only charter people can be here in the audience, and it's not fair,'' she said at the meeting. "Who speaks for the teachers? Nobody out here speaks for the teachers.''

But if we're taking that route, we'd like to know: Who, exactly, speaks for the students?

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Board of Education, charter schools, John Deasy, LAUSD, Marguerite LaMotte, Ramon Cortines, superintendent, Yoli Flores

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Jgosocal

Our borad members are the puppets of the Mayor and Monica Garcia, even Zimmer the former teacher is a turncoat. Luis Sanchez running for Yolie's seat is the Mayor's boy. No change more moronic decisions as now if he is elected. Our feet need to hit the pavement on the EASTSIDE to defeat luis Sanchez who has contributers from charter schools, mcgraw hill, district 5 administrators. So Sanchez is owned and will be Monica's puppet.

CMSD Just Like LAUSD

It's funny how what is happening here in LAUSD is the same thing happening in other urban areas like the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Ohio where public school teachers are seen as greedy, worthless and unprofessional. I for one see each day that teachers care and spend a great deal of time making meaningful lessons, but getting through to students is at times impossible due to an overwhelming amount of students who simply don't show up or don't care to do anything in class besides disrupt the educational process. Some, but definitely not all, of these students' parents let the cycle continue by issuing little to no punishments at home for poor grades and behavioral problems. A good number of the students in CMSD come from broken homes where fathers are non-existent and disrespecting adults is not looked on as something that is taken seriously or needs to be corrected. I'm sure the case is the same in LAUSD, but again, it's always the fault of the teachers, not the parents, community or administration. By the way, in Cleveland, Ohio, there are MANY failed and corrupt charter schools either now out of business or still operating, and I'm sure the same can be said in the Los Angeles area and pretty much any other urban in the country.

rdsathene

What does one get when they mix yellow journalism with laughable misinformation? Simone Wilson! Wilson, whose inability to grasp even simple facts is exceeded only by that of her rich right-wing libertarian boss Jill Stewart. Wilson writes in this piece:

"Central Region Elementary School 14: Convert to Camino Nuevo charter campus"

The school is newly built and has never been opened. Precisely how is it being converted Ms. Wilson? Moreover, how is it a "low-performing campus" if it has never been open? Your lack of cogent writing is matched only by your obvious cheerleading for Stewart's wealthy fellow socialites in the lucrative charter-voucher school industry.

The screed Wilson writes is indicative of why the LA Weekly is considered a trashy masseuse and porn ad pennysaver amongst all other Los Angeles journalists.

Lausd teacher

Are you ever going to correct your mistake about South Region High School #2: It is NOT charter but a complex of four district schools.

rdsathene

Green Dot's "track record" often gets discussed without any fact checking. For example Green Dot sports three schools in the lowest 100 APIs in Los Angeles County. They also feature five schools in the lowest 35 average SAT scores in the County. (http://projects.latimes.com/sc...

Their remediation rates are awful as well. For example we'll use Animo Venice Charter High School since they represent median Green Dot results. Of the Green Dot students admitted to the CSU system in 2008 67% WERE NOT PROFICIENT IN MATHEMATICS. This is compared to just 49% of the much maligned LAUSD students. Moreover, only 33% of the children graduating the Green Dot corporate factory school were proficient, while children attending public schools comprised a much more respectable 51%. (http://www.asd.calstate.edu/sc...Furthmore Green Dot's exclusionary practices towards children with special needs are legendary, see the modified consent decree information in this article. (http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/...

Lastly, when we discuss corporations like Green Dot, we need to remember how they treat the community. When Ánimo Justice was effecting Green Dot's bottom line, they shut the school down against the wishes of the community. (http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/...

Just a taxpayer

This is still an example of too little, too late. The problems that overwhelm urban schools can't be handled until something is done about the flood of children from illegal alien families who are ill-prepared for integration with native students, and teacher tenure is completely eliminated. If a teacher knows that he or she must successfully compete each year to keep a job, the quality of education will improve markedly. Public education has never been less worthy of taxpayer support than it is today.

Lausdteacher

Education is NOT a competition, it is designed to promote intellectualism, democratic ideals and prepare young people for the future. You want to "punish" teachers- who will replace us? What you want is the deprofessionalization of the teaching profession. You won't get it. The same exact teachers teach in urban schools as teach in upper class school districts without immigrant children. Put me in Laguna Beach Unified and take a teacher from Laguna Beach and put him or her in my school and I guarantee you our test scores will be exactly the same.

Just a taxpayer

Life IS a competition. In most other professions you are judged by the results you get, and in for-profit occupations, for the amount of money you make for the company or industry in which you work. You may be fired/dismissed at any time.

While there are teachers (many) who appropriately teach the students they are assigned, there are many who have simply retired on the job. They sabotage the efforts of dedicated teachers and undermine professional standards in a school. Tenure almost always prevents these incompetent teachers from being removed from their positions and damages staff morale. More importantly, incompetent teachers punish students when they fail to meet standards they should be held to.

Lausdteacher

Again, what is your evidence that many have "retired on the job?" You slander teachers with no evidence, details or examples. Even I teach my students they must include those things in their essays. Teachers cannot make students do work. Students must receive appropriate support from home- hence the difference between Laguna Beach and south Los Angeles- books and English in the home

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Erin23

The mayor should not be gloating. Gompers middle school - one of his schools is a disaster. In addition, the mayor's partnership schools are run by a group with all kinds of non-school personnel in an office making tons of money while many of his schools go without basic supplies. And by the way, when teachers lose, so do students. Charters are profit seeking entities who counsel out the lowest performing students who I and my colleagues who you disdain then educate.

LAUSD teacher

It would be great if you got your facts straight. South Region High School #2 is NOT charter but a complex of four district schools run by TEACHERS- you know, those people you and the LA Times love to hate. We wrote the plans and we are running the schools. Get over it.