Jan 17 2012
Civic Circus — 01/17/12
Civic Circus with Ankur Patel breaks down local politics, with a weekly report on city, county, and state bureaucracies.
The LAUSD is the second largest school district in the United States with a K through 12 enrollment of 664,000 and a total enrollment of 919,000 students. The general fund for this fiscal year 2011/12 totaled $6.5 billion. That is after cuts of over $2,000,000,000 over the last four years has left us with a shortened school year, thousands fewer teachers, and forces a serious examination of all alternatives to traditional public schools.
I am a product of LAUSD Magnet Programs, which have actually been more successful, as a whole than Charter Schools in LA., but The $543 million budget deficit facing LAUSD for the 2012-13 year, largely created by the state’s financial mismanagement, overestimation of revenue, and the politicization of education, has Superintendent John Deasy looking to the bottom of the barrel, a property tax, to make up some of that gap.
During the LAUSD School Board meeting on Tuesday January 10th, Deasy laid out in stark terms what the district was facing, making the case for a property tax that would range between $200 and $300. It will be up to the 7 school board members to put that tax on the November ballot for voter approval. Jerry Brown also hopes to get his own half cent sales tax for education on the ballot.
Not only will the district not know if that extra tax revenue will be coming before they create the budget, there is a high likelihood that even if the money comes through to the district, it will be in the form of deferral payments – essentially IOUs.
The fact that the budget is continually being cut, teachers are worried about their jobs, and the general lack of resources that our children get in their public schooling has led many people to move their children out of public school. The LAUSD has had a decline in enrollment of over 100,000 students since 2007. With the decrease in enrollment, the state, which provides funding based on the number of students, has also decreased, further exacerbating the problem.
So the numbers are looking bad, both in terms of dollars, but also in terms of graduation rates.
One idea that has been floating and will be discussed during the LAUSD board meeting being held today, is the erasure of school boundaries. This challenges the concept of the neighborhood school, ideally allowing parents to choose the best option for their child while nurturing and expanding strategies that have proved successful at other schools. This would be a dramatic shift, and is not being taken lightly as the school board is voting today to approve the exploration of the idea in a formal report. Proponents are painting this as a way to empower parents and allow them more options for their children. Issues of fairness and priority of seats will have to be addressed as specific schools would be more appealing to parents.
But without teachers, four walls, a blackboard, and some desks do not a school make. So the LAUSD has also been coming up with and implementing innovative solutions to the budget problems such as rehiring laid off teachers at a discount by not providing benefits such as sick time or healthcare.
Don’t forget that lesser known elected officials, like our school board members, are still politicians.
You can follow Ankur Patel and comment on LA circus politics at Twitter @hardlyconscious.
2 Responses to “Civic Circus — 01/17/12”
This is an excellent venue for those of us that are hip to how unreliable traditional media is. You’re asking some very basic yet astute questions, which will be answered if you take a long hard look at the Broad report, google Lausd + corruption, and visit http://www.perdaily.com. Of course that will give rise to more questions. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I will be back.
I wouldn’t send my child to LAUSD schools. I know intimately what the criminals in charge of local district 8 are capable of as i have been victimized by them for twonyears. I know they have not reported to parents when students were harmed by their teachers,ni know that parents who complain are maligned as crazy. I am begging you and all media outlets to promote a boycott of the LAUSD schools for the sake of children. Our children are vulnerable because these people will cover up abuse in a heartbeat to avoid facing civil liability. I know because I am the victim of criminal reprisals and character assassinations because I did my court mandated duty. I reported abuse and noncompliance that I can prove, but they will not even listen to me or look at the evidence much less let my witnesses speak. Every thing in my filenthat speaks to the endangerement and mistreatment of students has been ommitted. I have been held in district jail for nearly two years with nothing but the orincipal and the abusers hearsay to justify it.
The union has deliberately undermined my cas ( and many others that involve teachers being harassed and imoroperly punished fir speaking up as student advocates) I have been abused professionally, financially and emotionally. I am being intimidated and threats are used to make me surrender ( resign) are unrelenting. They cannot fire ke becaise i did nothing wrong but by the time they finsh, i will be unemployable. They think they will make me go away. But I won’t. If I lose my house, I will sleep on that district doorstep so Kr. Deasy has to step over me on his way in to work in the morning.
My career is being destroyed along with my health, but I refuse to be complicit with crimes against children and my community how can I call myself a teacher if I stand for the corruption, the mistreatment of children and the willful choice to hide these crimes from the public.? I am at the mercy of people who have none. I know the devestatin they can cause first hand.
The reason my case will not be heard is because I have witnesses and evidence that will expose the harm done to students and a conspiracy to cover up a proncipal’s pathological attackers on teachers and parents who defy him.
With the aid of Local 8 Supt. this principal has used teacher evaluations to punish good teachers who try to do what is best for students.they live in fear now because their evaluations were used illegally to intimidate them. They saw what was done to me and know it is unlikely I will ever recover. CTC refused to take my credential because no evidence the district present showed wrongdoing but when teachers are given suspensions ( I’ve been punished five times for the same transgression and now I am facing dismissal for the same thing. The accusation is completely false, but if I were guilty, it would warrant a memo in my file at most. I will happily share my evidence with anyone who cares to see it) schools are reluctant to hire them. What they don’t realize is that Lausd only imposes suspensions on whistleblowers and victim’s of administrative reprisals. Deasy’s staff goes out of its way to conceal the crimes of teachers who are unfit as a method of self- protection,
John Deasy is using the tragedy at Miramonte to continue an all out war on teachers, but he fails to acknowledge that that principal protected Mark Berdnt, who is like most predetors and cozies up to the leader for insulation. The principal ignored complaints from an angry father . He did nothing but changes the child’s class, even though the photos were a infraction because one cannot photograph students without written permission.the principal didn’t supervise the school adequately and failed to notice Berndt was scouting out kids during recess and bringing them back to his classroom to abuse. The truth is, that principal like most administrators in schools and bloated offices don’t give a damn about children.
My guess is other teachers were worried about what this man was doing but didn’t report for fear of losing their jobs after an extended ordeal in district jail with these self-important suits who believe the are above the law, which is kind of true thanks to Gove. code 826.1. This code all but permits the administrators to act outside the law with impunity. The district may face civil liability for whatever they do, but even if Lausd loses, the one s who pay is me and you.
That’s part of why Deasy isn’t conceding the truth and backs his staff no matter how corrupt or cruel they are. The public should know that LAusd is full of unnecessary, overpaid and incompetent pencil pushers who are impossible to fire without calling attention to the corruption. So when an embezzler is caushht , he gets ” promoted” to a phomy desl job. He sits at the desk on full pay until he retires. Maybe this is why theres been a 26% bump in administrative positions in the last 6 years. While 1000s of teachers are dispaced and RIFed every spring now, LAUSD croneyism affords new thugs to do district dirty work.
Deasy the dark lord is presently boasting he fired 800 teachers since he was installed in his position. Mostnofnthem were targeted and defamed because they are veteren teachers with higher paychecks.
In the meantime he rewards the real culprits. His employee relation staff broke the law by not reporting Berndt or Hernadez ro CTC. The agreements they made with these men reveal that to persuade them to not oppose their resignation , the ER unit offered to leave the credential alone, keep their records clean and give them a good recommendation. This makes those individual’s responsible for every child those perverts hurt because they could still teach.
How many creeps did they unleash in the community? Why shouldn’t they be prosecuted? It’s time to put children first and punish anyone who compromises their welfare.
This perverse policy pays perverts and punishes the teachers that report them. In soite of the parental outcry and tears of the students, Deasy took Miramonte teachers out of that school to debrief them and to make it clear they better keep their mouths shut. As long as teachers cave in, this will continue. Unlease reporters don’t spread the word LAUSD gets away with crimes against the people.
Please do something to unify the teachers and parents so they can protect children without being defamed, abused or held hostage . The district has threatened to have parents deported, and there is no way that will happen. But you can understand their concerns because the district plays dirty.
There should be a boycott, an amnesty day when teachers can document any abuse they failed to report and a local demand that the district face an audit of its practices from budget to the discipline of students and teachers. Individuals who conspired to hide the criminal behavior of employees, be they abusers or theives, must face the music. The results of the audit must be made public and indictments should be issued to serve its interest. We are tired of every well heeled criminal walking off into the sunset after heinius criminal antics while some impoverished drug dealer rots in prison for half his life because he tried to make money.
This is monumental effort that will make reforms in education viable. There are bad teacher’s, but the bad administrators protect them. UTLA just collects our dues and supports their polical interests. In fact they share tight bond from what I’ve seen.
LAUSD and UTLA are examples of organized crime that goes on right under our noses because the criminals wear suits and are well spoken . The damage they do to our community is far worse than drug dealers, car theives or even con men operating telecommunications scams. They have to go.