In This Issue:
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THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION |
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FOR DR. KING, FREEDOM AND EDUCATION WERE INTERTWINED |
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LAUSD
MULLS WAYS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT+L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO DISCUSS ENDING
ENROLLMENT BOUNDARIES+LAUSD PROPOSAL WOULD GET RID OF ATTENDANCE
BOUNDARIES |
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"RIGHTS OF YOUTH...IMPERILED...VIOLATED" |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major,
ladies and gentlemen – if you want to say I was a drum major, say that I
was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I
was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things
will not matter.’
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, February 4, 1968 | http://bit.ly/4nxh9
“Almost always,” Dr. King tells us, “the creative dedicated minority
has made the world better”. And education, he wrote, which stops with
efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society.
______________
WHEN I WAS IN THE THIRD GRADE I had that teacher that really made a
difference: Mrs. Richardson at Greenfield Elementary School in
Greenfield Mo. Every afternoon she read to us from a classic of
children’s literature. We left our desks arranged in their neat rows and
gathered around her a circle on the floor to hear The Boxcar Children.
And Tom Sawyer. The Secret Garden. The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come.
The common thread of these books and a great deal of the juvenile canon
is that they are about orphans – not necessarily the dark Victorian
orphanhood of Dickens - but a liberating orphanhood of A World Without
Adults.
It’s a dream as good as any other. We learned that fiction is something
that never really happened; not something that isn’t true.
There is a study cited below [THE LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF TEACHERS -
Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood] that proves
something that doesn’t really need proving – unless you are one of those
compulsive about being data driven: Really Good Teachers Make a Really
Big Difference.
The Harvard/Columbia study stretches the obvious so far as to assign
measurable and predictive future earnings power to the benefit of a
youngster having a top 5% teacher – overloading business school metrics
in measuring educational outcomes – calculating the incalculable and
stretching the credulity of statistical analysis (and credulity) itself.
This is finance capitalism to make Bain blush.
Obviously 100% of the kids aren’t going to get the 5% of the best
teachers all the time …but every child should get the chance. Once or
twice or three times in their K-12 experience every student deserves
that one teacher who makes all the difference. The value-added ®eformers
miss the message and the metaphor of the MasterCard moment: Truly Good
Teaching and Excellent Teachers are Priceless. And no matter how much
(or how little) we pay them the return on investment made is infinite.
______________
ON TUESDAY SUPERINTENDENT DEASY LAID OUT SOME CRITICAL TRUTHS. About
dire fiscal straits. About the lack of commitment and investment and
vision from Sacramento. He spoke of a skeleton crew at the helm of the
District, about the danger – past tense and future - of promises made
when keeping the promise is deferred. He spoke of the “wholesale
elimination of everything we have been fighting for” and warned of “the
inevitable unknown” – he pleaded for “at least what we have and no
worse.”
“Quite simply we’ve reached the point where there is not a single
solitary thing in this budget that can and should be reduced. I actually
believe, at this point, that the rights of youth are completely
imperiled, if not outright violated”
I hope the Board of Ed and the powers-that-be/wherever-they-are heard him.
I hope the board listened better than they listened to the twenty or
more public speakers who took the day it takes to present their three
minutes of public comment – on subjects ranging from the seemingly
arbitrary removal of their school’s principal, the seemingly arbitrary
withdrawal of Title One funding from some of the best and most deserving
schools in the District and saving Early Childhood Ed.
My friend Bill Ring simply asked for “a better way to have a conversation”.
A student said that “No one has heard us.”
When the public comments and they are unheard, unresponded-to and their
questions unanswered by their elected representatives democracy and
children are not served. “Thank you …your three minutes are up!” is not
dialogue!
This weekend is a three day teachable moment. Parents and school staff
and community members and students – and the board of education – need
to recall other people in other times who were not served. At lunch
counters and on the buses of Montgomery, Alabama. At registrars of
voters and waiting rooms and public accommodations. In employment as
trash collectors in Memphis. In the schools of East LA in 1968.
“If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and
indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have
said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a
patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I
beg God to forgive me.” - M.L. King, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail,
16 April 1963
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse College Student Paper, The Maroon Tiger | http://bit.ly/4ASz3U (January-February 1947): http://bit.ly/x0l4iK
As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the
school, I too often find that most college men have a misconception of
the purpose of education. Most of the "brethren" think that education
should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that
they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that
education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an
end.
It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the
life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture.
Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with
increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective
thinking. To think incisively and to think for one's self is very
difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions
of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often
wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great
majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and
scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the
pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths.
To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the
chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh
evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal,
and the facts from the fiction.
The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think
intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with
efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous
criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
The late Eugene Talmadge, in my opinion, possessed one of the better
minds of Georgia, or even America. Moreover, he wore the Phi Beta Kappa
key. By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and
intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the
types of men we call educated?
We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus
character--that is the goal of true education. The complete education
gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon
which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to
one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the
accumulated experience of social living.
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of
close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with
immoral acts.
Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!
FOR DR. KING, FREEDOM AND EDUCATION WERE INTERTWINED
By Rachel F. Moran | New York Times+WNYC SchoolBook: News, data and conversation about schools in New York City (blog) | http://nyti.ms/xUhCgW
● When WNYC holds its annual M.L.K. Day event on Sunday at the Brooklyn
Museum, one of the panelists will be Rachel Moran, dean of the U.C.L.A.
School of Law. For SchoolBook she addressed Dr. King’s legacy and how he
viewed Brown v. Board of Education — and responds to the theme of the
WNYC event, “In MLK’s Footsteps: Education as a Civil Right.”
Jan. 13, 2012, 11:17 a.m. :: In 1954, when the United States Supreme
Court unanimously declared in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal,” civil rights activists
around the nation hailed the pronouncement as a great victory.
In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. described Brown as “a legal and
sociological death blow to an evil that had occupied the throne of
American life for several decades.”
He predicted that: “With the coming of this great decision we could
gradually see the old order of segregation and discrimination passing
away, and the new order of freedom and justice coming into being.”
In praising Brown, Dr. King emphasized the ways in which a principle of
non-discrimination would not only promote equality but also advance
liberty by enabling African Americans to achieve economic independence
and political voice.
Brown itself seemed to support this view. The Court described access to
education as a prerequisite to democratic participation and personal
accomplishment.
Indeed, the justices went so far as to observe that “it is doubtful that
any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied
the opportunity of an education.”
As this passage from Brown suggests, equality and liberty are
intertwined like two strands of a double helix that makes up our
nation’s DNA — at least when it comes to preserving individual rights.
Equality standing alone cannot tell us what the critical elements of
opportunity are — the freedoms that make our flourishing possible.
Without a strong sense of how liberty shapes our personhood and dignity,
equality can mean little more than a race to the bottom for the
unfortunate and disadvantaged.
Conversely, freedom by itself cannot impose the limits that grow from
respect for the rights of others. Without regard for norms of fair play,
liberty can become a license to overreach the helpless and the poor.
Taken together, however, equality of opportunity will give us the
freedom to pursue our dreams, while freedom will allow us to grow as
individuals who can lay claim to equal dignity and respect.
Leaders like Dr. King never forgot the essential relationship between
freedom and equality. When he told the nation that “I have a dream,” it
was not simply a dream in which people of all races would be judged by
the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It
also was a dream in which freedom would ring “from every village and
hamlet, from every state and city” so that all people would have the
chance to live out our country’s creed, vote for just and fair political
representation, and work to achieve a better future for themselves and
their children.
If freedom did not ring, equality would be a hollow promise.
Unfortunately, since the Court handed down its landmark decision in
Brown, the justices have unraveled the strands of liberty and equality
that together constitute our democratic identity.
In 1973, in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez,
students and parents challenged a public school financing system that
led to wide disparities in per-pupil expenditures based on the wealth or
poverty of particular districts.
In rejecting this challenge, the Court concluded that there is no fundamental right to equal educational opportunity.
The justices no longer seemed to view meaningful access to schooling as foundational to our prospects as citizens and workers.
Because Rodriguez treated the provision of an adequate education as
primarily a political question, the Court acquiesced in the entrenchment
of marked inequality for vulnerable communities with limited resources
and influence.
Shorn of any connection to the right to education, equality of
opportunity has become an increasingly formalistic and effete doctrine
in the ensuing years.
The Court now views any official consideration of race as inherently
suspect, and so it insists on colorblind policies even in the face of
glaring racial inequalities.
In school desegregation cases, the justices traditionally have made an
exception for race-conscious remedies that counteract the effects of
past discrimination.
As federal district courts across the country find that vestiges of
prior wrongs have been eradicated and lift busing orders, public schools
often revert to being racially identifiable.
Some school boards have tried to reduce racial isolation by adopting
voluntary integration plans, but the Court has rejected race-conscious
student assignments as an impermissible form of discrimination.
The upshot of this jurisprudential shift is that school boards can
largely disregard disparities that produce unequal educational access,
but cannot attend to the harms of racially identifiable schools without
risking a constitutional veto.
Dr. King observed that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. Therefore, no American can afford to be apathetic about the
problem of racial justice.”
Today we must remember that a Constitution that treats liberty and
equality as divisible does more than betray children in schools isolated
by race and poverty. This act of doctrinal legerdemain also does a
grave disservice to the rest of us.
In the end, none of us is truly free if some of us can be relegated to
dead end lives, and none of us is truly equal if some of us can be left
behind before our lives have truly begun.
● Rachel F. Moran is dean and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor
of Law at U.C.L.A. School of Law, and has written and lectured
extensively on issues of equity and access in education.
LAUSD MULLS WAYS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT+L.A. SCHOOL
BOARD TO DISCUSS ENDING ENROLLMENT BOUNDARIES+LAUSD PROPOSAL WOULD GET
RID OF ATTENDANCE BOUNDARIES
► LA SCHOOLS MULL WAYS TO BOOST DISTRICT ENROLLMENT
By Associated Press from the San Francisco Chronicle | http://bit.ly/yfuZGd
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | 16:30 PST Los Angeles, CA (AP) :: The Los
Angeles Unified school board wants to stem the decade-long decline in
enrollment that has cost the district hundreds of millions over dollars
in per pupil funding.
The school board on Tuesday discussed moves such as developing a
strategy to increase enrollment, which currently stands at 665,000 as
compared to a peak of 747,000 in 2002.
School board member Steve Zimmer says the district should expand special
programs such as foreign language immersion and international
baccalaureate that have waiting lists as a way to attract pupils.
Other board members suggest the district adopt an open enrollment policy
to allow parents to enroll their children at schools anywhere in the
district, not just in their neighborhood.
The proposals are slated for action at next week's board meeting.
► LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD TO DISCUSS ENDING ENROLLMENT BOUNDARIES
By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC |http://bit.ly/zDrzm0
Mercer 20360
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty ImagesA student on his way to school walks past
a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school bus.>
6:00 a.m. | L.A. Unified’s school board is set to start discussion
Tuesday on a motion that could do away with enrollment boundaries for
L.A. Unified neighborhood schools.
The motion’s author, L.A. Unified Board President Monica Garcia, would
like to see L.A. Unified parents send their children to the district
school of their choice.
"Wouldn’t that be an amazing kind of opportunity?" said Garcia. "LAUSD
is moving on reducing the dropout rate and increasing the graduation
rate. [...] We have to find ways to increase our own capacity as a
district."
Garcia says magnet schools, charters and other district public schools
give parents tons of choices, but she’d like to see the limitations of
those choices removed.
► AN LAUSD PROPOSAL WOULD GET RID OF ATTENDANCE BOUNDARIES
BY Eric Sondheimer / Varsity Times Insider – LA Times reporters blog about high school sports across the Southland | http://lat.ms/xu1H1o
January 10, 2012 | 7:52 am :: Let's hear it for the wonderful people
who run the Los Angeles Unified School District. They haven't exactly
elicited great confidence in the past, and now there's a proposal, to be
debated on Tuesday, to erase attendance boundaries in an attempt to
lure back students attending private and charter schools.
Before anyone starts thinking that this would be a great way to elude
athletic rules, understand that all transfers would continue to be
subject to CIF transfer rules, according to Barbara Fiege, the City
Section commissioner of athletics.
Of course, that could change too.
It will be interesting to see what really comes out of the proposal and
which schools and coaches can figure out how to take advantage if it is
implemented. Remember, the passage of the state's open-enrollment law in
the 1990s made a huge impact that's still being felt today in athletics
-- and that wasn't supposed to be about athletics.
"RIGHTS OF YOUTH...IMPERILED...VIOLATED"
Themes in the News for the week of Jan. 9-13, 2012 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/wA1w7i
01-13-2012 :: Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his proposed budget proposal
last week, and Californians are responding with large doses of shock,
fear, anger and a pinch of wary optimism. The budget, if it can be
realized, would provide some relief, but conditions to support a
positive scenario are uncertain.
Brown’s proposal assumes a $9.2 billion deficit, a much smaller deficit
than last year’s $26 billion. Also, he plans to increase funding by $8.3
billion to more than $94 billion. Schools would receive more funding
compared to this year’s budget—$52.5 billion (San Francisco Chronicle).
Brown also laid out a set of ideas that would distribute school funds
based on need, providing districts serving a large proportion of
low-income students with almost $3,000 more per student (Thoughts on
Public Education).
However, all these hopes are pegged to a November initiative to raise
taxes. Brown plans on the measure raising $6.9 billion, but the
Legislative Analyst’s Office recently cautioned that the amount could be
less than $5 billion (Los Angeles Times). It is this gamble and what
hangs in the balance—$4.8 billion in cuts from public schools—that have
many questioning the governor’s tactics.
This uncertain funding climate is familiar to schools, and the
uncertainty is enormously inefficient and costly. Uncertainty affects
the school climate and diminishes the effective use of funds—current and
future funds—beyond the actual size of the budget. To act responsibly,
school personnel and communities must act as if the tax measure will
fail and there will be no new money.
How do schools prepare, in the midst of the current crisis, for new
devastation if the measure doesn’t pass? How damaging to students? How
many days of instruction to cut? How crowded to make the classrooms? How
many teachers and staff will districts send notices to that layoffs are
in the works? Many are concerned, even if the measure does pass,
schools will still be forced to cut (Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee).
The "best case" scenario presented by Brown will leave California
schools with less funding than 2007, and far less than schools in almost
every other state. New funding would not be a lasting solution to
California’s dysfunctional school funding system—just a temporary
slowing of the constant flow of cuts.
The proposed tax measure will keep California schools on life support;
not passing it will pull the plug. Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasy
told the school board that there could be thousands of layoffs and
months cut out of the school year in order to close a $543 million gap.
“Quite simply we’ve reached the point where there is not a single
solitary thing in this budget that can and should be reduced. I actually
believe, at this point, that the rights of youth are completely
imperiled, if not outright violated…” he said (KPCC).
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
BROWN BUDGET PLAN WOULD RAISE THE BAR FOR CAL GRANT
FINANCIAL AID: Part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan would raise t... http://bit.ly /ziXtGe
CALIFORNIA LEADS NATION IN UNACCREDITED SCHOOLS, AND ENFORCEMENT IS LAX: A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organizati... http://bit.ly/xIefZC
CLEVELAND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS GAIN DUE TO A FLUKE: By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist, Los Angeles Daily News | http... http://bit.ly/yShGaO
Quality Counts: CALIFORNIA STUDENT SPENDING NEAR BOTTOM: By some other measures, middle of the pack: By Kathryn ... http://bit.ly/w1Apl8
STATE FAILING TO FULLY FUND BASIC EDUCATION, SAYS WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT + Editorial and Op-ed rebuttal: Court... http://bit.ly/zgAoC6
INGLEWOOD UNIFIED: ONLY SOUTHLAND DISTRICT ON VERGE OF STATE TAKEOVER + smf's 2¢ …and more: By Adolfo Guzman-Lop... http://bit.ly/xfn5Ak
NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL ALLOWING PRIVATE GROUPS TO RUN FAILING PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Christie Signs Bill Allowi... http://bit.ly/AmBI5r
ADELANTO SCHOOL IS TARGETED IN SECOND TEST OF ‘PARENT TRIGGER’ LAW: Parents file petitions seeking to convert De... http://bit.ly/zy8hCU
NYC MAYOR BLOOMBERG TAKES ON TEACHERS' UNION IN SCHOOL PLANS: By DAVID W. CHEN and ANNA M. PHILLIPS – New York T... http://bit.ly/x0CMlP
WARMING UP TO AN NCLB WAIVER: Fed comes calling; State Board softens opposition: By Kathryn Baron & John Fenster... http://bit.ly/wTc0QF
PROWN’S PROP 98 CONTORTION: Shifting debt expense to Prop 98 would be cut to schools: By John Fensterwald - Educ... http://bit.ly/xPpnho
NEW STATE ARCHITECT TO DISCUSS SEISMIC REFORMS: Corey G. Johnson California watch | http://bit.ly/AAikT8 http://bit.ly/yzthOa
LAUSD’S PARCEL TAX PROPOSAL COULD BE A HARD SELL TO VOTERS IN TOUGH TIMES: By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer Daily ... http://bit.ly/yIqIeH
LAAAC BUILDING PROGRAM INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL REPORT: report of the Panel dated Jan 4, 2012 smf: My concerns... http://bit.ly/wc58SD
LACK OF LEADERSHIP CITED IN L.A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE REBUILDING: Panel finds many instances of management breakdow... http://bit.ly/ys1AJo
BROAD FOUNDATION POURS ALMOST $90 MILLION INTO EDUCATION, smf pours on 2¢: By Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC |http:/... http://bit.ly/xbWjeP
LAUSD PROPOSALS AIM TO BOOST ENROLLMENT, ERASE ATTENDANCE BOUNDARIES, RAISE CASH: Episode: AirTalk with Larry ... http://bit.ly/z9Jvec
LA study: POOR STUDENTS STUCK WITH WORST TEACHERS: By Christina Hoag, Associated Press/USA Today news | Visalia ... http://bit.ly/yMfCyO
2nd study: THE LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF TEACHERS - Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood + smf's 2¢... http://bit.ly/zVwP4w
WHITHER ART THOU, HOWARD BLUME?: a rant by smf for 4LAKidsNews
bit.ly/yAInw3
DANIEL PEARL MAGNET STUDENTS CELEBRATE PRIVATE DONATION: By Richard Horgan MediaBistro.com | Journalism 101,... http://bit.ly/w0Yslv
Ravitch: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND AND THE DAMAGE DONE: By Diane Ravitch/Bridging Differences/Ed Week – reblogged by ... http://bit.ly/ykPpzT
LAUSD CHIEF DEASY PROPOSES PARCEL TAX TO STEM BUDGET DEFICIT: By Barbara Jones Daily News Staff Writer/from the ... http://bit.ly/wiEd1g
CALIFORNIA REVENUE FALLS BELOW GOVERNOR’S PROJECTIONS: By JUDY LIN, Associated Press from San Francisco Chronicl... http://bit.ly/x1FY55
Retweet DrDeasy: Projected budget deficit of $543 mil violates the rights of youth. Not a single solitary thing ... http://bit.ly/ynrxxx
FINES, COURT TIME ELIMINATED FOR TARDY, ABSENT STUDENTS: by Rick Rojas, LA Times/LA Now | lat.ms/zr0fzn ... http://bit.ly/AbMPsT
DARK DAYS FOR STATE’S EDUCATION BUDGET: Governor Brown hopes to convince Californians to tax themselves to suppo... http://bit.ly/zfdZAk
LA SCHOOLS MULL WAYS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT+L.A. SCHOOL BOARD TO DISCUSS ENDING ENROLLMENT BOUNDARIES+LAUSD PROPOSA... http://bit.ly/zyoZYm
LAUSD FACES NEARLY $600 MILLION BUDGET SHORTFALL: Associated Press, from KPCC | http://bit.ly/wmU5Py
LAO: BROWN TAX PLAN MAY OVERSTATE REVENUE: Brown tax hike plan may bring in less than estimated The governor... http://bit.ly/ydNlXe
California State PTA: ARE YOU READY TO HELP RESTORE FUNDING TO OUR SCHOOLS?: e-mail alert/Legislative Update fro... http://bit.ly/wElfoR
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.
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