In This Issue:
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APPEALS COURT REVERSES VERGARA RULING (2 stories) |
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COURT
RULING IN CALIFORNIA TENURE CHALLENGE IS UNLIKELY TO DERAIL THE REFORM
MOVEMENT …or (smf’s 2¢) discourage the Times’ Editorial Board |
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FORMER L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER FINED FOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST |
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MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI COMMITS LOS ANGELES TO A GOAL OF GIVING EVERY LAUSD GRADUATE ONE FREE YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily 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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Q: Someone once asked me what I thought of Vergara.
A: “Well,” I said., “in the unlikely event of an erection lasting more
than four hours one should probably get professional medical help.”
VERGARA v. CTA was a landmark show trial in the great “Let’s take public
education out of the hands of public educators - run it through the
courts - and put it into the boardrooms of ©orporate $chool ®eformers
and Silicon Valley Edupreneurs” movement.
FRIEDRICHS v. CTA – The U.S. 9th District Court’s ruling in favor of CTA
recently affirmed by an equally divided Supreme Court was another such
public legal proceeding, accompanied by similar judicial sturm und drang
– and promoted by many-of-the-same (un)usual suspects.
Vergara was tried in a courtroom of the L.A. Superior Court by a judge
and on the steps of the courthouse by the media – recounted
nightly+breathlessly by L.A. School Report …which was founded by former
Vice President and L.A. Bureau Chief of Court TV Jamie Alter Lynton. It
may not have been reality T.V. …but it was just as real!
The lawsuit was brought and funded by an organization called Students
Matter, bankrolled by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch on behalf
of nine students. The complaint argued that current state law makes it
too much work/too time consuming/too hard to fire ineffective teachers.
Vergara was a photo opportunity for high profile attorneys,
almost-a-billionaire venture capitalists and telegenic/camera ready
plaintiffs – allegedly denied a good education by employment protections
and due-process safeguards built into the California Ed Code by evil
teachers’ unions and their subservient friends in the legislature.
It was “Bad Teacher: The Courtroom Drama”
The star witness for the plaintiffs was one Dr. John E. (‘Don’t call me
Johnny’) Deasy, superintendent of LAUSD – who swore under oath that
LAUSD was ungovernable under the teacher ‘tenure’ standards in the Ed
Code. Bad Teachers were everywhere and Dr. John’s hands were tied; he
couldn’t fire his way out of the mess!
(Semantics 411: Public school teachers don’t have ‘tenure’, which is
lifetime employment guaranteed to college+university professors.
Teachers have the protection of due process – which mandates a fair
hearing over employment issues.)
●● Another case/another story: Deasy’s own firing from LAUSD would
result from other testimony he gave, in Cruz v. CA. Deasy in Vergara
said LAUSD was ungovernable; Judge Hernandez in Cruz pretty much said
that LAUSD was ungoverned.
ROUND 1 TO THE PLAINTIFFS: Deasy and the Vergara Plaintiffs ultimately
convinced Judge Rolf M. Treu that job protections for teachers were so
harmful that they deprived students of their constitutional right to an
education.
The laws, Treu wrote in his 2014 opinion, protected a small but
significant number of “grossly ineffective” teachers and
disproportionately harmed poor and minority students. He went on to say
the tenure system resulted in educational malpractice that “shocks the
conscience.”
ROUND 2 TO THE APPELLANTS: Last Thursday the California Court of Appeals
for the Second District unanimously reversed Judge Treu and found that
the plaintiffs failed to show “that the statutes inevitably cause a
certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the
education received by other students” – the prerequisite for an equal
protection claim.
“With no proper showing of a constitutional violation, the court is
without power to strike down the challenged statutes. The court’s job is
merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional, not if
they are ‘a good idea’.”
THE THIRD AND DECIDING ROUND was always going to be in the California
State Supreme Court; the case is about the California State Constitution
and the California Supremes will be the final arbiter. Stay tuned.
In the meanwhile it is hoped that the legislature will step in and tweak
the Ed Code and perhaps add a little bit more time to the period during
which new teachers can be evaluated before they receive protected
status. Watch this space.
KUDOS TO MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI, who in his State of the City Address
Thursday said Los Angeles will commit to a goal of giving every
hardworking graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District one free
year of community college. Mayor Garcetti once asked me to
periodically advise him on education issues; I have been loath (or
perhaps dilatory) in doing so …and if Hizzoner keeps doing the right
things I’m going to uncharacteristically keep my mouth shut!
THE MOUNTAIN LION ON THE CAMPUS AT JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL on Friday
cannot go unremarked on. We live in and share a wonderful world with
all nature of things.
ON SATURDAY, in the heart of downtown; within view of city hall and
other iconic architectural buildings and works of art, Grand Park was
the spotlight for a very spectacular display of talent from all five
local school districts within LAUSD.
The LAUSD Grand Arts Festival, hosted by the Arts Education celebrated
LAUSD’s unique and diverse artistic culture. 15,000 Festival attendees
were expected to attend this free, public event. Festival goers
witnessed over 2,000 LAUSD student performers on four stages, a student
visual arts gallery, and a film festival of original student films being
sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. There were scores
of informational and interactive booths from community arts partners,
LAUSD arts schools, and higher education institutions, as well as family
activities and food trucks.
“My film and media students are ready,” says former entertainment
industry insider Aaron Lemos, current veteran master instructor of
digital media and film (and lion-lockdown survivor) at John F. Kennedy
Senior High School in Granada Hills. Mr. Lemos’ students are superstars
in their own right, heading to national competitions in late May to
maintain their championship titles. “We look forward to the Grand Arts
Festival this year to see what the other students are expressing through
digital media and film, have fun, and celebrate the young people’s
talent and artistry.”
This year’s Arts Festival will also feature some professional performers
on the festival main stage. This opportunity to connect with
professionals has schools excited. “This is the first time our choir
will be on the main stage performing,” said Dr. Iris Stevenson, longtime
chair of the music department at Crenshaw Senior High School (…and
Deasy-era ‘Teacher Jail’ inmate).
“I have taken these kids all over the world to perform, and it is so good to share our talent at home.”
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
APPEALS COURT REVERSES VERGARA RULING (2 stories)
►CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT REVERSES DECISION TO OVERTURN TEACHER TENURE RULES
By Jennifer Medina and Motoko Rich | New York Times | http://nyti.ms/23Fis48
April 14, 2016 :: Los Angeles — A California appeals court ruled on
Thursday that the state’s job protections for teachers do not deprive
poor and minority students of a quality education or violate their civil
rights — reversing a landmark lower court decision that had overturned
the state’s teacher tenure rules.
The decision put a roadblock — at least temporarily — in front of a
national movement, financed by several philanthropists and
businesspeople, to challenge entrenched protections for teachers,
championed by their unions.
Two years ago, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge struck down five
California statutes connected with the awarding of tenure, as well as
rules that govern the use of seniority to determine layoffs during
budget crises. Ruling in a case brought by a group of nine high school
students — four of whom have since graduated — the judge, Rolf Treu,
said the statutes violated the students’ rights to an equal education
under the California Constitution because they allowed poorly performing
teachers to remain indefinitely in classrooms.
In reversing the trial court’s decision, a panel of three appeals judges
wrote that if ineffective teachers are in place, the statutes
themselves were not to blame because it was school and district
administrators who “determine where teachers within a district are
assigned to teach.” The laws themselves, the judges wrote, do not
instruct districts in where to place teachers.
“The court’s job is merely to determine whether the statutes are
constitutional,” the panel wrote, “not if they are ‘a good idea.’”
Teachers unions immediately welcomed the ruling.
“I consider this a victory for teachers and a victory for students,”
said Eric C. Heins, the president of the California Teachers
Association. “What these statutes have done is, one, they bring
stability to the system, and for many students they bring stability to
their schools and to the teachers in their schools. For many kids, the
school environment is the only stable environment that many of them
have.”
Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction in
California, said the appeals court decision would allow districts to
recruit and train teachers at a time of shortages in the state.
“All of our students deserve great teachers,” Mr. Torlakson said in a
statement. “Teachers are not the problem in our schools — they are the
answer to helping students succeed on the pathway to 21st century
college and careers.”
The plaintiffs in the case, known as Vergara v. California, said they would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“The Court of Appeal’s decision mistakenly blames local school districts
for the egregious constitutional violations students are suffering each
and every day,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the lead counsel for the
plaintiffs, said in a statement. “But the mountain of evidence we put on
at trial proved — beyond any reasonable dispute — that the irrational,
arbitrary and abominable laws at issue in this case shackle school
districts and impose severe and irreparable harm on students.”
The decision came just a day after another group of parents served
notice to defendants in a lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s job
protections for teachers. A similar lawsuit is also pending in New York.
The plaintiffs in Minnesota and New York vowed to press on, with backing
from the Partnership for Educational Justice, a New York-based group
that receives financing from the foundations of Eli Broad, a Los Angeles
billionaire, and the Walton family, founders of Walmart.
Katharine Strunk, an associate professor of education at the University
of Southern California, said that while the ruling may be considered a
victory for teachers’ unions, the case had sparked a national
conversation over teacher hiring and firing.
“The judges are saying things are not right in California, that there
are drawbacks to the current system, but this is not something for the
courts to decide,” Ms. Strunk said. “I don’t think anyone believes that
these laws are the best we can do.”
After the trial court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs two years
ago, Arne Duncan, former United States secretary of education, applauded
the decision, saying he hoped it would prompt policy makers to change
tenure statutes. On Thursday, John B. King Jr., Mr. Duncan’s successor,
was not immediately available for comment.
The plaintiffs argued that because the state allows districts to grant
tenure after just two years, and because districts often spend hundreds
of thousands of dollars to remove teachers they consider low-performing,
tenure rules can lock in ineffective educators for life.
All too often, the plaintiffs argued, the worst teachers are placed in
schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students.
In its ruling, the appeals court said that “the challenged statutes do
not in any way instruct administrators regarding which teachers to
assign to which schools.”
The judges acknowledged that principals got rid of “highly ineffective
teachers” by transferring them to other schools, including schools with
many poor students.
“This phenomenon is extremely troubling and should not be allowed to
occur,” they wrote, “but it does not inevitably flow from the challenged
statutes.”
______________
►CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS VERGARA RULING
By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/1VskFes
April 14, 2016 :: A California appeals court has struck down a trial
judge’s controversial Vergara ruling that declared that several state
laws governing teacher hiring, firing and layoffs are unconstitutional.
The appeals court decision in Vergara v. the State of California and the
California Teachers Association is a victory for teachers unions in a
case that has drawn national attention. At issue were five state laws
that established layoff procedures based on seniority, laid out
dismissal procedures and awarded teachers permanent status, known as
tenure, after two years on the job.
David Welch, the driving force behind Students Matter, the organization
that filed the lawsuit on behalf of nine students, promised the decision
would be appealed to the California Supreme Court.
“I’m not going to mince words – we lost,” he wrote in an email. “This is
a sad day for every child struggling to get the quality education he or
she deserves – and is guaranteed by our state constitution.”
In his 2014 ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu
ruled that the teacher workplace laws interfered with students’
constitutional right to a quality education. The laws, Treu wrote,
protected a small but significant number of “grossly ineffective”
teachers and disproportionately harmed poor and minority students. In
his 16-page decision, Treu wrote that evidence from a two-month trial
“shocked the conscience.”
But in a strongly worded, unanimous decision, three judges of the Second
District Court of Appeal, based in Los Angeles, wrote that the
plaintiffs failed to show “that the statutes inevitably cause a certain
group of students to receive an education inferior to the education
received by other students” – the prerequisite for an equal protection
claim.
“With no proper showing of a constitutional violation, the court is
without power to strike down the challenged statutes. The court’s job is
merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional, not if
they are ‘a good idea,’” the decision states.
The judges also said that administrators are responsible for deciding
where low-performing teachers teach, but that the lawsuit attacked the
statutes, not how they may have been inequitably applied.
“Although the statutes may lead to the hiring and retention of more
ineffective teachers than a hypothetical alternative system would, the
statutes do not address the assignment of teachers; instead,
administrators – not the statutes – ultimately determine where teachers
within a district are assigned to teach,” the ruling states.
In a statement Thursday, Theodore Boutrous, lead attorney for Students
Matter, said that the appeals court got it wrong. The decision
“mistakenly blames local school districts for the egregious
constitutional violations students are suffering each and every day, but
the mountain of evidence we put on at trial proved – beyond any
reasonable dispute – that the irrational, arbitrary, and abominable laws
at issue in this case shackle school districts and impose severe and
irreparable harm on students.”
He expressed optimism that “the California Supreme Court will have the final say.”
CTA President Eric Heins celebrated the ruling as a “great day for educators, and, more importantly, for students.”
“Today’s ruling reversing Treu’s decision overwhelmingly underscores
that the laws under attack have been good for public education and good
for kids and that the plaintiffs failed to establish any violation of a
student’s constitutional rights,” he said in a statement. “Stripping
teachers of their ability to stand up for their students and robbing
school districts of the tools they need to make sound employment
decisions was a wrong-headed scheme developed by people with no
education expertise and the appellate court justices saw that.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement,
“The Appellate Court clearly recognized that Vergara was a flawed ruling
and overturned it unanimously. Now we can move forward together to
recruit, train, and support talented and dedicated educators in school
districts all across our great state.
COURT RULING IN CALIFORNIA TENURE CHALLENGE IS
UNLIKELY TO DERAIL THE REFORM MOVEMENT …or (smf’s 2¢) discourage the
Times’ Editorial Board
by Joy Resmovits , Howard Blume and Sonali Kohli | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1SdMDF9
April 16, 2015 :: An appeals court decision this week upholding
California's teacher tenure and seniority rules leaves school reform
forces at a crossroads as they press for changes across the nation.
The movement had made the Vergara case — which would have thrown out the
nation's most generous teacher employment protections — a centerpiece
in their effort to remake schools.
Despite the defeat in California, nonprofit organizations and advocacy
groups have scored victories in other states. But experts say making
inroads has become harder recently as teachers' unions have flexed their
muscle locally and nationally.
The Vergara decision came just weeks after another major victory for
teachers' unions. The U.S. Supreme Court was set to review a California
case, which could have prevented unions from collecting dues from
employees who didn't agree to become members.
Some observers believed the conservative court would rule against the
unions. But the court deadlocked 4-4 after the death of Justice Antonin
Scalia in February.
Chester Finn, a former Reagan administration education official and
senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute,
acknowledged that teachers' unions have racked up significant victories.
"The two big courtroom centered strategies for weakening teacher union
power both kind of bit the dust in the last few weeks," he said. "If I
were the head of one of the unions, I would be gloating with
satisfaction that my side prevailed and that these bad guys haven't done
any serious damage to me."
But he and others believe reform efforts can move forward from the
defeats, noting they continue to be well-funded and well-organized.
In California, backers were looking for the silver linings in the
Vergara defeat while also noting they were appealing the case to the
California Supreme Court.
"I think where the movement goes is where it's been going for the last
two years — people are suddenly paying attention to the impact of
ineffective teachers on students, about evaluation, about dismissal
policies," said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the conservative
Hoover Institution at Stanford University who testified on behalf of the
Vergara plaintiffs.
Ben Austin, an official with Students Matter, the nonprofit Silicon
Valley group sponsoring the Vergara plaintiffs, agrees: "I can remember
not that long ago when these issues were untouchable; you just couldn't
mention them without getting laughed out of the halls" of Sacramento.
Unlike in many other states, California lawmakers refused to mandate the
use of student test scores as a significant portion of a teacher's
evaluation. Traditional teacher job protections are probably the
strongest in the country: an instructor earns tenure safeguards after
two years,; the dismissal process is longer and more complex than for
other state employees, and layoffs are based primarily on seniority
rather than performance.
The Vergara lawsuit, to supporters, represented a way around the
political stronghold. They argue that it's far too difficult to remove
bad teachers and that this hurts students.
Unions and their supporters said eliminating tenure and seniority would
result in a lower-quality teaching corps and cause the profession to
attract and retain fewer talented people who have other career options.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union, hailed the Vegara ruling.
Weingarten acknowledges that the current tenure laws are problematic,
and said that the state of California should "work together" to improve
them.
"You can't fire your way to a teaching force," she said.
Reform forces scored big wins in North Carolina, which virtually
eliminated tenure. And in Wisconsin, union political funding has largely
dried up because of laws that limit the collection of membership dues.
Currently, there are two similar lawsuits that target tenure in New York
and Minnesota, and backers say those are moving forward despite
Vergara.
But the environment has been more challenging elsewhere. In New York
City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been pushing back against reforms
embraced by predecessor Michael Bloomberg.
Still, one advantage the reformers still retain is money. The movement
is backed by some of the nation's wealthiest foundations and
philanthropists, including Bloomberg and the heirs to the Walmart
fortune.
"They have a huge reservoir of money," said retired California teacher
Anthony Cody, who has become a leader of a group opposing the reformers.
"And they will keep trying to find avenues to break unions wherever
they can."
_____________
►NEW VERGARA RULING MAKES CLEAR IT'S LEGISLATURE'S JOB TO FIX LAWS PROTECTING BAD TEACHERS
by The L.A. Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/1V9oYeC
April 14, 2016 :: Not every weakness in California’s public schools is
tantamount to an assault on the state Constitution. After a problematic
lower-court ruling struck down various job protections for California
teachers, an appeals court rendered a more sensible conclusion Thursday:
the state’s current seniority and tenure laws aren’t optimal, but they
fall short of being unconstitutional.
At issue in the case of Vergara vs. California were laws that lay out a
long and tortuous procedure for teachers to appeal a firing, require
that less experienced teachers almost always be let go first when
districts carry out layoffs and give principals only 18 months to decide
whether a new teacher deserves tenure.
These laws go too far. Bad teachers are a stain on schools; parents will
go to almost any lengths to avoid the worst of them. Students lose
learning time and, perhaps worse, their interest in school under the
weakest and least motivated instructors.
The laws should be changed, but it is not the courts’ job to intervene
in every poorly crafted or outdated statute. The question was whether
these protections so harmed education — and discriminated against the
black and Latino students who often come from low-income families and
attend schools with fewer resources — that they violated constitutional
guarantees of equal treatment and a free and high-quality education.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu decided that they did,
despite evidence that truly awful teachers make up a tiny percentage
(perhaps 1% to 3%) of the overall teaching force. In addition, as the
appeals panel noted, there’s little proof that the weakest teachers are
disproportionately assigned to schools with large numbers of black and
Latino students. Even if that’s so, that problem isn’t caused by state
law, but by union contracts in each district that give more experienced
teachers first shot at job openings at other schools, instead of
assigning teachers where they’re most needed.
What happens next? Probably nothing very good. The school reform-minded
plaintiffs vow to appeal. With the pressure of a lawsuit off its neck,
the Legislature, which has been far too solicitous of the wishes of the
California Teachers Assn., is less likely to pass AB 934, a reasonable
legislative fix to the laws in question that would still protect
teachers from capricious and vindictive firings.
Worse, the battle lines between reformers and union-allied groups become
even more deeply etched. This state has real problems to work on in its
schools, especially the lack of counselors and the looming teacher
shortage. If California can’t draw more enthusiastic and well-trained
new teachers to fill openings in classrooms, education will suffer
mightily — especially for disadvantaged students. This is the big issue
that both sides should get to work on resolving.
_______
●●ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’ EDUCATION MATTERS FUNDING: Education
Matters – the Times’ self-described “education initiative to inform
parents, educators and students across California” receives funding from
a number of foundations. The California Community Foundation and United
Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family
Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the
Wasserman Foundation to support this effort. Under terms of the grants,
The Times retains complete control over editorial content.
FORMER L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER FINED FOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST
by Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1VwwYqz
April 13, 2016 :: A former local charter school operator has agreed to
pay a $16,000 fine for misconduct that includes using public education
funds to lease her own buildings.
Under a tentative settlement with the state’s Fair Political Practices
Commission, Kendra Okonkwo acknowledges that she improperly used her
official position “to influence governmental decisions in which she had a
financial interest,” according to documents posted Monday by the state
agency.
The settlement or “stipulation” notes two instances of wrongdoing:
establishing leases for the school in two buildings that Okonkwo owned
and arranging for public funds to pay for renovations to these
structures.
The school, Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists, lost its charter to operate and closed last year.
“In this matter, Okonkwo engaged in a pattern of violations in which she
made, used or attempted to use her official position to influence
governmental decisions involving real property in which she had a
significant financial interest,” the commission said.
Okonkwo declined to comment, but the commission cited several factors
for not imposing a larger fine, including that “Okonkwo understands the
seriousness of the violations and accepts responsibility for her
actions.”
The South Los Angeles school, which opened in 2006, had been targeted by regulators for several years.
The violations cited this week by the state date from 2010 and 2011,
when Okonkwo earned a total of $223,615 as the elementary school’s
executive director. She also received about $19,000 a month in rent from
the school. She attempted to eliminate the appearance of conflict by
assigning the property to a new, separate corporation, for which her
mother signed the leases. But the arrangement did not pass legal muster,
according to the state.
The other violation pertains to Okonkwo signing contracts for
school-funded renovations worth $62,000. Okonkwo addressed this conflict
by resigning as executive director. Someone else then signed the
renovation contract.
Charters are independently operated and exempt from some rules that
govern traditional campuses. Wisdom Academy began under the jurisdiction
of the L.A. Unified School District, which refused to renew the school
after its initial five-year charter expired.
A report to the school board cited “serious concerns pertaining to
violations of conflict-of-interest laws against self-dealing on the part
of the school's executive director as well as insufficient governance
by the … board of directors.”
The L.A. Unified action did not close the school because, under state
law, a charter can appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education,
which chose to take over as the supervising agency.
But the county office eventually turned against the school as well,
revoking its charter in 2014, and leading to its shutdown at the end of
the last school year.
The county cited a report by state auditors, who concluded that
administrators may have funneled millions in state funds to Okonkwo, her
relatives and close associates.
Some of the allegations bordered on the bizarre.
Auditors questioned, for example, the use of school funds to pay a
$566,803 settlement to a former teacher who sued the organization for
wrongful termination after she was directed by Okonkwo to travel with
her to Nigeria to marry Okonkwo's brother-in-law for the purpose of
making him a United States citizen.
The organization's payment of the settlement was inappropriate because
Okonkwo was not acting within the scope of her school employment,
auditors concluded.
The school took its fight to survive all the way to the state board of education.
In papers filed with the state, Wisdom’s leaders accused auditors and
the county office of misconduct and “open hostility … against this
African American operated school,” calling it “the culmination of years
of unfair treatment and retaliation … because a few [county office]
staff members dislike our school’s founder Kendra Okonkwo, her family,
the thickness of her accent, and the color of her skin.”
State officials declined to overrule the charter revocation.
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI COMMITS LOS ANGELES TO A GOAL OF
GIVING EVERY LAUSD GRADUATE ONE FREE YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE
by City News Service+ABC7.com staff | http://bit.ly/1SKna5p
Thursday, April 14, 2016 06:59PM | LOS ANGELES (KABC) :: Mayor Eric
Garcetti said Los Angeles will commit to a goal of giving every
hardworking graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District one free
year of community college.
Delivering his annual State of the City address on Thursday, Garcetti
also said the city is looking at plans to put 260 new cops on the
street, fix more broken sidewalks and streets, fight homelessness and
create jobs for reformed ex-gang members.
He is working on the college plan, he said, in partnership with LAUSD
and the Los Angeles Community College District. He said it is similar to
a program announced by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union
last year that sought to offer two free years of community college to
U.S. students.
"Tonight Los Angeles will become the largest city in the nation to
commit ourselves to a new goal: every hardworking student who graduates
from LAUSD will receive one free year of community college," Garcetti
said.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the deal is not done yet, but when
finalized it would start in 2017. Funding would come from the community
college district, the city and a private philanthropist.
Garcetti spoke at Noribachi, an LED manufacturer in LA's Harbor City
neighborhood that relocated from New Mexico four years ago and has since
won national recognition for its rapid growth.
The mayor focused primarily on jobs, wages and businesses in his
address. He said under one city program, launched by City Attorney Mike
Feuer, the city will provide education and job training to 1,500 former
gang members.
Garcetti said he also expanded the city's program to match young people
with jobs, tripling the number from 5,000 when he took office to an
expected 15,000 this year.
He noted that the city expects to hire 5,000 new employees over the next
two years, and recruiting for those positions will target communities
in need, including ex-offenders.
He also said the city needs to step up its efforts to fight
homelessness. The city budget Garcetti will propose next week will
commit $138 million to get homeless people off the streets, a figure he
described as a "tenfold" increase in the city's investment.
Next year, he said, the city will place a comprehensive measure to fight
homelessness on the local ballot that will include a "linkage fee" on
developers who build new projects.
Garcetti has also recently been touting the 109,000 jobs that the city
has added since he took office in 2013 and the 5.8 percent unemployment
rate, about half of what it was in 2012.
The focus on job creation follows a year in which Garcetti and the City
Council adopted a measure to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to
$15 an hour by 2020, creating fears among businesses that the city could
lose jobs.
Garcetti urged Angelenos to support him in his vision for the city,
which he said includes plans not just to fix problems for the next few
years, but for an entire generation.
"If Kobe Bryant could post 60 points and lead his team to victory in his final game, come on guys we can do this," he said.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
STUDENT BOARD MEMBER LEON POPA WEIGHS IN ON HIS EXPERIENCE AS SEARCH FOR SUCCESSOR BEGINS | LAUSD Daily
http://bit.ly/1r4MKfF
THIS SCHOOL IS OPENING THE FIRST GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOM IN LOS ANGELES UNIFIED - LA Times
http://lat.ms/1W8ddnN
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
All Tuesday April 19, 2016:
• BUDGET, FACILITIES AND AUDIT COMMITTEE - - 10:00 A.M.
• EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PARENT ENGAGEMENT Committee - 2:00 p.m. – [Rescheduled from 4/5/16]
• SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL CLIMATE COMMITTEE -- 4:00 P.M.
*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:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state
legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom.
Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child -
and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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