The Insurmountable Crisis of Public Education In Los Angeles
There is no other honest and robust conversation that needs to be held in this city as the one dealing with public education. Anything we collectively want to achieve revolves around as to how well we educate our children. Our self-governed political system is not sustainable if our schools fail to educate our children. Yes, public education is the foundation or the thread that weaves together that social fabric that sustains our democracy. And, economic vitality heavily relies on an educated work-force, indeed progress in itself is not attainable if our children are not well-educated.
Civic leaders, the business community, teachers, parents, and other civic groups have to elevate the conversation about the challenges facing our public education. And, said conversation has to go beyond charter schools vs. traditional schools.
Millions of dollars are spent in school board races in these proxy wars between political action committees from charter schools folks and the teachers union. Teachers union screams privatization and charter school folks use the same buzzwords: “Accountability” and “Choice.” Debates in these school board races must structure a more productive conversation. And it should go beyond the usual attacks between these two groups.
In this new globalized economic order, the ability to read, write, and think critically are vital in order for our kids to compete with Indian and Chinese kids. 60% to 70% of LAUSD’s students get a high school diploma that they can’t read. Now, what happens to the ones who dropped out. We are living a whole generation behind.
Los Angeles Unified School District-LAUSD has an annual budget of almost $8 billion dollars, with 2,400 administrators, 26, 000 teachers and 31,000 other employees. This truly is a massive educational institution. The district is responsible to educate approximately 521,890 students. 75% of them are Latinos and about 10% are African-Americans. The number of enrolled students has been going down in the last years. The district has been losing students by the hour due to the proliferation of charter schools and the profound lack of affordable housing for the poor parents whose children attend this district.
The problems at LAUSD are profound and have been this way for at least the last decade. Success in graduating more students have proved tenuous. Yes, “low expectations from our children in our public schools” should be the civil rights issue of our time. It is a tremendous disservice to communities of color to allow Latino and Back students to graduates with Ds. It is a false sense of accomplishment that doesn’t help anybody. And there are those intractable fiscal problems with both pensions and unfunded health benefits as well as staff and faculty demanding salaries increases.
In Los Angeles, everyone who cares for the education of our children agrees that the structural and systemic problems facing LAUSD can be unmanageable. But, we passionately disagree on how to fix these problems. The conversation basically driving the debate about public education is divided into two prominent groups: One that believes that charter schools are the panacea for all these problems. The other group is the United Teachers Union, Los Angeles-UTLA is the one pushing back here in Los Angeles. The teachers union rejects the charter schools model. They see it as a corporate business model and inadequate for educating children. And, charter schools blatantly blame the teachers union for rejecting even the most incremental change in public education. These charter schools folks have also successfully convinced wealthy individuals and powerful foundations that the best way to improve public education is by replacing all public schools with charter schools.
Here is the 800-pound gorilla in the room that we all overlook when we talk about the problems with education: Poverty. If we look deeper into the problems facing public education, we will soon find out that the root of the problem facing public education is poverty. Yes, poverty and the profound lack of good jobs force parents to work from eighty to one hundred hours a week to support their families. The immense social cost that takes place when these parents hardly ever see their children let alone helping them guide with homework. An honest conversation about fixing our schools can start neither by attacking teachers nor by talking about the evils of privatization of our public education. Those who do just that truly don’t want to explore real solutions.
But what are Charter schools? These schools started proliferating back in the early 1990s they are publicly funded and independently run. The authorizations for setting up charter schools vary from state to state, some states delegate this responsibility to local school boards. “Today, they enroll about 3.1 million students in 43 states.” Here in Los Angeles at LAUSD, there are approximate “224 independent charters plus 23 affiliated ones for a total of 277 charter schools. The majority of them located in the poorest school districts of Los Angeles. LA Unified has more charter schools than any other school district in the nation.” LA Unified District also has unaffiliated charters which are run by the district. These charter schools don’t enjoy all the freedom that regular charter schools do. There is a “total of 154,000 students from both regular and unaffiliated charter schools within LAUSD.” Almost a $500 million dollar privately funded plan is in the works in Los Angeles to open more charter schools. Teachers’ union sees this as an aggressive plan to utterly dismantled LAUSD and replace it with all these unregulated schools.
In the summer of 2016, the civil rights organization NAACP concerned about issues of accountability and transparency publicly called for a “nationwide moratorium on charter school expansion.” This organization pointed out that charter schools get public funding and yet they resist accountability. Charter schools are being alleged pick and choose the best students hence they tend to do better on tests. There is also alleged that students who have been enrolled in these schools and they start falling behind these are immediately sent back to the traditional schools. They have no programs for these students, critics point out. Students who have a network of support don’t need charter schools they can easily succeed in any school.
Most teachers at some point have heard that famous line from Bernard Shaw’s play Man and Superman: “He who can does; he who cannot, teaches.” This line has been used to put teachers down or to demonize them. Although what those who blame teachers might not know is that the most creative and greatest minds this world has produced were teachers. Yes, from Aristotle to Galileo to Mozart to Sir Isaac Newton, they all were teachers. Even some of the civil rights leaders who were the force behind the social changes that took place in this country in 1950 and 1960s were teachers.
Yes, we must have some sort of basic benchmarks to evaluate teachers. But, using test scores to solely punish teacher is counterproductive. These scores should be used as a reference to make improvements in our educational system. We have an educational system in place right now where the teachers have become the workers and students are the product. Experts argue that students should be “the workers and the knowledge should be the product.” The responsibility for the creation of knowledge should be given to the students. Since the process will give students the tools needed to deal with real problems in life. Yes, no more “test and punish” but rather “assess and improve.”
Those behind charter schools must somehow understand that these schools can’t be the elixir for every ill. And the teachers at traditional schools also need to embrace change and try to engage parents and other stakeholders in our communities. The narrative about the problems facing public education is being controlled by the folks behind these schools. “Accountability,” “choice,” are strategically chosen words that have resonated well with those who want to see our kids do well in schools. Yes, there must be room for charter schools in our public education but I think that even the most optimistic cheerleader for charter schools is skeptical about replacing all traditional schools in the second-largest school district in the nation with charter schools.
Yes, nobody will seriously deny the problems facing our public school systems. The problems are broad and deep. And they require serious competent leaders to solve them. The problems should be taken on in a collective effort across this country. Public schools shouldn’t be abandoned. Public schools have a rich history of helping everyone. Yes like any other profession, there are some teachers who really don’t belong in the classroom and they should be removed.
Finally, Austin Beutner, the former Los Angeles Times’ CEO has been officially given the job for the next three years to run LAUSD. The newly appointed superintendent co-chaired a task force that examined the serious problems facing the district. Although charter school supporters view Austin Beutner as an allied. But, many argue that he is a deep thinker who knows this city well; a creative problem solver; and he will surely structure solutions for the best interest of students.
Support and excitement have come from the business community and leaders in the philanthropic community such as Robert Ross, president, and CEO from the California Endowment as well as from prominent Latina Leader in this city, Antonia Hernandez, President and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “Austin is a proven leader, who is committed to expanding access to opportunities for underserved communities of color, particularly children.” Hernandez wrote. Even journalists and filmmakers, Antonio Vargas released a statement, “Austin has the vision to create pathways to opportunity for all communities, which is what L.A. Unified needs now.” I searched for any public statement from leaders from the public education community and couldn’t find one. They are probably figuring out how it could possibly be that only two board members voted against Mr. Beutner as the vote was 5-2. Board members, Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna were the ones who voted against Beutner.
Thank you for reading
Chamba Sanchez
5/1/2018
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Sources Used.
Blume, Howard and Joy Resmovits. “LAUSD chief Michelle King won’t return from medical leave for cancer plans to retire.” Los Angeles Times 5 Jan. 2018. Web.
Blume. Howard. “Showdown looming between L.A. Unified and charter schools.” Los Angeles Times 2 Nov. 2018. Web. 20th April 2018.
Frontline. “The Education of Michelle Rhee” 2013. WGBH-PBS. Web. 10, Nov. 2017.
Merrow, John. “Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education.” New York: New Press, 2017. Print.
Meyerson, Harold. “Why do billionaires care so much about charter schools?” Los Angeles Times 26 May 2017. Web. 26 April 2018.
Pechthalt, Joshua. “The public deserves transparency and accountability from charter schools.” Daily Breeze 3 Nov. 2017. Web. April 19, 2018.
Sanchez, Claudio. “Just What IS A Charter School, Anyway? NPR-How Learning Happens 1st, March 2017. Web. 11 Nov. 2017.
Schneider, Jack. “Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality.” Boston: Harvard University Press, 2017. Print.
Stevens, Matt. “California Today: The Latino Education Crisis.” New York Times 8 Nov. 2017. Web.
Stokes, Kyle. “Sources: LAUSD board expected to name Austin Beutner as next superintendent.” 89.3 KPCC 1st, May 2017. Web. 1st May 2017.
Szymanski, Mike. “New Data: Where are the charter schools in LAUSD?. LA School Report 5th Oct. 2017. Web. 10 Nov. 2017.
Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Geoffrey Canada, Bill Strickland, Michelle Rhee, Randi Weingarten. Paramount, 2010. Film.
Picture Credit: I took this picture at a high school where I am currently teaching a class
The problems are not the schools, it’s the people who are running the schools. The charter schools are a form of business, but maybe not as powerful than other districts. I do believe that some charter schools are excluded from this, but every single business has it’s bad days. This brings competition with LAUSD, but at this point everything in the city is converting to personal businesses it’s no longer a union. Rich people are running most businesses , the value of money is Advanced and will only continue to dominate the people. It’s seen more commonly, people are individuals who look out for themselves, and this is why the school system has gone down the drain. Due to this being a rich state it contains a hierarchy of people structured based on financial statements. The lower class has a weaker school board, I think things should be balanced out starting from the richest LAUSD to the lower class LAUSD.
Education is becoming a problem reflecting upon what people call race. African American and Latino based people are the people struggling the most due to parents working full time shifts In order to survive sustaining shelter and food. This leaves many children without supervision after school or they simply hang out with the wrong set of crowd. Education is hope for a better future, yet it is not easy as it is for other people to succeed. I hope this new candidate Austin makes the school systems for successful in order to have a successful generation.
I struggle with this one because my exposure to Public Schools is very limited. I don’t have a lot of answers when it comes to the public school system, but I have concerns definitely about vouchers. My opinion Hasn’t changed much from what it was in class although the crisis seems more dire after reading this. I feel schools are already not properly funded with reading stories like this and hearing about teachers having to buy paper and pencils for their class. It just makes me wonder if they take more money out for children that receive vouchers that will cause there to be even more inequity in funding of schools. I believe will cause a domino effect and exacerbate the problem I feel like there needs to be a better investment in not just teachers but in curriculum and parental involvement. It’s shocking to think that for most children this will be their first real interaction with government and I think that that’s going to affect their perception about government not caring about them in the future. My Hope Is that greater minds than mine can figure this out because the trend is downward not upward in the success of America’s schools Especially LAUSD.
I do believe a big part of the issue in our school is the people running our schools but I also believe that parents hold a bigger part. Somehow parents need to be more involve in their children’s life and make sure that their kids are doing their part in school as well as checking that teachers and the school is doing their part to help educate their kids. This is a situation where parents need to work with the people in charge to help the education become better than what it is now. It is embarrassing that they are allowing kids that have low grades graduate. Its like saying its fine for them to be failures. Another issue is that people like teachers, and people involve with education become use to their jobs, or even become discouraged with the results kids are giving ; so they start to not care about their jobs and most importantly the students. It is true what you said some teachers need to be removed from their positions. We need to help students with their education because they are the future of this Country . We need to become better and gain knowledge so we could be able to appoint the correct people in our government and any other area that could benefit us and our country .
Yes, we have evaluations for teachers but parents are usually left out in the accountability formula. I also have to say that some parents would like to invest time in their kids they just can’t. They have to work all these crazy weekly hours to be able to pay their rents.
I agree the current education system in Los Angeles and in the nation is not sustainable. During Political Science class we learned that of the 550,00 students from K through 12 in the LAUSD system that about 250,000 of them will not get a high school diploma there’s something fundamentally wrong with the education system.
Getting rid of public schools will not be the answer that they will just increase competition and with Charter Schools being on the rise or being the main option/goal, something must be done. I also believe that just pumping money into public schools is not the answer we need to completely change focus. Changing strategy and finding the solution to the problem in the school system is key but the entire political system itself is a problem a lot of kids are not interested in learning because they were never taught. These kids are doing drugs involved in gangs. The parents must focus on their children but then again, the parents must work just to put food on the table work 9 to 5 to pay rent its more than one issue. The political system is broken and doesn’t allow them to succeed in school and society.
As said in the blog the main problem really is poverty and lack of Education lack of interest in education if parents are working just to pay the rent they don’t have time to teach their children when they enter the first grade the basics of reading and writing and the basics of how to just to be a moral human being isn’t taught. The kids are off doing whatever they want in the parents can’t control them throwing money into education will not solve this problem there are broken families broken marriages broken system people living in poverty political system makes it, so people have a tough time to survive in this nation.
As someone who attended both an LAUSD public school and a charter school, my experience in both was very similar. For elementary school and middle school I attended an LAUSD public school. In these schools, especially in middle school if a student fell behind in their classes they’d be required to attend after school programs in which they’d receive help for whatever subject it was that they needed help. In addition, the teachers would also stay after school to help any student that was struggling with a certain subject. For high school I attended a charter school. In this school, from 9th -12th grade I felt that all students including myself were encouraged to do good in all our classes. Here it was the same after school programs were offered in order to help students who were struggling with a certain subject. In addition to this teachers would often, if not most of the time stay after school in order to help students have a better understanding of what was taught in class that day. The only thing that I really saw a difference in was that during my years in high school all parents including mine were more involved wether it was parent conference, school events, etc. Also while in some of the events they are often encouraged to become a part of they’re child’s education. This was often shown by the child’s grades, if his or her final grade was a “D” that child would have to retake that class.
Education is a very important thing, because by education we can be assured that our kids will grow smart and ready for today’s world. IF there is any problem with education government and social leader have to make actions at the first place because if we don’t chance anything now, it will be just worst. Problem with today’s education is not as simply as we think. We need to reform the system form the bottom. As i think if it would be more promotion for teachers in tradition school and if we would have a reward program which would benefit those teachers who show the best results in the district we will have a more competitive field. We are lacking of competition and as well as that teachers does not want to have changes. According to professor Chamba teachers do not want to have changes and they sometimes run their office for many decades, this is not acceptable. Because if you know for sure that you won’t be fired that makes you lazy. Teachers has to know that their paycheck have a correlation with knowledge of students. And students should know that if they do well, their teacher would be benefited by that. So both student and a teacher will have a motivation. I think the word motivation is a very important in school system. We have to rewards teachers as well as students. I was amazed by information that 200.000 out of 550.000 students are not completing through high school. It is enormous amount of students. They are our hope for bright future. I think public schools should be present as well as charter school because if we have only one approach for education it wont be good, monopolization of education will lead to collapse. Even if we don’t have a perfect education system we at least need to preserve what we have and improve it with out closing public or traditional school. I also wanted to say that i think those 12.000$ that government spent for education every years should be uses as parents want, of course in the field of education not for personal needs. Overall reaction to this blog is sadness because I’m afraid that if we don’t reform the system right now, we will have a big outcome in the future!
I believe that poverty does play a big role when it comes to a child receiving a good education. I believe some parents lack envolment when it comes to seeing how their child is doing in class but not necessarily because they don’t care , but because they don’t have time. There are parents that work two jobs just so that their child can go to school, and have an opportunity to learn. However, this doesn’t exclude them from sharing the responsibility of their child learning. They are accountable to see how their child is doing in class, they are responsible to meet up with the teacher, and hold meeting with their teacher. They should be helping them with their homework, or at least making sure to see if their child is receiving help. However, a teacher is also responsible for the education of their students. It’s a shame that in these times, if you receive a letter “D” you still pass the class. It should also be the in the interest of the teacher, to see if their students are doing well in the class, or encourage them to get help if needed. To give a student to attain knowledge, because it’s the future. Both parents and teacher have the responsibility to give a student or child hope in having a successful life. But there also need to be support with proper fund, because now a days to a get education it can be expensive.
I also agree with the fact that our public school system is unsustainable. Young people are this country’s future and as less and less students are attending school and even less are graduating, it is obvious that this is a downward falling trend which is bound to end in disaster. I also believe that not every problem requires a business model of a solution. I think the one and only reason charter schools might score better is because better students choose and are chosen to attend these schools. They also need to maintain good grades in order to not be kicked out. this model makes it obvious that charter schools will inevitably score better on tests.
The core problem doesn’t lie with schools themselves, as some might agree. The whole system needs to be changed, starting with local administration and anyone who is in charge of the education system of Los Angeles, because clearly these people aren’t doing a great job. As you mentioned, some teachers may not belong in the classroom but this problem alone is a tiny issue compared to the issues that plague the system as a whole. I really hope for our city’s future that Austin Beutner will do what everyone hopes he will and turn the education system in LA around. The school district desperately needs a good leader who will actively take charge of issues and tackle them one by one until the system has been revamped enough to be sustainable in properly educating the citizens of our future.
After reading this article it is clear to say that education should be for everyone. However, the city of Los Angeles has fallen behind in keeping track of its students. As the article says, many students have fallen behind in school due to the lack of communication in their homes or the poverty they might be facing. Many students don’t graduate from high school because they must help their parents at home. Others have simply lost interest and decide it is better to get a job. Los Angeles has to remember that those are the children that matter the most. It is important to this city to keep children aligned within the LAUSD system; it is the best way to educate. Charter schools are keeping track of the test scores and want excellent performing students. At what cost? They will drop those who fall behind or will not accept those they believe are not eligible to be there. If LAUSD crumbles down and Charter schools take over Los Angeles, even more students will be forgotten. If they keep the test scores as a way to bring students in how will those students with an average grade, but great potential to grow and hunger to achieve knowledge get an education? What will happen to the students whose parents can’t keep track of their education, but work their backs off so that their kids can have a better life? The Los Angeles Unified School District has to be supported in order to gain back those students that were lost. They need to create pathways that will keep new students in line. There are great teachers out there and there are always students out there in the need of learning.
I agree with Chamba Sanchez assessment of LACCD inefficient educational structure. Sanchez outlines the debate between “Charter” versus “Traditional” educational platforms. Where as Charter schools receive public, and private funding whereas Traditional schools do not or are heavily regulated as so. Treading lightly we encounter how nearly two hundred thousand LACCD students drop out, and pursue careers in entry level positions. Out of five hundred and fifty thousand enrolled, that’s nearly fifty percent of all Los Angeles youth not receiving proper care and support to achieve academic success. Opposed to Charter schools having a one hundred percent graduation rate, yet it’s not a sound business model. There aren’t any regulators to hold these institutions “Accountable” when it comes to their unorthodox teaching methods. Overall the debate is broken down to simple terms, there’s a poor educational grade on LACCD, Charter schools are fighting to become the superior alternate. Regardless of which side you’re on, its clear more has to be done about our schools.