Open letter to Mr. Ben Austin regarding LAUSD proposed rule changes

To his credit he posted the following on the 21st: Ben Austin "I actually happen to agree with Robert Skeels on this particular issue. the more accountability, transparency, and opportunity for parent and community input, the better."

From:     Robert D. Skeels <rdsathene@sbcglobal.net>
Subject:  Open letter to Mr. Ben Austin regarding LAUSD proposed rule changes
Date:     September 21, 2009 13:12:02 PDT
To:       Ben Austin <baustin@parentsunion.org>, info@parentsunion.org

Mr. Austin:

On August 25, 2009 you and your organization claimed a victory that was in your words "historic." You've stated "we need true accountability" in our school district on numerous occasions. You're on the record that LAPU/Parent Revolution supposedly both stands for and has won transparency, accountability, and parent involvement in LAUSD.

Shockingly, your closest allies on the LAUSD Board, President Monica Garcia and Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar -- at the behest of your close friend Mayor Villaraigosa -- have suddenly proposed taking all that back from you tomorrow. That's right, all of the things you claim to have garnered via "grassroots organizing" could vanish instantly with the passage of "Proposed Changes to Rules of the Board of Education."

The proposed rule changes will eliminate LAUSD committees, limit the number of board meetings, and ALL BUT ELIMINATE PUBLIC COMMENT, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, AND DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. They want to take away the only opportunities for parents and community to speak directly to the board at the very podium you yourself have spoken from many times Mr. Austin! If the board votes to implement these rules, then LAUSD becomes just as opaque, undemocratic, top down, private, and unaccountable as the boards of typical CMOs and EMOs.

Mr. Austin, here's a golden opportunity to prove your rhetoric is sincere in both practice and principle. Will you take a public stand, preferably on behalf of your organizations LAPU and the so called "Parent Revolution," against the proffered "Proposed Changes to Rules of the Board of Education?"

I'll let you know where I stand. I stand with my community in demanding a transparent LAUSD fully committed to democratic principles with complete participation of all stakeholders. I stand firmly with LAUSD Board Member Marguerite P. LaMotte's principled statement "We are giving away our schools and now we want to get rid of transparency... so we can do whatever we want in the dark of night."

So where do you stand Mr. Austin?

Do you and your organization really stand for accountability, choice, transparency, and parent involvement in LAUSD? Will you allow the board to snatch away the victory you've claimed against what you've termed the "Beaudry bureaucracy?" Are you and your constituents against the "Proposed Changes to Rules of the Board of Education?"

Anything less than a simple yes or no answer would be disingenuous. In fact, not taking a stand against the "Proposed Changes to Rules of the Board of Education" is tantamount to supporting it.


Advocating Public Education


Robert D. Skeels


CC: grose@parentsunion.org, superintendent@lausd.net, mayor@lacity.org, councilmember.reyes@lacity.org, marguerite.lamotte@lausd.net, jason.song@latimes.com, howard.blume@latimes.com, mariel.garza@dailynews.com, verline.moore@lausd.net, lannie.foster@lausd.net, vernail.skaggs@lausd.net, paubla.gutierrez@lausd.net, sara.bailey@lausd.net, richard.vladovic@lausd.net, nury.martinez@lausd.net, steve.zimmer@lausd.net, tamar.galatzan@lausd.net
BCC: Dozens of education and community activists, social justice advocates, and members of organized labor.
ENC: Copy of the current "Proposed Changes to Rules of the Board of Education."