Press Release: LET KIDS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS RUN ANIMO JUSTICE. CLOSE GREEN DOT!

Press Release.
March 23, 2010
By Leonard James Martin
Candidate for the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010

LET KIDS, PARENTS AND TEACHERS RUN ANIMO JUSTICE. CLOSE GREEN DOT!
Leonard J. Martin, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction

This week's announcement that the corporate giant in the charter school business will close a Los Angeles high school reveals the folly of running public schools like a business. Yet that is exactly what charter advocates, including the leaders of Green Dot, insist is the key to successfully "operating" public schools in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

Like an employer closing a branch plant to save money, Green Dot decided to close one of its many "subsidiaries" in L.A. That decision was taken without input from those most affected by the closure: students, teachers and parents. Instead, the self-appointed, unelected corporate board at Green Dot made that decision behind closed doors.

How often we see the same ruthless approach in the business world as one large corporation after another shuts its doors, putting great numbers of employees out of work without adequate notice or an opportunity to offer input, all for the sake of the bottom line.

Kids are not a commodity. Green Dot has not learned that but it is true. Billionaire-financed "educational" corporations should not be allowed to interrupt a child's schooling. When Animo Justice closes at the end of the academic year, kids in grades 9-11 will be set adrift. Was this part of the "contract" that parents and kids signed when they entered the school?

There is a simple solution. The governing board that granted Green Dot the right to organize this school - the Los Angeles Unified School District - should add Animo Justice to the list of 30 schools that have already been turned over to others to run, primarily to teachers. In this case, give the school to those most involved in the education process at Animo - the kids, their parents and their teachers.

Short of that, the school board should refuse to approve the closing of the school and should force Green Dot to continue operating it, even at a loss. But that would punish the kids more than it would punish Green dot.

Leonard J. Martin
for the State of California, Superintendent of Public Instruction 2010

Leonardj.martin@gmail.com

P.O. Box 802888
Santa Clarita, California 91380-2888