LAUSD Parent Crystal Smith posted this incredible expose of John "let them eat iPads" Deasy and right-wing-meddling-millionaire Casey Wasserman's grand deception of Los Angeles families and educators on the Repairs not iPads facebook page. Reprinted here with permission.
The teachers, administrators, parents, but especially the students deserve better
By Crystal Smith
Does anyone remember Donor's Choose? Deasy partnered with Wasserman Foundation and gave out 600,000 cards worth $15 each to every parent, and then Starbucks joined in and gave out cards for $10 each. Wow. Our hero. So teachers scrambled to post their projects (not easy at all), using their free time to do it. So our schools are broken, damaged and in disrepair and he looks like this huge hero, right? What they failed to say (on purpose) is that only $2 million dollars was going to be funded through the Donor's Choose cards, and then only $2 million through the Starbucks cards (which could only be received with a purchase and you had to ask for them). If everyone "had" redeemed all the cards (they were given out before winter break, not everyone got them, I had a note that by January 9th we were told to get all our projects posted, but January 30th all funds were exhausted and these gift certificates didn't expire until Feb 12th), LAUSD Teachers thought they would have been able to get $11.85 million dollars in projects, they barely got $4 million funded. Only about a 1/3 of our projects were funded, some schools got barely anything.
Mr. Deasy, I'm still angry about that backhanded "gift card" situation. You know why? The teachers at our school weren't greedy, they wanted rugs for the kids to read on, they wanted easels for the kids to see the books, and a set of books, they wanted basic supplies! YOU TOOK THAT AWAY from them. SUPPLIES!! So, I stopped trusting you THEN. Now, you want us to have some sort of faith that you can pull us out of this ipad mess? No, I don't have faith. You know what really angers me? In order for a teacher to "unlock" the ability to request an ipad with Donor's Choose, they had to have 3 projects funded. Teachers were scrambling and begging to get their projects funded, so A TEACHER COULD GET AN IPAD. One, just 1 ipad. NOW you want to give an ipad to EVERY student and you STILL refuse to meet their basic needs of a safe school free of termites.
Are you trying to make up for the Donor's Choose mess? Then repair our schools, just make the repairs. Nobody should have to worry that these broken buildings are holding walkways and hanging over our kids heads. What happens after the next earthquake? When structures fail? Measure Q was suppose to fix the buildings from earthquake damage. Are you ready for the lawsuits that will be brought against the school district?
I hope people post every single rotted piece of wood and expose every repair that needs to be made, maybe then you will realize that the "press" you are receiving right now is rightfully earned.
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