Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

This is the final draft of the community counterproposal to Ms. Flores Aguilar's privatization resolution.

Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

• We want schools that commit to educating every child in our communities. Special needs children, ELL/ESL, children with disciplinary problems, and others should never be excluded or let go to boost APIs. Schools should never "dump" students on other schools. We have a problem with institutions that consider certain students as "problematic." The obligation to educate every child is paramount to all things.



• We want schools to have fair and accessible entrance requirements. Institutions that would take our taxes, but impose restrictions that all but a fortunate and select few are able to meet are the antithesis of equality and justice. Pitting families against each other for school selection when they are subject to adverse socioeconomic conditions isn't choice, it's divisive and discriminatory. Lotteries and other such methods of student selection should be discouraged.



• We want schools to begin the process of desegregation now. We don't recognize the "right" of non-LAUSD schools, and non-traditional public schools to perpetuate "separate, but equal" philosophies at their schools. LAUSD should set the example by reversing its current practices of funding schools in higher income neighborhoods better than those in greater need.



• We want LAUSD to stop educating our children on academic subjects based solely on what may or may not be on exit exams. We demand that their core subjects include courses about other cultures and traditions. We want our kids learning about the different histories of the different peoples of the world.



• We want our students to be exposed to a myriad of courses in art, music, drama and other artistic endeavors that will open their minds to other forms of individual expression. In doing so, students will reach a certain level of expertise by the time they reach Jr. High and High School, allowing them to further develop their skills throughout their academic experience instead of focusing on things that will only serve to impede their progress.



• We want LAUSD to continue funding and expanding their adult school programs so that parents without an education can become more involved with their children's education.



• We want public schools to operate 100% on public money, as to avoid the inevitable biases and other conflicts of interest which come from private funding. Critical decisions on curriculum, vendor decisions, labor relations, and many other important factors are too easily compromised by unelected boards of educational institutions beholden to large benefactors. The potential of political agendas being forwarded as a condition of external funding is far too great, and our children's education shouldn't be hostage to the ideology of philanthropists of any stripe.



• While we want LAUSD to allow choice in how schools will be operated, we want this tempered with the understanding that certain institutions, by their very nature, hold an unfair advantage over community based and other organizations in terms of submitting proposals to run schools. Organizations with millions of dollars in private funding at their disposal, employing a bevy of professionals adept at writing grant proposals, and with the ability to "market" themselves in the selection process, hold such an unfair advantage.



• We want LAUSD to offer real choice to parents, by engaging them and the community with ongoing interaction over the operation of the school and its ability to serve the community.



• We want LAUSD to recognize that union jobs for parents are good for our children and communities. Rather than accepting a false dichotomy between kids and adults, we see our communities as an organic, cohesive whole. LAUSD kids with parents who have stable incomes and benefits are far more likely to achieve better grades and participate in extra-curricular activities than those with low wage non-unionized jobs. Furthermore, our communities benefit when there are a number of fairly paid workers living in them.



• We want teachers empowered by collective bargaining to have the ability to stand up to educational whims and trends which have no proven basis and practice. Political pressure from non-educators, which overlooks proven methods of pedagogy for the purpose of expediency must be avoided, and in some cases, resisted.



• We demand that LAUSD find a better way of punishing those teachers who are truly deserving of any sanction for their illicit behavior rather than keeping dedicated and effective teachers in "teacher jail" because of capricious students or parents angry over their child's scores.

Mark up history follows below.

Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD
Edits by Martin Terrones in Maroon
Edits by Robert D. Skeels in Black

• We want schools which that commit to educating every child in our communities. Special needs children, ELL/ESL, children with disciplinary problems, and others should never be excluded or later let go in order to boost APIs. Schools should never be able to "dump" students on other schools. We have a problem with institutions that consider certain students as being a problem "problematic." The obligation to educate every child is paramount to all things., especially test results.



• We want schools to have fair and accessible entrance requirements. Institutions that would take our taxes, but impose restrictions that all but a fortunate and select few are unable to meet are the antithesis of community and democracy building equality and justice. Pitting families against each other for school selection when they are subject to adverse socioeconomic conditions isn't choice, it's divisive and discriminatory. Lotteries and other such methods of student selection should only be a last resort be discouraged.



• We want schools to begin the process of desegregation again starting now. After the gains of the 1960's and 1970's, we've seen a return to segregated schools. LAUSD needs to lead in this area, especially recognizing the necessity of requiring less accountable educational institutions which fall under the board's oversight to submit plans to desegregate as well. We don't recognize the "right" of non-LAUSD schools, and non-traditional public schools to perpetuate "separate, but equal" philosophies at their schools. LAUSD should set the example by reversing its current practices of funding schools in higher income neighborhoods better than those in greater need.



• We want LAUSD to stop educating our children on academic subjects based solely on what may or may not be on exit exams. We demand that their core subjects include courses about other cultures and traditions. We want our kids learning about the different histories of the different peoples of the world.



• We want our students to be exposed to a myriad of courses in art, music, drama and other artistic endeavors that will open their minds to other forms of individual expression. In doing so, students will reach a certainly level of expertise by the time they reach Jr. High and High School, allowing them to further develop their skills throughout their academic experience instead of focusing on things that will only serve to impede their progress.



• We want LAUSD to continue funding and expanding their adult school programs so that parents without an education can become more involved with their children's education.



• We want public schools to operate 100% on public money, as to avoid the inevitable biases and other conflicts of interest which come from private funding. Critical decisions on curriculum, vendor decisions, labor relations, and many other important factors are too easily compromised by unelected boards of educational institutions beholden to large benefactors. The potential of political agendas being forwarded as a condition of external funding is far too great, and our children's education shouldn't be hostage to the ideology of philanthropists of any stripe.



• While we want LAUSD to allow choice in how schools will be operated, we want this tempered with the understanding that certain institutions, by their very nature, hold an unfair advantage over community based and other organizations in terms of submitting proposals to run schools. Organizations with millions of dollars in private funding at their disposal, employing a bevy of professional staff tasked with writing grant proposals, employing a bevy of professionals adept at writing grant proposals, and with the ability to "market" themselves in the selection process, hold such an unfair advantage. This would be detrimental to our communities and many ways, and is tantamount to selling our kids' futures to the highest bidder and lowest common denominator.



• We want LAUSD to offer real choice to parents, by engaging them and the community with ongoing interaction over the operation of the school and its ability to serve the community.



• We want LAUSD to recognize that union jobs for parents are good for our children and communities as a whole. Rather than accepting a false dichotomy between kids and adults, we see our communities as an organic, cohesive whole. LAUSD kids with parents who have stable incomes and benefits are far more likely to achieve better grades and participate in extra-curricular activities than those with low wage non-unionized jobs. Furthermore, our communities benefit when there are a number of fairly paid workers living in them. Communities don't benefit when CEOs and executives of non-traditional education institutions take the lion's share of our taxes instead of the teachers and employees at those schools.



• We want teachers empowered by collective bargaining to have the ability to stand up to educational whims and trends which have no proven basis and practice. Political pressure from non-educators, which overlooks proven methods of pedagogy for the purpose of expediency must be avoided, and in some cases, resisted.



• We demand that LAUSD find a better way of punishing those teachers who are truly deserving of any sanction for their illicit behavior rather than keeping dedicated and effective teachers in "teacher jail" because of capricious students or parents angry over their child's scores.

Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor -- A "post-racial" America?

In A "post-racial" America? Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at what the arrest of African American scholar Henry Louis Gates--and the resulting uproar when he dared to protest that he was a victim of racial profiling--says about racism in the era of Barack Obama. This excerpt is of special interest:

...It's not good enough to say that schools in African American communities do poorly because they are overcrowded and underfunded--and then in the next breath say that's that's no reason to drop out of school or get bad grades. That makes no sense because it disconnects the causes from the inevitable result.

And when you're the most powerful political figure in the Western world, it does nothing to acknowledge the poor state of public education, housing, jobs and health care, all while chastising the victims of these circumstances to try harder and do better, despite the conditions that make this impossible.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor -- A "post-racial" America?

First Draft -- Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

A fellow activist asked me to type up something along these lines that he could use to mobilize people for the 25th. The following is only a rough draft, but in the absence of anything to counterpose to LAUSD VP Flores Aguilar's resolution, it might serve as a starting point. Many activists have been clamoring for an alternative document that parents, communities, and organizations could endorse as being what we want instead.

Please feel free to add to, suggest edits, or any other criticisms felt necessary. Pass along to others who might want to participate in creating such a document. Who knows, maybe we'll have something which all our communities and organizations support, and will be able to provide to LAUSD Board Members not inclined to hand the "proverbial keys to the kingdom" to Steve Barr and his exclusive circle of wealthy white male colleagues.

Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

• We want schools which commit to educating every child in our communities. Special needs children, ELL/ESL, children with disciplinary problems, and others should never be excluded or later let go in order to boost APIs. Schools should never be able to "dump" students on other schools, we have a problem with institutions that consider certain students as being a problem. The obligation to educate every child is paramount to all things, especially test results.



• We want schools to have fair and accessible entrance requirements. Institutions that would take our taxes, but impose restrictions that all but a fortunate and select few are unable to meet are the antithesis of community and democracy building. Pitting families against each other for school selection when they are subject to adverse socioeconomic conditions isn't choice, it's divisive. Lotteries and other such methods of selection should only be a last resort.



• We want schools to begin the process of desegregation again starting now. After the gains of the 1960's and 1970's, we've seen a return to segregated schools. LAUSD needs to lead in this area, especially recognizing the necessity of requiring less accountable educational institutions which fall under the board's oversight to submit plans to desegregate as well. We don't recognize the "right" of non-LAUSD schools to perpetuate "separate, but equal" philosophies at their schools.



• We want public schools to operate 100% on public money, as to avoid the inevitable biases and other conflicts of interest which come from private funding. Critical decisions on curriculum, vendor decisions, labor relations, and many other important factors are too easily compromised by unelected boards of educational institutions beholden to large benefactors. The potential of political agendas being forwarded as a condition of external funding is far too great, and our children's education shouldn't be hostage to the ideology of philanthropists of any stripe.



• We want LAUSD to offer real choice to parents, by engaging them and the community with ongoing interaction over the operation of the school and its ability to serve the community.



• While we want LAUSD to allow choice in how schools will be operated, we want this tempered with the understanding that certain institutions, by their very nature, hold an unfair advantage over community based and other organizations in terms of submitting proposals to run schools. Organizations with millions of dollars in private funding at their disposal, employing a bevy of professional staff tasked with writing grant proposals, and with the ability to "market" themselves in the selection process, hold such an unfair advantage. This would be detrimental to our communities and many ways, and is tantamount to selling our kids' futures to the highest bidder and lowest common denominator.



• We want LAUSD to recognize union jobs for parents are good for our children and communities as a whole. Rather than accepting a false dichotomy between kids and adults, we see our committees as an organic, cohesive whole. LAUSD kids with parents who have stable incomes and benefits are far more likely to achieve than those with low wage non-unionized jobs. Furthermore, our communities benefit when there are a number of fairly paid workers living in them. Communities don't benefit when CEOs and executives of non-traditional education institutions take the lion's share of our taxes instead of the teachers and employees at those schools.



• We want teachers empowered by collective bargaining to have the ability to stand up to educational whims and trends which have no proven basis and practice. Political pressure from non-educators, which overlooks proven methods of pedagogy for the purpose of expediency must be avoided, and in some cases, resisted.

First Draft -- Community School Choice: An Alternative Way for LAUSD

Communities! NOT Corporations!

Communities! NOT Corporations!

Struggle to keep schools both public & democratic, a roundup

Good news first! Hard working NYC teachers and parents are fighting back against charters, privatization, and mayoral control. They've gone as far as occupying the very rooms billionaire Mayor Bloomberg gave to former colleagues and cronies to open yet another corporate CMO charter. Harlem Success Academy expands further into P.S. 123 in Harlem talks about the courageous and principled stand the Harlem community and teachers are taking against the forces of privatization, gentrification, and segregation!

Hands Off Our Schools! is a series of protests being held by Harlem organizations in coalition against the privatization mentioned above. Check out their incredible demands:

• the democratic control of schools by parents, students, educators, and community members


• increased funding for public schools to promote small classes and quality education

These are precisely the kind of militant actions and types of demands we need to be making here in Los Angeles. Rather than letting Alliance, Green Dot, and Brightstar dictate our futures, we need to counterpose what parents and communities really want. We're tired of astroturf groups providing cover to LAUSD board members trying to sell our kids' futures to the highest bidder and lowest common denominator.

We should increase the demands on the list. First we demand we educate every child, since most EMO/CMO/corporate charters shirk at educating special needs, ESL, and children with disciplinary problems. Second we demand we desegregate our schools, we've explored the institutional racism charters perpetuate here and here. In his recent piece against charters Black Agenda Report's Editor Bruce A. Dixon said "Charter schools undermine what is left of community."

Charter teachers win a union in Chicago! Chicago Charter Teachers Score First Win. This is very exciting and even more important that it happened in Chicago. Especially in the wake of Arne Duncan's national union busting tour. The struggle against private corporate EMOs and CMOs will be difficult, since their entire goal is to take taxpayer money, educate kids on the cheap by paying teachers and employees peanuts, and then funnel surplus funds into their executive's pockets. However, while the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times vilify teachers and argue they should settle for low pay and poor conditions, actual teachers are engaging in struggle.

Corporate CMOs like Green Dot have what can only be called "company unions," but the potential for their rank and file to organize against their highly paid executives exists as well. We've already exploded the non-profit myth, and mentioned how opulent Green Dot executives live in exclusive areas like Silver Lake, The Venice Canals, and Beverly Hills.

For all those charter cheerleaders claiming "school choice," and privatization leads to more accountability, democracy, and responsiveness to communities:

The charter operator argued that its unelected board of directors was not “responsible to public officials or to the general electorate.” [1]

Welcome the charter school reality! Their unelected boards make all their decisions, leading to less accountability, less transparency, less responsiveness, and no democracy.

Sad news. Take the racism of corporate charters, combine it with the empire's need to project corporate power overseas, and you get military charter schools -- Military charter schools promise disciplined education. Arne Duncan's CPS disaster also features a few of these poverty draft depots.

Lucia Laguna, a young educator from South Central had this to say about the article:

"As if charter schools weren't enough of a problem, try MILITARY charter schools in the most underprivileged and underserved communities."

She's absolutely right! The deep pocketed interests running charters never open these in Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Pacific Palisades, or Beverly Hills. Notice they never enforce the disgusting recruiter on campus component of NCLB on rich white campuses either.

Finally, the Secretary of Education is blackmailing states into accepting backward and reactionary measures to force more privatization and the pitting of hard working teachers against each other. We have a lot of work to do in terms of exposing these discredited ideas, and keeping them from applying systematized division in our communities. Why is it that CEOs and AIG executives get bonuses for abject failure, but all people can do is talk about merit pay for teachers?

Struggle to keep schools both public & democratic, a roundup

The Truth about Corporate CMO Charter Schools Claiming Non-Profit Status

Steve Leigh of Seattle looks at the truth behind non-profits in The non-profit scam. This illuminates how corporate CMO charter schools like Green Dot can pay their well heeled executives astronomical sums and their employees chicken scratch. Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin are living large on our backs by taking our tax dollars, and then exploiting their employees hard labor!

More nefarious still is EMO/CMO/corporate charters receive massive additional funding from privatizers with political agendas. The Waltons, Gates, Broads, and other right wing ideologues recognizing charters as a way to eliminate affirmative action, crush unions, and to advance their voucher ideas provide huge grants to charter operators like Green Dot. These very special interests expect a return on their investments.

Here's another great piece on nefarious nonprofits: Beyond The Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Love this:

Allow corporations to mask their exploitative and colonial work practices through "philanthropic" work;

Sound like Steve Barr and Marco Petruzzi's front group Parent Revolution (née LAPU) headed by Ben Austin with Broad, Gates, and the LA Chamber of Commerce backing them to the tune of millions? A little lesson for Gabe Rose, Ben Austin's protégé. Like the INCITE! website says, "the revolution will not be funded."[1] A big shout out to Green Dot's Shirley Rose for providing me with the names of her fellow staff members over the phone.

[1] The Revolution Will Not Be Funded

The Truth about Corporate CMO Charter Schools Claiming Non-Profit Status

Could LA Times' screams of servility and obsequiousness towards Green Dot jolt privatization into action?

This morning's Los Angeles Times features a column by Steve Lopez [4], which puts Howard Blume's groveling devotion to Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin's corporate CMO money making machine to shame. Aside from outright lies of omission, the inability to discern astroturf from real parent movements, and just downright indiscretion, Mr. Lopez quotes Ben Austin accusing others of "protect[ing] their own interests before those of the children." Yes that Ben Austin, whose income is more than that of 5 teachers, and whose private corporation Green Dot competes to leverage more campuses, can get away with discussing other people's interests in the Los Angeles Times without anyone questioning his own motives.

The degree to which the Los Angeles Times forwards the reactionary agenda of school privatization is astonishing. While one expect nothing less from them ideologically, could their reporters at least pretend they have a modicum of intellectual curiosity, or even a grain journalistic integrity? A reporter painting Ben Austin as concerned volunteer and his well financed astroturf groups as a grassroots parents movement is irresponsible. A reporter not mentioning that Green Dot stands to gain financially from all this is downright criminal. Shame on you.

Here is the quick note I emailed to Mr. Lopez this morning.

Mr. Lopez:

Ben Austin still works for Green Dot, albeit for its astroturf group you mentioned -- Parent Revolution (née LAPU). Could your piece be any more sycophantic?

Here's an article looking at the real Ben Austin: "Ben Austin: The Six Figure Salary Man" [1]

Did you really quote this man talking about "power structure?" The same Ben Austin who works for Rocky Delgadillo, clears a quarter million, and lives in Beverly Hills? The same Ben Austin who in addition to the hostile takeover attempts at the schools you mention in your piece is trying to take over Emerson Middle School which boasts higher APIs than 36% of Green Dot's schools? [2] The same Ben Austin who can get away with calling our hard working UTLA teachers pedophiles? [3] In your newspaper no less?

I'm sorry Mr. Lopez, but your obsequious and servile column lauding Ben Austin and his cash flush CMO seems a little too much. I know with all the facts surfacing about the Secretary of Education and his methodologies utterly failing in the Chicago School System is causing some concern amongst the self styled education reform crowd (read privatizers). But Green Dot has their own PR department, they really don't need your help. Maybe the rumors of the LA Times writers having moved to 350 South Figueroa Street [are true].

Sincerely, but with much concern

Robert D. Skeels


[1] http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2009/07/ben-austin-six-figure-salary-man-green.html
[2] http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2009/07/emerson-middle-school-outperforms-five.html
[3] http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-green-dots-ben-austin-projecting.html

[4] Could parents' screams jolt L.A. Unified into action? http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez22-2009jul22,0,5663596.column
[5] In my haste to email Mr. Lopez, I made some grammatical errors. Given the chance I would reword the one sentence to read: "I know all the facts surfacing about the Secretary of Education and his methodologies utterly failing in the Chicago School System are causing some concern amongst the self styled education reform crowd (read privatizers)." The other mistake was forgetting to end the last sentence, a bracketed correction appears above.

Could LA Times' screams of servility and obsequiousness towards Green Dot jolt privatization into action?

Progressive Reading List on Education, Privatization, and Race

These articles would be great for LAUSD Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar. Too bad she doesn't seem to read anything other than memos from 350 South Figueroa St.

Herbert Kohl - Good Stuff: An Open Letter to Arne Duncan

Obama's Public Education Policy: Privatization, Charters, Mass Firings, Neighborhood Destabilization
From Dixon's brilliant piece:

"Privatization is the goal. The targets of school privatization are not supposedly underperforming students and teachers. The target is democracy itself. Private interests are just that – private. Turning public schools over to private interests frustrates even the possibility of democracy. Charter school apologists often claim that greater parental involvement is a hallmark of their model. But to the extent that it is true at all, it's involvement of a select group of parents, and not open to those of the entire community. Charter schools undermine what is left of community."

The Selling of School Reform

The Wall Street Journal published an obsequious piece entitled "Obama's Charter Stimulus." The piece is chock full of lies about charters outperforming traditional public schools. It goes on to call the backward, reactionary, and teach to the test methodologies preferred by the Secretary of Education reforms. Small wonder the mouthpiece of business and the employing class is unequivocally pro-charter!

Progressive Reading List on Education, Privatization, and Race

What should public education look like: Radical Pedagogy or Charter Schools and Teaching to the Test?

What should public education look like: Radical Pedagogy or Charter Schools & Teaching to the Test from Alex Fu on Vimeo.

What should public education look like: Radical Pedagogy or Charter Schools and Teaching to the Test?

More corporate charter and Green Dot cheerleading at the Los Angeles Times

Sometimes it's easy to feel Howard Blume and other Los Angeles Times staffers have moved from 202 W. 1st St. to 350 South Figueroa St. This suspicion is heightened with the publishing of today's editorial Rewriting the Three Rs. When I read the piece I wondered if those Rs were Reaction, Redaction, and Robbery, since the editorial is nothing more than a fluff piece arguing against public education and for neo-liberal privatization. While there are several concepts floated in the article which we could argue with, there was one glaring one that I saw as having to be addressed. I wrote a lengthy response to the editorial, only to notice afterwards there was a 650 character limit imposed on comments. Hence the abbreviated version which immediately follows, and then initial response I wrote to the editorial.

This editorial states "Given a level playing field, UTLA's best strategy for creating union jobs at these schools would be to submit unbeatable proposals for running them," while omitting EMO/CMO/corporate charters receive massive additional funding from privatizers. The Waltons, Gates, Broads, and right wing ideologues recognizing charters as a way to eliminate affirmative action, crush unions, and to advance their voucher ideas provide huge grants to charter operators like Green Dot. Some "level playing field." The editorial then goes on to insinuate that parents, teachers, and communities would somehow be able to compete with such forces.

My original response surpassed their character limit

When this editorial states "Given a level playing field, UTLA's best strategy for creating union jobs at these schools would be to submit unbeatable proposals for running them," it's omitting a major fact about EMOs, CMOs, and corporate charters--namely they receive massive additional funding from deep pocketed right wing foundations and so called philanthropists. The Waltons, Gates, Broads, and other right wing ideologues recognizing charters as a way to eliminate affirmative action, crush unions, and to advance their voucher ideas provide astronomical amounts of cash to select charter operators. Witness corporate charter darling Green Dot, which recently received multi-million dollar grants from Eli Broad and the Gates Foundation. Some "level playing field."

Omitting this fact and calling the resolution anything other than a corporate bailout is disingenuous at best, and downright deceptive at worse. At least the article is honest enough to mention the massive advantage Barr, Petruzi, and Austin's money making "juggernaut" has over what it terms "small but visionary competitors." However, the editorial then goes on to insinuate that parents, teachers, and communities would somehow be able to compete with such forces.

The same business buzzword bingo of "competition," "innovation," "choice," and others which litter Vice President Flores Aguilar's resolution were the same rationales used to dismantle the Glass-Steagall Act. We were told competition would both reform and revolutionize the housing market. Except for Goldman Sachs and few others, we know how that turned out. There's nothing progressive about applying these concepts to education, and we can expect the same outcome.

We see the sense of urgency with which privatizers including LAUSD VP Flores Aguilar and DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee are trying to push through these reactionary and backward measures. Could this coincide with all the press pointing to evidence of hyper-inflated, exaggerated, and outright doctored figures surrounding the record of the Secretary of Education and his alleged "innovations" in Chicago Public Schools? With the truth beginning to surface about how these ideas actually work in practice, especially their tendency to exacerbate segregation, corporate sponsors of this Orwellian-named "Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD" resolution see this as an important window of opportunity that will quickly loose any public support if people were to investigate it.

I may add more to this post and add some links quite soon.

More corporate charter and Green Dot cheerleading at the Los Angeles Times

Ben Austin: The Six Figure Salary Man - Green Dot

The Los Angeles Daily News has this wonderful function where you can search the City of Los Angeles employee salaries. This is what you get when you search for Mr. Ben Austin, whose day job is with the City Attorney's Office:

CITY ATTORNEY
ASST CITY ATTORNEY
AUSTIN,BEN B
$119,031.60

Rumor has it Mr. Austin makes at least that much moonlighting as the Executive of Green Dot/Parent Revolution (née LAPU). I say rumor, since like any private corporation, Green Dot doesn't have to make such information available to the public, although ultimately, we taxpayers are the source of much of Green Dot's income. Mr. Austin is a skilled lawyer and rhetorician. A very articulate man with the ability to pose as a populist, so it's understandable why he was Green Dot's choice to run their astroturf efforts.

Just one of Ben Austin's jobs pay roughly 2.5 times the median UTLA teacher salary. Another way to view this is that we could pay five teachers the average pay scale for the price of one corporate charter astroturf executive. Listening to Howard Blume or Steve Barr discuss UTLA salaries, you'd think they were the highest paid people in the city, but on average, they make about a fifth of what Mr. Austin makes. Not that he isn't worth every penny, witness LAUSD Board Vice President Flores Aguilar introducing her Orwellian-named Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD resolution at the behest of Green Dot. These folks have serious juice, and Steve Barr is a rock star of sorts with right of center Democrats like Arne Duncan.

For a man given to railing against things for "grownups" [1], those are some very grownup salaries Ben Austin makes. In 2008 right wing libertarian Ron Kaye claimed Mr. Austin's very special arrangement was approved by the City Ethics Commission [2]. It can't hurt for parents and community members to request the details of the arrangement, and if such arrangements cover his current increased involvement with Green Dot.

Why does it matter that Ben Austin clears at least a quarter million dollars a year and lives in an exclusive gated community in Beverly Hills? Frankly, because it clearly demonstrates his class interests are completely different than those he purportedly espouses. In other words, when he gets up in front of the school board and talks about "our schools," and "our kids, our communities, and our collective futures" [1] he's using a very rhetorical our. That's because he knows nothing about our communities, schools, or children. Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin don't live in working class neighborhoods, have working class jobs, or working class concerns. Nor do any of them possess degrees in education. What they do have is a very lucrative CMO with sycophantic press and close allies in the Democratic Party's DLC and DFER, all of whom seem bent on increasing their already substantial wealth. So much for "putting kids first!"

More on this soon!

[1] http://audio3.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/qt-dir-audio.pl?Reg_Bd_Mtg/
[2] Ron Kaye "The high cost of keeping the public ignorant"
[3] As for the title of this post--yes, the allusion to the 1970's series is intentional.

Ben Austin: The Six Figure Salary Man - Green Dot

What Frank McCourt Could Teach Joel Klein and Arne Duncan

Check out What Frank McCourt Could Teach Joel Klein and Arne Duncan. We should add LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia and Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar to this list as well.

Caroline Grannan posted Frank McCourt, 1930-2009 and Frank McCourt: Listen to teachers; politicians know nothing about education.

What Frank McCourt Could Teach Joel Klein and Arne Duncan

Marches and Rallies in Solidarity with Workers Receiving No Match Letters

Demand Obama stop the rampant inforcement of I-9 and E-Verify

The workers of Overhill Farms, American Apparel, Farmer Johns and others call on all immigrant and human rights organizations and supporters to DEMAND THAT OBAMA STOP THE RAMPANT I-9 AUDITS AND E-VERIFY! that is leading to mass firings. Rally every Tuesday at Overhill Farms 2727 E. Vernon Avenue, city of Vernon.

Los Trabajadores de Overhill Farms, American Apparel, Farmer Johns y otros llaman a todas las organizaciones de Derechos Humanos y Inmigrantes y gente de apoyo DEMANDAR QUE OBAMA PARE LAS RAMPANTES I-9 AUDITS y E-VERIFY! que esta llevando a despidos masivos. Protesta cada martes 4:00 PM en Overhill Farms 2727 E. Vernon Avenue, ciudad of Vernon.

Events To Support
Solidarity with Overhill Farms workers on Tuesday!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 @ 4:00pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126840757096

March and Rally in Solidarity with Workers Receiving No Match Letters
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 @ 4:00pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117537429112

Rally in Solidarity with Workers Receiving No Match Letters
Saturday, August 1, 2009 @ 2:00pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111494397141

for more information
(323) 602-3480 or immigrationcoalition@yahoo.com

Marches and Rallies in Solidarity with Workers Receiving No Match Letters

Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"

Thanks to David Romero for sharing this with us!

Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"

Tomorrow: PAPEL Late Registrations for Summer School/Escuela de Verano

PAPEL Is still accepting late registrations to enroll students in their free Summer School program. Sunday July, 19, 2009 from noon to 4:00pm. People's Assembly for Popular Education & Liberation (PAPEL) was created by human and education rights activists, teachers and parents to educate children abandoned by LAUSD, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California and the US government, resulting from the cuts to education. To accomplish this, PAPEL created a summer school program for all LAUSD students and parents wanting to learn something new, as well as for educators to teach anything they've always wanted to teach without any academic, cultural, artistic or social censorship.

Tiene a su hija/o en casa en vez de estar participando en una escuela de verano, como otras escuelas en comunidades más ricas? Quiere que su hija/o aprenda nuevas materias jamás enseñadas en cualquier escuela o en cualquier distrito escolar en los Estados Unidos? Quiere que su hija/o tome clases donde aprendará sobre sus derechos como estudiante in/migrante en este país, al igual que clases en Cine, Actuación de Teatro/Television, Calendario Azteca, Danza Azteca, Historia de Latino America, Filosofía, Fotografía, Compositores y Poetas Revolucionarios, Historia del Movimiento Chicano, Francés, o como ser locutor/a de noticias? Quiere que su hijo/a esté en participando en un programa donde estará protegida/o de cualquier peligro que pudiera estar corriendo gastando su tiempo en la calle?

Si usted quiere que su hijo/a esté tomando clases donde aprendará sobre su cultura, historia y tradición, sin ninguna censura, con maestros dispuestos en enseñarles gratuitamente, con pasión, y en un lugar donde todos los estudiantes, a pesar de sus diferencias, son bienvenidos, favor de traer a sus hija/os a nuestro día de registración.

QUE: Registración Para Escuela de Verano

DONDE: Vista Hermosa Natural Park 100 N. Toluca Street, LA 90026

CUANDO: 19 de Julio 2009, de 12PM a 4PM

Estudiantes pueden registrarse comenzando el Lunes, de 8AM a 5PM.

Para más información sobre los cursos que pueden tomar los estudiantes, favor de comunicarse con nuestro coordinador, Martín, al correo clase@madrigalproductions.com o visite a la siguiente página de internet para una lista de clases disponibles a http://www.madrigalproductions.com

Ever wondered what it would be like to give your principal a list of subjects that interests you most, and then you decide the manner in which you would like to learn them?

Want to take classes in Documentary Filmmaking, Theater/Film Acting, how to read the Aztec Calendar, Aztec Dance, History of Latin America, Philosophy of Ethics, Human Rights, Evolutionary Anthropology, Womyn’s Studies, or a Revolutionary Poets or Composers of the Past Century course? How about the history of the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, the Chicano Walkouts or Moratorium? Want to learn French? Want to take field trips around Los Angeles to study the impact of Graffiti Art on the neighborhood? Want to be a photojournalist or a news anchor?

WHAT: PAPEL’S SUMMER SCHOOL

WHERE: Vista Hermosa Natural Park 100 N. Toluca Street, LA 90026

WHEN: Sunday, July 19, 2009, from 12PM to 4PM.

Students can also register during class 
Monday through Friday, 8AM to 5PM

Contact PAPEL Founding Member, Martin, via email at clase@madrigalproductions.com with a list of courses you wish to enroll in. To see courses offered, visit website at http://www.madrigalproductions.com

Tomorrow: PAPEL Late Registrations for Summer School/Escuela de Verano

'Outrageous' state race gap in math

The article 'Outrageous' state race gap in math examines the huge disparity in proficiency along racial lines in Illinois. We've looked at the disastrous legacy of Arne Duncan before, so this sad news isn't surprising.

Unfortunately LAUSD Board Vice President, Ms. Yolie Flores Aguilar, feels this failed model of "competition" and "innovation" is right for Los Angeles as well. The evidence is clear what this privatization model leads to, and our communities need four LAUSD members to say we don't want the Arne Duncan model (espoused by EMO/CMO charters et al) which exacerbates racial inequality in our city!

Notice also how the "'Outrageous' state race gap in math" article states "teachers [need] to make math more interesting," which has been progressive educators response to NCLB and all the other teach to the test models all along. Now, the same folks saying route learning was the way forward are beginning to see the results of their so called school reform. This is a topic we need to revisit soon and discuss more fully.

I've been discussing this article and a range of similar articles with a variety of parents, educators, and community organizers. Here's what one teacher from Santee Education Complex had to say about it:

"I think this is what you get when Charter Schools and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education and former CEO of the Chicago School System, take over your education system. Why it that the poor, people of color and the most disenfranchised are always get hit the hardest, ALWAYS get left behind and are ALWAYS forgotten?"

The Beverly Hills Barrister Ben Austin crowed at the July 14, 2009 LAUSD Board meeting that he wants to "make schools great by forcing them to compete." [1]. The staggering achievement gap in Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's former state is a direct result of applying these failed free market ideas to pedagogy. If I was more cynical, I'd say this was intentional. Especially after learning Warner Avenue Elementary, the one LAUSD school Mr. Austin calls wonderful, is 77% white. The unmitigated gall to tell us that competition works while we are reeling from the effects of a housing bubble disaster is beyond reprehensible. We were all told when banks and mortgage underwriters are forced to compete everyone wins. We're living in the aftermath of that outrageous lie. With the exception of Goldman Sachs and a few other fat cats, we all lost. We can't allow such malfeasance in our school systems.

I've brought this issue of stark racial inequality aspect of EMO/CMO/Charters up to the LAUSD Board Vice President, but haven't heard anything back from her. Here's the body of the note I sent her:

Nearly 65 years after Mendez v. Westminster, and 55 years after Brown v. Board of Education, LAUSD is considering a resolution that could all but ossify the segregation of Los Angeles public schools. Given the track record of EMOs and CMOs of creating supposedly separate but equal facilities, this will be inevitable as these institution garner more of our schools. However, we all know that separate is NEVER equal. For the life of me I can't reconcile "putting kids first" and reestablishing Jim Crow. Can you?

Vice President Flores Aguilar I implore you to read "Using "civil rights" to sell charter schools, a second look" and explain to our communities how you don't feel the apartheid system created by corporate EMOs and CMOs isn't outrageous and racist. In fact, unless you incorporate language demanding corporations like Brightstar, Alliance, and Green Dot provide detailed plans on how they will desegregate their so called public schools, then you shouldn't reintroduce your resolution.

On July 14, 2009 LAUSD Board Members Marguerite LaMotte, Steve Zimmer, Tamar Galatzan, and Nury Martinez had the courage to stand up to privatization and corporate money. Our communities need to thank them, but more importantly, we need to provide them with support and everything they need to say yes to our childrens' and communities' futures by saying NO TO Board Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar's Orwellian-named resolution "Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD" on August 25, 2009!

'Outrageous' state race gap in math

PAPEL Summer School in Full Swing

People's Assembly for Popular Education & Liberation (PAPEL) was created by human and education rights activists, teachers and parents to educate children abandoned by LAUSD, the City of Los Angeles, the State of California and the US government, resulting from the cuts to education. To accomplish this, PAPEL created a summer school program for all LAUSD students and parents wanting to learn something new, as well as for educators to teach anything they've always wanted to teach without any academic, cultural, artistic or social censorship.

Here's the full photo set

It's never too late to stop by to visit, volunteer, or donate! Vista Hermosa Natural Park is at 100 N Toluca St, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

Where LAUSD let our communities and children down by cutting all summer programs, PAPEL stepped up and created an entire curriculum. Yolie Flores Aguilar may say she's "all about the kids," but PAPEL is actually doing something for the very kids whose programs she cut!

I haven't seen any of the self appointed saviors of education like Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, Ben Austin, Yolie Flores Aguilar, or Monica Garcia volunteering to help these kids in our communities so far. Looks like their "Putting kids first is the new name of the game" is merely lip service! Just so you all know, there's no such thing as a paid activist!

PAPEL Summer School in Full Swing

Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan

We've been telling people this for months, but many were skeptical. Now the truth is beginning to surface. Mayoral control, EMOs, CMOs, school competition, and all the other so called "education innovations" are gimmickry and distractions. You can't blame our communities and teachers for systemic problems. Privatization is segregation! Let's keep our schools public, and let's desegregate them now!

USA TODAY Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan

SF Education Examiner Mainstream media discovers: Arne Duncan's boasts of Chicago success are bogus

Some older articles, but pertinent nonetheless.

Arne Duncan and the Chicago Success Story: Myth or Reality?
Why Obama is wrong about our schools
Duncan's school "reform" sham
Who will school Arne Duncan?
Teachers for CEO merit pay

Here's an excellent quote from Jesse Hagopian in from last article

"Performance pay structures in education, however, require teachers to compete for a limited pool of money. Instead of collaborating to provide the best possible education, merit pay creates disincentives for teachers to share information and teaching techniques. Thus, the main way teachers learn their craft--studying from their colleagues--is rendered useless. If you think we have high rates of teacher turnover now, wait until new teachers are seen as the competition by their more experienced co-workers, and have no one to turn to.

Bill Gates and Eli Broad are managing to thwart this basic logic by investing obscene amounts of money in the "Strong American Schools" crusade that has called for teacher pay to be tied to the culturally biased/curriculum narrowing high-stakes tests mandated by the misnamed No Child Left Behind Act. With their disciple now in Washington, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, they are attempting to remake our schools in the image of a production line, where simple input-values are used to measure the efficiency of any worker."

The disturbing thing is the millions upon millions Gates and Broad have dumped into Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin's CMO machine right here in Los Angeles. The other frightening thought is the number of private meetings that have occurred between Steve Barr and Arne Duncan.

Chicago schools report contradicts Obama and Duncan

Emerson Middle School Outperforms Five Green Dot Corporate Schools!

Why would anyone want to transform Emerson to an unaccountable corporate CMO charter when five of Green Dot’s schools have APIs far below Emerson's 701:

Animo Jackie Robinson 597
Animo Justice 569
Animo Ralph Bunche 636
Animo Watts 614
Animo Locke 2 652

Sources
http://www.examiner.com/x-356-SF-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d11-Green-Dot-revolution-targets-LA-school-that-outperforms-its-own
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/28/opinion/ed-locke28
http://www.parentrevolution.org/index.php/schools/entry/emerson_middle_school/

NO to Ben Austin's hostile takeovers!

Emerson Middle School Outperforms Five Green Dot Corporate Schools!

L.A. Unified delays bids on schools

The dark forces of Green Dot's corporate reaction delayed but not denied: L.A. Unified delays bids on schools

The hostile take over of our communities' schools by massively funded EMOs and CMOs was put off until August. While it is difficult to understand why some LAUSD board members are so determined to hand our public schools to undemocratic private corporations, we need to mobilize for the battle ahead. The wealthy interests including the Waltons, Gates, and Broads expect a return on the millions of dollars they've invested in corporations like Green Dot.

Every community and social justice group in Los Angeles needs to step up and join the struggle protect our children for these unaccountable corporations and to keep a modicum of democracy in our communities. Tell LAUSD we want our children to learn social and community values, not corporate values. Tell Yolie Flores Aguilar selling our kids' futures to the highest bidder and lowest common denominator is NOT innovation.

L.A. Unified delays bids on schools