Downsizing LAUSD

After much consideration I have give up! L.A. needs to be dismantled! Only then will accountability become transparent, and will we the teachers have a focus on instruction for our clients. At this point I am glad that charters are shaking up the district. On a lighter note where will the charters send the challenging students if all public schools were to become charters. It is common for charter schools to boot troubled students out back into public schools. This my dear leaves the charters with a pool of good students.

Gus @ 10:12 PM PST, Feb 18, 2008

Jeff, You can be mad at Korenstein and Plotkin all you want. Declining enrollment has to above all with housing prices in California and especially Los Angeles. Over sixty percent of school districts and almost all in LA County are losing enrollmnent. In neighborhoods where prices are high, less kids. Bell High, Manual Arts and Fremont are not seeing what sights like Uni High, Fairfax and the west valley are seeing. And while charters have an additional effect, you dont see that enrollment in the Uni area. LA Schools are still 3x the size of the state average.

David Tokofsky @ 6:24 AM PST, Feb 16, 2008

Ms. Korenstein's comments are consistent with the shocking board I watched publicly break the law on 29 March 2007 when, in spite of repeated public advising about the law from the Board's own lawyers, they voted to break the law and deny Green Dot Public Schools the opportunity to open 8 charter schools in the Watts area. She has shown repeatedly that what she and LAUSD's like-minded old guard really care about is the taxpayer money that funds their petty empire, regardless of whether students might be better served under an alternative system less to their liking.

Bruce William Smith @ 9:17 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008

I could not agree more with Herb. I teach and I am very proud of my practices, but I can't follow what the district wants sometimes. I have to attend training sessions on how to implement conceptual lessons into our instructional programs, or how we should collaborate to develop a lesson to study student work in order to measure how effective our practice has been. I want to be a team player but not at the expense of my students.

Stan @ 9:08 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008

In that same article quoted about Korenstein', Scott Plotkin tops her: "It's Charter schools that are the interlopers. They landed from outer space, and now want our space." This is hilariously idiotic and shows how the School Board and TEachers Union claim "ownership" of the schools. Parents pay the taxes, and those in the "best" areas who pay the most, get the least, with all the resources and new buildings going into "poor" areas -- even when those areas have declining enrollment because the poor are a;sp moving out of LAUSD.. Charters offer salvation and Plotkin and Korenstein are the jailers.

jeff @ 8:02 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008

YES Julie Korenstein's comments in this paper just a couple of days ago, about how LAUSD shouldn't follow the law --decreed 8 years ago -- to allow Charter Schools to use public school facilities, show how nasty and self-serving she and her colleagues have been. She said Charter Schools should continue to use warehouses and storefronts, which their parents pay for on top of subsidizing schools because if Charters can do better in these shabby surroundings, it proves LAUSD needs the schools more. NO, it proves LAUSD and UTLA are too greedy and inept We should kick out the whole rotten system.

jill @ 7:46 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008

YES YES YES and YES!!! The corrupt crew who has been in charge of LAUSD so far has to go and so do their horrible network of schools. They're dangerous despite spending millions of dollars per school cleaning them up (your story about Markham Middle in Watts a few days ago a case in point), let alone educate. Yet ALL LAUSD building money goes into poor areas, the Westside hasn't had a school built in decades or even maintenance on the few elem. schools that still "allow" locals to get in -- the middle and h.schools are all bused-in kids or in mixed/dangerous areas.

jane @ 7:35 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008

One thing rarely discussed is the bind that the LAUSD places teachers in by encouraging certain teaching methods and discouraging others. As long as we're going to mandate that every student take algebra, we need to use lots of drill and practice to bring them up to grade level. However, the district "line" is that teachers should be using projects, discovery learning, and group learning. This does not overcome the deficits that extremely low-functioning students bring to algebra. Then the teachers are blamed and pulled out for retraining.

Herb @ 4:58 PM PST, Feb 15, 2008