Stephanie Carter
“We know it’s not going to be a clear path to having our own school districts out here. History has proven that obstacles pop up and you don’t know where they are coming from. . .L.A. Unified is not doing a good job of delivering public education.”
Name: Stephanie Carter
Age: 48
Home: Tarzana
Profession: Former elementary school teacher in the Lennox School District; full-time community schools activist.
Latest Accomplishment: Co-chairwoman of Finally Restoring Excellance to Education, or FREE, a group seeking to dismantle the Los Angeles Unified School District. The group moved a few steps closer toward its goal this year. County education officials gave FREE the go-ahead to begin collecting voter signatures on a petition to hold a referendum on breaking up the district. And the State Board of Education brushed aside proposed rules that would have made it harder for communities served the the LAUSD to form new school districts. FREE hopes to have its measure on the April 1999 ballot.
Goals for 1998: FREE needs to gather at least 20,000 signatures from Valley residents who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election on its petitions to hold a vote on the issue. If the signatures are delivered to the county education office, then FREE will prepare for hearings on the proposal by county and state education officials.
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