LAUSD’s Failure Calls for Breakup

I was floored when I read about L.A. Unified School District board President Caprice Young’s proposal to break up the LAUSD (Feb. 7). I believe that she is absolutely correct. As a parent of a freshman and a senior at John Marshall High Magnet School, I have found there is a complete disconnect between the LAUSD administration, middle management and the community of students and parents that it serves. Not at the school sites, but downtown.

It takes years to make small improvements at school sites, and it is always due to LAUSD bureaucracy. The money does not filter down to the schools properly or proportionately, and that’s why the bathrooms are unclean, the grounds are unkempt, the classes are too full, the testing has been low and the schools have not been built. The 11 subdistricts continue the farce that LAUSD is more accessible to communities, when it’s just another middle layer eating away at our dwindling budget. These problems will continue until monumental changes occur. It has to begin somewhere. I say bring it on.

Mary Rodriguez

Los Angeles

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Isn’t Young’s call to break up the Los Angeles school district an admission of failure? If so, why is she running for school board again if she failed to get anything done during the last four years? When I cast votes for leaders, I expect them to put their full energy into the job, not to quit and admit failure.

I have never and will never cast a vote for a quitter!

Mary Smiley

Chatsworth