Hertzberg’s Misguided Call to Split the LAUSD
Re “A Drive to Split School District,” Dec. 8: Mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg has lost my vote. I’m a fourth-grade teacher and think it is the height of effrontery for a candidate to talk about breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District and then admit that he has no idea how to do that. To dump on the district without real solutions is just pandering for votes.
The LAUSD doesn’t have to be broken up; that’s not the problem. Without real reform, we would just have several districts with the same problems. The issue is the way the district is structured. The educational bureaucracy is huge, and the curriculum is overblown. Until schools have control over their decisions and budgets, and until teachers have sufficient time and training to really teach, multiplying the current district is just adding to the problem, not solving it. The district needs to be decentralized, the bureaucracy pared way down and all resources pushed into classrooms and school sites.
Phil Brimble
Los Angeles
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The Los Angeles City Council does not control the schools; the L.A. Unified school board does. Why then do I keep seeing ads for Hertzberg claiming he will improve schools? Maybe Hertzberg is running for the wrong office, or maybe he just doesn’t respect voters enough to be truthful about what a mayor can and cannot accomplish. Either way, he will not gain my vote.
Christopher Koontz
Los Angeles
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