LA SCHOOLS-We are at a crossroads at LAUSD and in public education around the country. Either there will be greater disclosure of LAUSD's longstanding incompetence and illegal activities with the requisite changes being implemented to stop them or it will be more of the same.
The hardest thing to change is LAUSD's entrenched bureaucracy that has yet to be subjected to an independent audit of their policies and financial practices. This has continued because of political pressure from city, county, state, and federal government that has become more and more under corporate and foundation domination to privatize and monetize public education, which after all was John Deasy's Broad, Gates, and Walton inspired agenda.
One issue that is probably the strongest factor of no change taking place at this time- and another $395,000 a year Deasy-type being put into the job (Jackie Goldberg?)- is the insane liability that LAUSD would face toward teachers like myself, who are among the thousands who have maliciously had their professional lives destroyed based on clearly fabricated charges for the sole purpose of bringing down LAUSD's annual nut by replacing them with Teach For America types- $60,000 a year in combined salary and benefits savings in just the first year they get rid of a veteran teacher like myself.
When one thinks of the millions in liability for just the Miramonte child molestation scandal, one becomes aware that the potential liability that would be incurred for dismantling the LAUSD cabal would literally bankrupt the organization. Could the State of California and the federal government allow this to take place, since the same astronomical civil and criminal liability exists in school districts like LAUSD throughout the country?
Keep your fingers crossed for an Ah Ha moment where those in power finally realize that we will not be able to address the complex problems we now face in Los Angeles and around the country without all of our people being highly educated, which means reining in the uncontrolled corporate power that has literally bought our government at all levels.
Turning around Citizens United would be a good start.
(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected])
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CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 84
Pub: Oct 17, 2014
