248 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 56 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing Summarizing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

LAUSD Candidate Forum: Governance

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   No comments

Carl Petersen
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Carl Petersen
Become a Fan
  (6 fans)
"I fundamentally believe that school based decision making is crucial to academic success."

- BD3 Incumbent Scott Schmerelson


(Image by LAUSD)   Details   DMCA

In prior months, the Candidate Forum has focused on specific subjects like PROP-39 co-locations and Special Education policies. This bypassed the more basic issue of how the potential candidates for the four contested LAUSD School Board seats feel the District should be governed. For the current edition of this series, the questions focused on how policies are created and then implemented.

The LAUSD covers 710 square miles, more than any other school district in the country. With traffic, it can take hours to get from one edge of the district to the other. It serves the City of Los Angeles, portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County, and several adjoining cities.

The District has 419,749 K-12 students enrolled in 784 schools. It also provides Transitional Kindergarten and Adult Education classes. Only New York City's school district has more students.

For the 2023 - 2024 school year, the LAUSD's budget is $ 14.7B. This is larger than the budget of the City of Los Angeles.

The bureaucracy needed to run a District of this size is massive. Some argue that education could be delivered more efficiently if the District was broken up. The candidates were asked:

  • Do you agree with the statement: "The bureaucracy of the LAUSD is too big to be managed effectively."?

One alternative to breaking up the District is to increase the number of Board Members. Currently, each Board Member represents over a half of a million people. Could they provide better representation if this number was reduced? The candidates were asked:

  • Should the number of Board Districts be increased beyond the existing seven?

A frequent complaint is that Board Members offload too much of their responsibilities to the unelected Superintendent. To help understand how the candidates view the relationship between the Board and the Superintendent, they were asked:

  • Would you agree with the statement: "The elected LAUSD Board is responsible for setting policy. The job of the Superintendent is to ensure that the bureaucracy follows this policy."?

Currently, the Board evaluates the Superintendent monthly during its closed-door meeting without the public knowing what criteria are being used. To find out if candidates believe that this policy should continue they were asked:

  • Do you think that the evaluation of the Superintendent's job performance is something that the school board should do in full view of the public?

To increase opportunities for the public to engage with the Board during its meetings, I proposed the "Board Meeting Accessibility to the Public" resolution. This proposal would ensure that meetings are not held during school hours so that parents, teachers, and students could participate. The candidates were asked if they would support this idea:

The candidates were asked to reply with a "Yes" or a "No." The following charts summarize their answers:


(Image by Carl J. Petersen)   Details   DMCA


(Image by Carl J. Petersen)   Details   DMCA


(Image by Carl J. Petersen)   Details   DMCA


(Image by Carl J. Petersen)   Details   DMCA

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Carl Petersen Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter Page       Linked In Page       Instagram Page

Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a " (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Make it a Headline When Trump Actually Tells the Truth

California Senate Candidate Alison Hartson on Education

Three Headlines That Got Buried Last Week

Bright Shiny Objects: Trump's Real Art is Diverting Attention

Finding Hope in Florida

If Money Continues to Talk, We're Screwed

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend