EDITORIAL CHARTERS STALL IT'S A DARK TIME FOR EDUCATION REFORM IN THE LAUSD.CHARTER schools, once a bright hope for the future of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. , now face dark times. In March, charter champion Caprice ca·price n. 1. a. An impulsive change of mind. b. An inclination to change one's mind impulsively. c. Young lost her seat on the Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. board to Jon Lauritzen, a candidate backed by United Teachers Los Angeles. The union, as a result, effectively took control of four of the board's seven seats, and it's made no secret of its disdain for charter education. Charter schools, which are fully public but, unlike traditional public schools, have autonomy over their own administration and curriculum, are viewed as competition by education unions. No wonder the new school board has approved none of the 17 charter applications in the pipeline since taking office in July. Making matters worse, the charter movement has recently lost two key leaders. Grace Arnold, former head of the LAUSD's charter schools unit, retired in June. And last week, Ron Bauer, principal of El Camino Real High School El Camino Real High School (also known locally as "ECR" and by some more recently as "ELCO") is a public secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. in Woodland Hills, left his post to take another LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) job. Bauer had fought hard to make El Camino Real El Camino Real (Spanish for The Royal Road or The King's Highway) was the name of a series of pre-automobile highways linking the various New World colonies of Spain:
These are tough losses. The charter movement, which had flourished under the old school board, showed promise of bringing new life to the LAUSD. Many charters had found innovative ways to save money, recruit top-quality staff and improve test scores. Now the reform has apparently stalled. And so it will remain, unless the school board commits to giving charter education a chance. The kids in the LAUSD deserve that opportunity. |
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