Wasserman shows bit of class with his $6 million gift.As a graduate of Beverly Hills High and UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , Casey Wasserman knows and appreciates the value of a first-rate public education. So the 31-year-old chairman and chief executive of Wasserman Media Group LLC, a sports marketing company that owns the L.A. Avengers arena football team, was making a statement with his recent $6 million donation. The recipient was not 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. , but instead Green Dot Public Schools, the non-profit organization that operates five charter high schools and is one of the leading critics of the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) . Green Dot will combine the Wasserman gift with $5 million it has already raised from grants and fund-raising events to operate six small schools around Jefferson High School Jefferson High School is the name of numerous high schools in the United States, most named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, including:
"We need a new model for fixing public education," said Wasserman, the grandson of Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman and the president and chief executive of the Wasserman Foundation. He posed for a photo with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who backs Green Dot and is pushing a plan to transfer control of the LAUSD to city officials by 2008. Steve Barr, chairman and chief executive of Green Dot, said the goal is to siphon off Jefferson's ninth grade class into Green Dot schools by offering smaller class sizes, less bureaucracy and higher pay for teachers. Green Dot is already working with parents and community groups in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. to galvanize support. "This issue of public education is killing our city," said Barr. "If we can make inroads inroads Noun, pl make inroads into to start affecting or reducing: my gambling has made great inroads into my savings inroads npl to make inroads into [+ at Jefferson, it could set an example for the rest of our city." |
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