Comments on: All your schools are belong to Villaraigosa

By: browne

browne — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:20:30 +0000

Putting social services (health, education, welfare…) in the hands of private industry is a bad idea. The point of capitalism the basis for private industry is exploitation. Corporate entities are lying bastards. At first they are decent they seem superior, but as soon as they gain control of the schools I will guarantee you that they will screw us. Poor people will be first, then the working class then up the food chain. Private industries loyalty is in profit. Look what happened yo the healthcare in the states. It wasn’t always like this.

20 years from now we will all wonder how this happened and it will be because we pretended to not notice that the lamb of private education had some big freakin teeth and we forgot to check our own history. Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, when in US history have we not gotten scewed by corporate?

By: Squirrel herder

Squirrel herder — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:01:29 +0000

Diego,
I have no doubt that your intentions are good. I wouldn’t question that; however, you do seem to be under some misinformation here.

Tenure is not a UTLA creation. It is done nation-wide to protect teachers from the capricious waves of administrators who rule like despots, conniving adolescents who want easy grades, and parents who are irresponsible and vindictive. Believe me, you can still have an incompetent teacher fired from the district and not merely shuffled around. It happens all the time. There is a procedure that must be followed.

Teachers “who are more important to the school” should be paid more? – who decides this importance? The principal sitting in the classroom? I know at my school our principal isn’t qualified to decide which lunch ladies are most effective.

You say, “The teacher unions are the biggest detriment and they are only working to keep the state of education in their schools the same. I saw too many well-qualified, respectable, engaging and effective teachers leave the LAUSD because they were no longer paid enough and sought higher pay. Let the school itself barter the salary with the teacher, not the union.”

I don’t understand where you got the idea that UTLA has power to decide salaries. This is the district’s chart based on experience and academic points. I don’t like it and UTLA doesn’t like it either.

By: satan's lawyer

satan's lawyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:38:55 +0000

I’ll comment at length later… I’m all for school reform. I just wonder if this partnership is sustainable.

When I read market-speak in the context of social services, I get wary.

Schools aren’t marketplaces. Education isn’t a product that can be sold, especially not to poor people.

Also, the UTLA seems to be embedded into this Partnership. That’s something to check out.

By: Bentrogena

Bentrogena — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:51:26 +0000

Thank you for this. As a teacher at one of the Partnership schools, Roosevelt HS, I am excited that we are at the forefront of this movement for educational justice. I couldn’t agree with you more on every point you made. When you graduate from Harvard, come back and apply for Superintendent. We could use you!