While there are charter schools in many parts of the US, the Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the hot points where there’s a very active and well funded charter school movement. Supporters and foes of charter schools in the LAUSD are engaged in a big battle over the future of charter schools there. For now, it appears there will be more charter schools in LA with some very ambitious goals for innovation for same.
L.A. Unified has more charters and more charter students than any other school system, but they still account for only about 16% of enrollment. With a majority on the board, charter forces could significantly increase those numbers.
The article below from the LA Times lists complaints of those who say charter schools weaken the public schools. The points of those who would disagree and say charter schools are good for public schools are NOT listed, but that should not obscure the reality that such points do exist, and are convincing to many on both sides of the political partisan divide in US.
Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, a longtime charter school backer, was particularly active, donating about $5 million since last September to California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, which coordinated much of the pro-charter spending. Hastings is a Democrat and represents the wing of that party that is strongly pro-charter.
Other big donors to the pro-charter side were familiar names in Republican circles as well as conservative and anti-union causes. These backers have broad ideological overlap with the Trump administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Here’s the PSA viewpoint:
The clear and resounding priority should be what’s best for the student. Which too often is not necessarily what’s best for the school district entity, or what’s best for partisan crusaders with axes to grind, or what’s best for union agendas. PSA hopes that what’s best for the student becomes the driving force in innovation and change in education in our country, ASAP.
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