Sor Juana was a great female intellectual, who was born outside of Mexico City. She also was a fierce advocate for the education of women in the late 1600s. In the spirit of Sor Juana’s work, I would like to bring you this commentary from an anonymous contributor (writing as a modern Sor Juana) who has something timely to say about the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Villaraigosa machine.
Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest school district in the nation, following New York. After the big Villaraigosa Partnership bubble burst, key school board members were put in place so that he could one day take over the school system. One of these key new members is current LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia, former Chief of Staff to Councilman Jose Huizar, who prior to taking the Mayor’s council seat for District 14, was also, LAUSD School Board President.
If you know Garcia, you know she is a woman who by no means ever needs a microphone. But recent events may require Garcia to simply go mute.
The rash and impromptu decision to fire Superintendent David Brewer has had hard line consequences. Brewer leaves with only having served 2 of the 4 years on his contract and a severance package of $517k. (Who needs that large of a severance package in the public sector?!)
Brewer, who never really understood the complexity of Los Angeles inner city schools and demographic conditions, has failed dramatically to improve the education environment of more than 650,000 students, 73% of which are Latino. Like most African-American men of the civil rights era, Brewer did what Barack Obama avoided all throughout his campaign. Brewer brought out the race card.
In an interview with the KTLA morning show, Brewer said:
“I’m trying to remove racism out of the discussion because racism can be very debilitating and can cause some serious problems here in the community. Whether it’s racism or not, I’m not going to call it that.”
Doesn’t Brewer understand that simply saying the word “racism” is in itself bringing up racism? The 62 yr. old Navy Admiral belongs to the 1960s Jeremiah Wrights of the world. He’s a black man in America who can’t be held accountable based on his work or lack thereof, but simply believes he is judged by the color of his skin.
Out of the 5,000 plus school board members in the State of California, only 421 of those are Latino, it’s a tough case to make for racism. Brewer, came to a city with a Mayor who wanted to take over the school district, and was hired by people no longer on the board. Brewer has not been a victim of racism, but a victim of the Villaraigosa political machine, who has placed 4 new school board members in office: Monica Garcia, Yolie Flores Aguilar, Marlene Canter, Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic. The same political machine responsible for Fabian Nuñez, Kevin de Leon, Jose Huizar and John Perez.
And we all know what happened to Fabian Nuñez.
Sadly, while the California budget is in the red and LAUSD has no money, to fire Brewer “without cause” at a cost of 1/2 a million in tax dollars, will require Monica Garcia to figure out her next strategic move. Positioning herself as the 1st Latina to make in onto LA’s City Council could at this point, be a far stretch. She hasn’t made many allies within the school district and with the Mayor’s approval ratings dwindling, she may need to reconsider her own allegiance. Meanwhile, Latino and African American youth continue to be economically and educationally disenfranchised.
16 responses so far ↓
1 jammer // Dec 18, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Ok, so maybe the “Machine” is incapable of pulling LAUSD together, at least give them credit for trying. Brewer was a mistake from day one and we lived with his ineptness for 2 years. 1/2 a mil was a bargain to get him out. The LAUSD is so broke that a team of superheros couldn fix it at this point. It is going to take years of well thought out planning and a big infusion of $$$ to begin the task of fixing this disaster. In the end, Tonio and his “machine” may not fix the problem but at least they are trying. Who else has stepped up and addressed the problem? Where are these leaders? AND, when one steps up, how long before someone picks up the first stone?
2 Anna // Dec 18, 2008 at 3:42 pm
The only reason the school board appointed Brewer was to block the Mayor’s reforms. They don’t want to improve the school system. They want a small number of quality charter schools in certain districts and to hell with everybody else. Brewer was incompetent,–which was the whole point–and no matter what he says, I doubt anybody will argue to keep him.
As for blaming the Mayor for the schools, that’s ridiculous. Every year the state of California cuts billions of dollars from the K-12 budget. Many of those students are minorities, so they couldn’t care less. Did you read the paper today? They’re about to cut 9 billion more.
Arnold has taken a wrecking ball to our schools and nobody calls him on it.
3 Michaelr // Dec 18, 2008 at 3:55 pm
The Villaraigosa machine? Villaraigosa is never in town long enough to grease the wheels of his so-called machine, and the light blubs in his head have been burnt out for many years now. Overwhelmed is more accurate word to describe Villaraigosa’s cerebral state in his term as Mayor. In making all those promises that he never intended to fulfill in the first place that whole Manana mentality has arisen to bite him in his ass time and time again. In observing the political careers of Antonio Villaraigosa, Fabian Nunez, and Jose Huizar, all career politicians with very little political accomplishment between them, this incompetent administration within the LAUSD is going to get worse as long as they continue to involve themselves in the process of trying to fix it. The “Manana” mentality guarantees it, especially since graft is the primary occupation of these men, and idealism and public service has never entered their thinking in response to this giant problem.
4 DfD // Dec 18, 2008 at 7:59 pm
The LAUSD needs to disontinue the educating of Illegal Aliens and their Anchor Babies. What a waste of time and money!
5 webmaster // Dec 18, 2008 at 8:09 pm
“disontinue”
While we are at it, can we send you back to school to learn how to use spell check?
Why do you harbor such hate against students trying to educate themselves? I have met immigrant students (legal) who are more articulate than you.
6 HispanicPundit // Dec 18, 2008 at 8:50 pm
This is a problem that has an easy solution: education vouchers. School choice works…just look at the miracles that charter schools have been doing.
Liberals understand when a monopoly in the private sector is causing problems…but when its a monopoly in the public sector they have a harder time grasping it. The fundamental problem with our education system, especially in the poor areas, is not pay, racism, or lack of qualified teachers…it is the monopoly power they yield. If you are poor and your public schools suck…you are shit out of luck. The public schools know this and act accordingly.
Choice is precisely what they need. There is nothing like possibly losing your job that fuels the fire in working harder. Public schools in the ghetto need some of that fire.
7 DfD // Dec 18, 2008 at 9:07 pm
On the spelling? My bad. I apologize. I don’t harbor any hate towards anybody. As for LEGAL immigrants? They’re okay with me. I have no problem allowing 1 million immigrants every year into the United States. But NOT Illegal Aliens. You do you hate America so much as to circumvent our reasonable, compassionate, fair, and just immigration laws? So dude, stop trying to put words in my mouth and save your personal attacks on me for somebody else. You comments are divisive and inflammatory!
8 DfD // Dec 18, 2008 at 9:08 pm
“Why do you hate…”
9 jammer // Dec 19, 2008 at 9:45 am
Michaelr, I am led to believe by your response that I will see you announcing your candidacy for the LAUSD school board soon. Thats what we need, cerebral leaders, not those dummies Villaraigosa,et al. Maybe DfD can be your campaign manager. He/She seems to possess all the answers for what is wrong with the LAUSD.
10 Michaelr // Dec 19, 2008 at 9:55 am
Actually, I will defer to Hispanic Pundit in this posting. He has the most rational solution to LAUSD’s problems. My solution would be too rash, and too unforgiving, and I don’t react well to sarcasm.
11 Michaelr // Dec 19, 2008 at 10:51 am
I haven’t agreed with anything DfD has copied and pasted, or written on any postings. So I detect this is another sarcastic jab. Like I mentioned before, Hispanic Pundit has an excellent short term solution for the LAUSD. Being a very resentful product of public education, I would be more drastic in my solution for the LAUSD. I would begin by eliminating the school boards, and then weeding through various administrative positions, and raising the standards of the current curriculum and letting the teachers actually teach instead of feeding students answers to standardized tests. And that’s just the start.
12 jammer // Dec 19, 2008 at 11:33 am
no sarcasm intended. your latest posting sounds like an opening campaign speech. I’ll vote for you…, seriously. I also am a product of public education and I feed on the trough of public education. If we are in aposition to post on blogs and ingage in reasoned discourse obviously public education didn’t fail us. My students coming out of public education are very bright and well prepared. I have observed over the last decades how many persons removed from public education for a period like to talk about how unprepared the students coming out of public education seem to be. It’s a way of saying when I went to school I was brighter then students today. Todays students face challenges we never faced and they are measuring up. The ones making it are doing so because the have GANAS inspired by family environment or role models. Don’t blame that on school systems or politicians.
13 Michaelr // Dec 19, 2008 at 12:26 pm
The freshman class of 1974 at Ontario High School began with 853 students. Only 255 of those students graduated in 1977. 29 of those enrolled in college, and only 5 graduated with undergraduate degrees. All this information was released to announce one of the awards given at our 10 year reunion. I have to credit the time I spent in the Ontario City Library, which was extensive from the time I was four years old for my ability to deal with the overwhelming amount of curriculum I was not taught in public schools. Of course this was not lost on me while I was attending public schools. By my sophomore year in high school, my interaction with teenagers from other schools told me just how subpar the curriculum was at Ontario High School. And my conversations with my counselor, Mister Carl Bayless fully expressed how systematic and political this was at the public school board level at the time, and still is to some degree. I have to credit my father’s extensive usage of the main Ontario City Library and his lessons of complying information for my ability to use the resources of that library to its fullest extent. Without it I would have never survived the curriculums in college and university. I am very embittered over this public school experience. And I am convinced this is a politically motivated systematic process to maintain social and racial class distinctions within American culture. And as you can see by the mathematical results, and the priorities and educational levels of Hispanic-Americans, it is a successful ploy in keeping us as ignorant as possible. And it’s that ignorance that makes us believe the lies we are regularly told by our government, and makes us blind to the opportunities that lie ahead. I refuse to play by these rules established by local school boards. To me this is life and death, and I refuse to be led by the nose and told that I am only qualified to do certain jobs based on my ethnicity, or educational level.
14 DfD // Dec 19, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I won’t claim to have ALL of the answers to the problems at LAUSD, but 98% ain’t bad…
15 sarah // Jul 3, 2009 at 9:55 am
Students need several things that the LAUSD is not offering (and the system in general under NCLB discourages)
1) Choice – not everyone is interested in college or is college material. Students should be given the choice to go or not to go and take courses accordingly. We have a huge shortage of skilled labour in the trades – perfectly respectable careers that can earn very comfortable livings (far more than teachers do!) and many students are interested in these areas – why make it so hard for them to pursue these areas?
2) Stream the students according to their literacy levels. For example: Students who are reading at a 5th grade level and writing at a 3rd grade level should not be forced to perform at the 9th grade level. How is doing this helping them? It frustrates everyone and in the end, most teachers end up giving highly inflated grades, passing students with D’s and C’s and sometimes even B’s and A’s who are below the standard expected for those levels. They have to otherwise they will get in trouble with administration… and of course it’s very frustrating and discouraging for the students.
3) Dramatically cut class sizes. I know, there’s no money or space for this, but how can a teacher be expected to teach over 40 students who are so needy academically, emotionally, and otherwise? How can a teacher be expected to control the class? This is especially true in high schools where teachers often have five classes of 40 – that’s 200 students at a time that they are accountable for!!!!
4) Stop punishing the teachers in low peforming schools under NCLB. The toxic negativity that is fed to teachers who work in these campuses drains them of their enthusiasm, energy, and (as the school sinks deeper into PI) their well deserved and very necessary down time.
5) Have you noticed that the news reports typically describe effective teachers as being young? Older teachers by and large are described as jaded, lazy, burnt out, etc. Why? Because it’s impossible to sustain the energy and sacrifice that young teachers give over the lifetime of a career without burning out. One would have to have absolutely no life, never marry or have a family….
16 Rep. Joe Baca & his “version” of the DREAM Act // Jul 25, 2009 at 7:23 pm
[...] following is another guest blog post by Sorjuana. Recently, I have blogged about Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s failure to co-sponsor the DREAM Act, [...]
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