A teacher pushed to the edge

 

Sarah Knopp tells the tragic story of a fellow Los Angeles public school teacher.

October 1, 2010

RIGOBERTO RUELAS attended Miramonte Elementary as a student and returned to work there for 14 years, first as a teaching assistant, and then as a 5th grade teacher. In 14 years, he almost never missed a day of work. But Sunday, September 19, he called in sick for the next day.

His body was found a week later underneath a 100-foot-high bridge in the Angeles National Forest. Suicide is the likely cause of death, although no note was found.

Suicide rarely has a single cause, and usually follows a long chain of complicated, though socially preventable, adversities. But in Ruelas' case, we know one adversity he was deeply distraught about: the August 14 publication in the Los Angeles Times of an article called "Who's Teaching LA's Kids?"

No one knows what part the article played in Ruelas' distress, but at the very least, it was a dark storm cloud over his last days.

Ruelas' brother Alejandro told KABC-TV that "he kept saying that there's stress at work" since the publication of the article. According to parents and some staff at Miramonte, the principal had been pressuring Ruelas intensely since the publication of the article to improve his students' scores. Ruelas' family is boycotting the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials claim that they sent a memo to principals stating that the use of test score data for disciplining teachers is against the union contract, but there are reports that some principals are ignoring this.

"This guy was 100 percent teacher," said Mat Taylor, chairperson for the south area of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), after spending time with the staff at Miramonte Elementary. "That's what his whole life was about. When this hit, it crushed him,"

To write the article, Times reporters Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith filed a public information request with the LAUSD to get test scores for the students of 6,000 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers. LAUSD complied with the request, even though it had they had never before used or published student test data divided out by teacher.

Readers can click a link called "Find a Teacher" on the Times Web site and find out whether these 6,000 teachers are, according to the paper's analysis of student test data, "Most effective, more effective, average, less effective or least effective."

Ruelas was rated "less effective," the second-to-worst category. But according to students, coworkers and parents, nothing could have been further from the truth.

"For me, he was a good teacher," said Christian, a former student of Ruelas who is now attending high school in LAUSD. "My parents were shocked to hear this. A lot of parents had respect for him. He was always there, whether he was sick or not. He was always smiling. He was happy with the students, and friendly with the parents. He taught well. I liked being in his class."

Mayra Vega had stayed in touch with Ruelas since leaving the school six years ago. "He just told me two weeks ago that he was proud of me for applying to college," she said at a lunchtime meeting recently with classmates. "He would always help you, even if you weren't his student. He always made me feel good about myself, like when he told me to go ahead and wear my glasses at graduation. Thanks to him, I stopped confusing my 'b's and d's."

Vega immediately began trying to organize parents and fellow alums from Miramonte for a vigil or protest to defend Ruelas' reputation as a teacher.

According to Mat Taylor, "He taught the toughest fifth graders. Those are the kids he wanted, even though they may be the ones who are the hardest to test."

Kristal O'Neil (not her real name), a teacher at a different elementary school who also suffered from being labeled "least effective," said of Ruelas' death: "I'm only surprised that this hasn't happened more. The issue here is that you have stripped people of their identities."

For over 20 years, O'Neil has used her training in drama from the USC fine arts program to lead students in plays and historical dramatizations. She had a reputation among teachers and parents for succeeding with students with special needs and creating a nurturing and inspiring learning environment in her classroom. She didn't "teach to the test."

But when the Times study was printed, O'Neil said she felt "like I was on public display, like a human being on the auction block or something."

O'Neil attended a protest at the Los Angeles Times with thousands of other union brothers and sisters, but in the end, she was so intimidated by what had happened that she remade her curriculum from whole cloth, focusing almost entirely on helping students to pass the test.

Whereas she had previously prided herself on her work with special-needs children, she now felt anxious that they would pull down her scores. "For 22 years, I couldn't wait to get up everyday and go teach," she said. "I feel like someone came along and put me in prison."

The sleepless nights and crises that standardized tests impose on teachers--especially when the tests are used, in the sensationalized manner of the LA Times, as the only thing that matters--are only one part of the story.

Imagine kindergartners bubbling answer sheets just after they learn to hold pencils; high school students who complete all their graduation requirements but aren't able to pass the exit examination and graduate because they haven't received the remediation they need; or students being asked to take high-stakes tests in a language they haven't mastered yet.

The erosion of students' innate love of learning and self-confidence is the consequence of corporate values imposed on human beings and their development.

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"VALUE ADDED" is the latest catchphrase to take root among the "accountability" movement that encompasses Education Secretary Arne Duncan, billionaires Bill Gates and Eli Broad and their corporate think tanks, and the self-promoting charter school operators.

The "reformers" concede that it would be wrong to measure teachers by raw test scores alone because some students start so far behind. But, they say, "value-added" methods control for differences in student populations by measuring how many percentage points a student gains in a year--that is, by comparing this year's test to last's. The difference is the "value" that teachers have "added."

The problem is that there is no evidence that VAMs (value-added measures) are an effective way to rate teachers. In a briefing report issued on August 29, the Economic Policy Institute surveyed current research on VAMs [1], concluding:

One study found that across five large urban districts, among teachers who were ranked in the top 20 percent of effectiveness in the first year, fewer than a third were in that top group the next year, and another third moved all the way down to the bottom 40 percent. Another found that teachers' effectiveness ratings in one year could only predict from 4 percent to 16 percent of the variation in such ratings in the following year. A teacher who appears to be very ineffective in one year might have a dramatically different result the following year.

In a speech that she gave to an audience of 700 UTLA members, the U.S.'s preeminent education historian Diane Ravitch argued, "The problem with using Value Added in any form is that, because it has a pseudo-scientific aura about it, and in this climate, it will dominate all other forms of evaluation."

According to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, "VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness should not be used to make operational decisions because such estimates are far too unstable to be considered fair or reliable."

Furthermore, researchers have found that the best predictor of fourth-grade test results was...fifth-grade teachers. In other words, we can do a better job of predicting a student's test scores based on which teacher they will get next year in school than any other factor! Since a child's fifth-grade teacher has nothing to do with their fourth-grade education, we can only assume that VAM is measuring something other than teacher quality.

A recently released study by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University researched merit pay based on students' test scores in Nashville. The study's conclusion was that merit pay didn't work.

Teachers were offered a $15,000 bonus to raise test scores of their students in math. The students whose teachers had been offered the bonus made the same gains as students whose teachers were in a control group, and hadn't received the offer.

This was significant because the National Center on Performance Incentives was generally understood to have a pro-accountability bent. But even supporters of merit pay couldn't prove that VAM methods were sound.

Teachers have an enormous public relations campaign ahead of us to make the truth clear: No credible research exists to back up the idea that students' test scores are a valid way to measure teachers' effectiveness.

Since the onset of No Child Left Behind, we have lost enormous ground on the argument that high-stakes standardized tests are illegitimate measures of children's progress in the first place. Rather than measuring learning, they measure students' socio-economic and racial backgrounds, much like the eugenicist IQ tests of the past.

To regain the integrity of learning and development, and to fight for the dignity of the work of teaching, we will have to campaign around these ideas.

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TWO WEEKS after the Times article "Who's Teaching LA's Kids?" appeared, the Los Angeles School Board met August 31 and voted--with just one dissent from board member Marguerite LaMotte--to accept a proposal from the newly installed Deputy Superintendent John Deasy for value-added measures on tests to account for 30 percent of teachers' evaluations. This is subject to collective bargaining with the teachers' union.

Other districts have enacted worse--in Florida and Denver, value-added may account for up to 50 percent of evaluations.

Following the LAUSD board meeting, the California state Board of Education voted on September 16 to create an online database to track teachers by student test scores. The resolution was put forward by Ben Austin, whose career in the Clinton White House led him to Green Dot charter schools, where he led the takeover of Locke High School and launched the “astroturf” group Parent Revolution. He is the author and salesman of many of the privatization and teacher-union-bashing schemes in Los Angeles.

And to add insult to injury, the Obama administration offered $442 million in grants to school districts that enacted merit pay schemes for teachers, based on their students' test scores.

The announcement was made in late September, the day before the public release of the Vanderbilt study critiquing the validity of merit pay based on student test scores. But as Diane Ravitch noted, "Ideology trumps evidence." The irony of those riding the warhorse of "data" and having no data to back up their policy prescriptions would be funny if it didn't ruin so many lives.

UTLA held a protest at the offices of the Los Angeles Times September 14 that was attended by several thousand teachers. With the announcements of Ruelas' death two weeks later, the union is demanding that the Times take down the Web link that rates individual teachers by name.

On September 29, a public mass overflowed a South Central church and the front lawn of Miramonte Elementary. Hundreds of students, teachers and parents came to pay their respects.

We need to channel anger over Ruelas' death into a willingness to resist the school board's effort to impose Value Added as the most prominent component of teacher evaluations at the bargaining table. "Rigo's family wants his death to be for something," said Taylor. The process of learning and human development cannot be assigned a number value, and the people engaged in this process need to resist an attempt to commodify us.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/01/teacher-pushed-to-the-edge

COMMENT: SARAH KNOPP

The Day My Union Died

This appeared in Huffington Post and was written by UTLA member Dennis Danziger.

As I cruise around L.A., his eyes follow me. He's in my face when I stop for a coffee or pull up at an ATM. This blond, 30-something, smiling white dude on the ubiquitous billboards looks like he might have sold sub-prime mortgages and enjoyed it. In his hound's-tooth suit and bow tie, I'm pretty sure he fights tax cuts for the rich, and above his head I read these words:

Hiring dropouts is just good business. Honestly who else would work that cheap?

Below his beaming face, I read:

High School Dropouts make 42% less money.
Stay in school.

But on May 15, 2009, I planned to do just the opposite. I was going to stay out of school for just one day, for the work stoppage. I planned to join my fellow United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union members; we'd voted to picket outside our respective schools to protest the proposed layoffs of 5,100 of our colleagues, 2,500 of whom are teachers, who have received pink slips for the next school year.

UTLA, the second largest teachers union in the country, called this action weeks in advance. I gave my students plenty of notice. I explained it all to them -- that our strike wasn't about us teachers asking for better health care or more money.

I explained that we were protesting Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines's decision to hold back as much as $167 of the $554 million dollars of federal stimulus funds the LAUSD received until the 2010-2011 school year instead of spending that money next year.

This is the LAUSD which dumped $400 million on the Belmont Learning Center, a new high school that was built, then demolished, then rebuilt on a toxic waste site. The same LAUSD that dolled out $186 million taxpayer dollars to outside consultants in 2006-2007. The same district that paid $95 million dollars for a new payroll system that caused chaos with teachers' paychecks for two years. This same district that has assured us that our 9th and 11th grade English classes of 20 (mandated by law) will next year be ballooning to 35 to 38. Our classes of 35 will mushroom to 42 or more.

At Venice High School where I teach English, 55% of our students drop out. If LAUSD fires teachers, APs, deans, college counselors, and librarians, and axes arts and vocational programs, those dropout numbers are likely to soar, sending undereducated teens into a national job market that's losing more than 15,000 jobs a day.

So that's what I planned to march in protest of on May 15.

On May 12, a judge granted the LAUSD a restraining order, forbidding UTLA to strike.

When I heard the news, I knew we were in for a fight, and I was ready to stand up for what I know is right. Sure we were threatened with a fine of a thousand dollars and loss of our credentials if we chose to fight against these layoffs, to challenge Cortines' decision to hold on to the stimulus money, but if we weren't willing to stand up for our rights, we'd never have any.

So I was ready for UTLA leadership to come back to ask for our vote, ready to support them in storming into court to appeal the injunction, ready to stand in solidarity with my fellow teachers. And I was eager to see how many others were.

Instead, none of that happened. Our leadership simply caved. They called off the strike.

And my union died.

For as any middle or high school kid could tell you, if you challenge someone to a fight, you'd better show up.

On Friday, May 15, 39 of UTLA's 48,000 members, at least one of whom had been responsible for calling off the strike, defied the court order and were arrested for sitting in an intersection near LAUSD headquarters. That same day hundreds of teachers called in sick. Others marched legally outside their school sites before school, but when the school bell rang, they timidly entered their classrooms so as not to defy the court order.

I taught that day. I taught and felt despair that boomeranged around my school in a thousand directions -- despair for my fellow teachers, the young, energetic ones who are who are being fired and will never return to the LAUSD, despair for my students whose classrooms are too large and growing larger, despair for my fellow union members whose leadership failed us.

I couldn't think about much else that day, and that night I turned on the local TV news to measure the impact of UTLA's actions on the city.

The third story on the local news that night was an LAPD interview of a suspect not guilty of kidnapping.

The fifth story was about how our city's commuter trains soon will be equipped with on-line cameras.

I was falling asleep, but I waited, and finally the 10th story, 48 seconds long, was about 39 teachers sitting in an intersection and being arrested for blocking traffic.

Now Superintendent Cortines -- puffed up with success -- has implied that he'd keep most of the pink-slipped employees in their jobs -- that is if the rest of us agree to accept furlough days. That's a fancy name for working for free.

And tonight, May 19, 2009, the tax-raising propositions that Governor Schwarzenegger begged and bullied us to vote for, went down in a crushing defeat. Surely, he'll now move to what he's been hinting at, that he'll move to cut the school year and teachers' pay by one week.

So come fall when UTLA teachers are complaining about the chaos and exhaustion that accompany their overcrowded classrooms, we union members will have to remember that when it came time to stand up for our students, we stood down.

By not appealing the injunction or striking in the face of it, we have insured that tens of thousands of our students will one day come under the spell of that smiling guy on the billboard -- the man eager to hire what LAUSD produces best -- high school dropouts.

The battle for our schools heats up in LA

Check out this article on some inspiring struggle against layoffs and budget cuts in LA:

http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/09/the-battle-our-schools-in-LA

The battle for our schools heats up in LA

Randy Childs of United Teachers Los Angeles looks at the union and community organizing that is challenging layoffs in the LA schools.

April 9, 2009

AS BUDGET cuts loom, there's a climate of uncertainty in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

There's the ominous possibility of massive layoffs affecting the people who serve the children of LA in our schools, including more than 3,600 classroom teachers. There's also the prospect that even deeper cuts could be precipitated by a state budget revision expected in May from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's already slashed billions from education.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that thousands of these jobs could be saved immediately using federal stimulus money.

And most importantly, there are the early stirrings of a potentially massive movement that is pushing demands that LAUSD slash its bureaucracy and the state raise taxes on California's millionaires in order to stop the cuts to our schools.

At the center of this struggle is United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents more than 45,000 teachers, counselors and health care providers in LA public schools.

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THE UNION is now planning for a one-day strike sometime next month to protest job cuts. But activism has been under way for some time. For example, on March 30, about 125 parents, teachers and students gathered outside Local District 5--one of LAUSD's notoriously wasteful "mini-district" offices--to protest teacher layoffs and class size increases, and to demand cuts instead to the administrative bloat.

One parent donated a huge length of pink cloth from the garment factory where she works to serve as the symbolic "pink slip" that the community wants to give to the LAUSD bureaucracy instead of classroom teachers. This "pink slip" was inspired by a banner made by Crenshaw High School students at a similar protest the week before in front of their mini-district office on the other side of the city.

The protesters demanded a meeting with Local District 5 Superintendent Carmen Schroeder so that she could hear personal testimonials from angry parents and probationary teachers who had already received reduction in force (RIF) notices.

In just over two weeks leading up to the protest, parents and teachers had held two organizing meetings at nearby Roosevelt High School and collected over 500 signatures on petitions to the school board to stop the cuts at our schools. Similar organizing meetings and community forums against the layoffs are spreading across the city.

Schroeder came outside to meet the crowd, trying to assuage people's anger by saying that she was "heartbroken" about the layoffs, and that the district was doing all it could to keep cuts away from the schools. But she was promptly confronted by a parent who told her, "You say you're sorry, but words aren't enough. We want actions!"

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines received similar treatment at Dorsey High School on March 27. Dorsey teachers only found out the night before that he was coming to their school, but still managed to organize a gauntlet of "Riffed" teachers to meet him at the school entrance that morning.

The teachers challenged Cortines to eliminate the district's "periodic assessments"--an extra layer of wasteful standardized testing that Cortines plans to spend tens of millions of dollars a year to maintain while laying off teachers and raising class sizes.

"We will need to confront Cortines and [school board] members wherever they go," explained Noah Lippe-Klein, the UTLA chapter chair at Dorsey. "We need to storm every board member's office with a coalition of teachers, parents and students...and we need to encourage even higher-stakes tactics across the district as we build toward our one day strike in May."

On the same morning that Dorsey teachers confronted Cortines, dozens of teachers at another high school staged a one-hour walkout against the layoffs.

On the morning of March 31, a group of 75 students at Florence Nightingale Middle School held a press conference declaring April 21 "Save Our Teachers Day" and calling on elementary, middle and high school students across the district to form "Save Our Teachers" clubs and organize marches in front of their schools that day.

Also on March 31, the LAUSD school board postponed a vote to authorize the layoffs recommended by Cortines in a meeting room that was packed with angry school employees and community members.

Outside, SEIU Local 99, the union of LAUSD's school custodians, cafeteria workers, classroom aides and other school workers, organized a picket with signs demanding, "No Layoffs! Don't Cut Schools!" In addition to the 3,600 teachers faced with layoffs, Cortines is also proposing pink slips for 528 school-site office workers, 810 custodians, 196 cafeteria workers, 90 special education classroom aides and 82 library aides.

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THE SCHOOL board's decision to postpone the vote pokes a small hole in the armor of "inevitability" with which Cortines has carefully cloaked the cutbacks and layoffs. Meanwhile, rumors are swirling in the union that the LAUSD was on the verge of rescinding as many as a thousand of the planned teacher layoffs. If it's true that the powers that be are backpedaling, then now is the time for our side to push harder than ever.

While all this is going on, UTLA has been in the midst of contract negotiations in which LAUSD has been demanding pay cuts for teachers despite receiving a 4.5 percent "cost-of-living adjustment" from the state at the beginning of last school year. In late March, union negotiators reached a tentative agreement (TA) with the district in which the union repelled Cortines' efforts to cut teacher pay, and gained modest improvements in contract language related to grievances and safety.

Nevertheless, union negotiators accepted a salary freeze and a three-year deal that would make pay increases unlikely any time before 2011. And since RIF procedures are governed by separate state laws, the layoffs were not subject to these negotiations.

UTLA's officers have argued that the TA is the best we can get--and a strategic necessity at this point in order to focus our resources on fighting back against the layoffs. This logic convinced the union's 50-member Board of Directors (BOD) to vote almost unanimously in favor of the deal. But a week later, the union's House of Representatives voted 91-79 to recommend that UTLA members vote "no."

A long line of angry members lined up at the House meeting to speak against the TA, arguing that its concessions send the wrong message to a district determined to defend its bloated bureaucracy by cutting schools to the bone.

These union members also argued that UTLA's announcement of a TA de-escalates the struggle at a moment when the fight of our lives is just beginning over the layoffs and budget cuts.

UTLA's tentative plans for a one-day strike are a step in the right direction, but the demobilizing contract agreement with LAUSD is a mistake. Rank-and-file teachers should follow the lead of the House and vote "no" on the tentative agreement--and step up the fight to win a good contract and to oppose the layoffs.

Right now, teachers, parents, and students need a confident, militant leadership for the struggles to defend public education--struggles which can clearly involve large numbers of people. UTLA can provide that leadership--but it has to expand its base of rank-and-file activists to mobilize the full strength of our union.

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LA teachers sit in over layoffs

Sarah Knopp, a public school teacher in Los Angeles, reports on her union's sit-in at a school board meeting to protest planned layoffs.

March 12, 2009

Los Angeles teachers sit in at a school board meeting to protest planned layoffs (Kim Turner | UTLA)Los Angeles teachers sit in at a school board meeting to protest planned layoffs (Kim Turner | UTLA)

FIFTY TEACHERS along with parent supporters disrupted a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board meeting March 10 and occupied the boardroom in an attempt to stop a vote on sending out "reduction in force" notices to almost 9,000 district employees.

Claiming a $718 million budget shortfall, the district is threatening to lay off teachers--both permanent and non-permanent--as well as counselors, administrators, custodial and support staff, and other district employees.

The board, led by Monica Garcia--an ally of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa--slunk out of the boardroom and into an undisclosed location somewhere in the building. There, on display to the public only via a closed-circuit broadcast to the cafeteria of the building, they voted 5-2 to authorize Superintendent Ramon Cortines to send out the notices. Board members Julie Korenstein and Richard Vladovic dissented.

For the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) members who participated, the action was transformative.

We had planned the civil disobedience in advance, and the union paid for substitutes so that we could attend the board meeting. School board meetings always start at 1 p.m., so teachers attending is usually not possible.

The meetings take place in a room in a fancy glass building in the middle of downtown LA with seating for about 250. There are 740,000 students in LAUSD, so if only one-tenth of 1 percent of parents wanted to participate, the room would need to be three times bigger.

Most of us on the protest were seasoned activists, but when we chanted "One! Don't cut the budget! Two! A little bit louder! Three! We need the money! Four! our students!" for an hour in the hot sun before being permitted into the building, we all felt more angry, more energized and many times more confident than we had at such protests in the past. This time, they'd have to drag us out of there if they wanted to shut us up!

And while most of us were veterans whose jobs were not on the line, we were joined by a handful of probationary teachers who won't be returning next year if the layoffs go through.

We were also joined in our civil disobedience by parents and grandparents who were organized by the community group ACORN. One of the protesters, 83-year-old Julia Botello, has 12 children and more than 30 grandchildren who have gone through the public school system. Four of her granddaughters are now teachers.

Julia had just stepped up to the mic to plead with board members not to make the cuts when they stood up to leave the room for their secret chambers. Later, surrounded by a dozen TV cameras, she said, "I'm calling on the president, the governor, and all those above us to help us...I want them to arrest me, if that's what it takes to be heard."

When the school board left the room, the media stayed. School police were ordered not to arrest teacher-occupiers while the media was still present, so we were never arrested. As UTLA President A.J. Duffy explained to reporters and participants:

Some people say that what we are doing today is improper. Was it improper when they did it in the civil rights movement? Was it improper when César Chávez used civil disobedience to force Gallo wine to meet the demands of the field workers? Isn't this how India won its independence from the British Empire? In fact, this whole country that we love was born out of civil disobedience!

Then, each of the teachers present took turns standing up and explaining what would happen at their schools if the cuts went through. Gym teachers who have used their own paychecks to buy volleyballs, teachers with more than 40 students in remediation classes, and a cohort from a social justice academy at a large high school, afraid to lose the energy, drive and innovation of their newest teachers--all told their stories. Teachers made it clear that layoffs resulting in larger class sizes will be a disaster for students.

Since we had the boardroom occupied, we used the opportunity to debate strategies, tactics and the next actions we could take to escalate the fight and involve more parents and teachers. Afterwards, we joined a support rally outside. Students from three prominent high schools had organized a bus to bring them to the protest. The action drew widespread coverage in the local media..

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THE SIT-IN was the latest in a series of actions by UTLA in the last few months.

On June 6 of last year, the union organized a one-hour strike to protest state budget cuts targeting schools. The next big action came December 10, when some 10,000 UTLA members demonstrated at seven regional school board offices to protest LAUSD's insulting "last, best, and final offer" that threatened draconian cuts to teachers' health care coverage.

Since then, UTLA and seven other school employee unions have reached a tentative agreement on health care, a deal that turns back LAUSD's most aggressive demands. That agreement will soon be voted on by members.

In parallel bargaining, negotiators for the teachers and LAUSD are far apart on the main contract. Key issues are salary and a series of non-monetary demands dealing with workplace democracy, shared decision-making, rights for school counselors and substitutes, and a fair grievance procedure.

UTLA has been rebuilding the union's capacity to fight since a reform leadership took over in 2005. Teachers won a 6 percent raise in the 2006-07 negotiations. The re-opener rounds in years two and three of our three-year contract have so far yielded nothing but offers of less than zero from the district.

Employees who receive pink slips will not definitely lose their jobs until after a final school board vote in June. Many hope that by then, federal stimulus money will have provided a way for LAUSD to avoid most of the layoffs.

But we intend to make it clear to the district that if they don't find the money by any means necessary to save every single job, they will pay the price of massive unrest.
David Rapkin contributed to this article.

LAUSD board votes to possibly lay off 2,300 teachers

The 4-2 vote authorizes the job actions if no other options are found to decrease a potential $250-million budget shortfall this year caused by the state's financial problems.

By Jason Song
January 14, 2009

Because of the state's budget uncertainty, the Los Angeles school board agreed Tuesday to potentially lay off up to 2,300 teachers if no other options become available this year.

The Los Angeles Unified School District faces up to a $250-million shortfall, and the move could shave about $50 million from that figure. But Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, in his first board meeting as head of the district, said he hoped not to send the notices.

"This is strictly a place-holder," he said. "I am still trying to find alternatives."

The board voted 4 to 2 for the option with members Julie Korenstein and Richard Vladovic voting against it. Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte was absent from Tuesday's meeting.

Cortines also outlined his priorities for his first 100 days, saying that the board, district officials, parents and others need to work together to improve instruction, increase safety and stabilize the district.

But in the middle of all this, Cortines must deal with the worst budget crisis since the early 1990s.

District officials could send notices to 1,690 elementary school teachers and 600 high school and middle school instructors, which would result in a complicated process in which administrators would have to reschedule classes and more experienced teachers would bump younger instructors from their jobs.

Teachers with fewer than two years of experience would be at risk.

About 1,100 academic coaches and 400 administrators with teaching credentials could return to the classroom in that scenario, according to the district.

If teachers are laid off, they may have to return some of their pay to the district because of their salary schedule.

A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the union would fight any layoffs and warned the district to keep cuts out of the classroom.

But the normally animated Duffy also soberly acknowledged the severity of the situation. "This is truly one of the saddest days for this district," he said.

Cortines and other district officials outlined a grim financial picture for this and upcoming years and are asking state legislators to allow the district to use funds earmarked for certain programs, including class-size reduction, for general instruction.

"We need every flexibility available," said Chief Financial Officer Megan K. Reilly.

The district now receives about $200 million annually from the state for limiting some elementary school classes to 20 students. L.A. Unified officials have proposed increasing average class size by five students next year while keeping the state funding.

Elementary school class size could rise to more than 30 students, Cortines said. But he added that he believed it would be nearly impossible for students to learn in that environment. Cortines also said he would recommend to the board that it consider introducing a parcel tax that could be used for instruction, if approved by voters.

Before being named superintendent late last year, Cortines vowed to spend as little time in the boardroom as possible because he wanted to spend more time working on reforms and visiting schools. But he was present for the entire meeting, possibly because most of it focused on the budget.

jason.song@latimes.com

BLOWBACK

Green Dot’s empty promise

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-shaffer7-2008aug07,0,3963286.story

Despite its claims, the organization’s plans to run Locke High School won’t empower students or offer more local control.

By Ralph E. Shaffer

» Discuss Article (11 Comments)

In a matter of weeks, the Los Angeles Unified School District embarks on an unpredictable but carefully manipulated course as the charter school movement's golden boy, Steve Barr, and his handpicked, self-appointed Green Dot clique try to operate Locke High School during the regular school year. That idyllic summer school environment Steve Lopez described in his July 23 column won't be there come September.

Despite the wishful thinking of Lopez and The Times editorial board, turning a large and tumultuous school over to educational upstarts who shill for powerful forces hostile to public education is not the solution to the academic disaster that was Locke. Times editorials are awash with glowing confidence about Locke under Green Dot and Barr. They are almost euphoric about Ramon Cortines, senior deputy superintendent, who, according to the editorial board, "sees charters ... as a template for improving schools districtwide." The columnist goes on to say, "As long as leaders like Barr and Cortines engage in clear, honest talk instead of excuses and obfuscation, there's hope ... ."

But improvement won't materialize when the project is as full of holes as the Locke charter petition. Consider the "clear, honest talk" from Green Dot's leader as found in the charter that the LAUSD board approved last September.

Lopez parrots the charter myth: "Teachers will have more say on curriculum and teaching methods, and the Green Dot model is thin on administration." That decentralization fantasy is repeated throughout Green Dot's charter, along with the buzz word "empowerment." Teachers, students, parents -- Green Dot "empowers" them all.

But real control at Locke is held by Green Dot's board of directors -- a self-perpetuating, non-elected board. Teachers and parents will be "consulted," but there is very little teacher or parent empowerment. Although Locke may have an advisory board and teachers/parents may serve on it, Green Dot's board is the ultimate governing body for Locke, not the faculty, not the parents.

No Locke teacher or Locke parent served on the Green Dot board at the time the charter was approved, yet the whole point of charters when they were created in this state in 1992 was that teachers and parents, working together, could create a charter. Instead, outsiders have muscled their way in, drawn by a pot of gold in the form of billions of taxpayer dollars set aside for K-12 education and a golden opportunity to advance their own social and economic agenda.

Lopez says Green Dot is "thin on administration." He apparently hasn't read the charter petition. Green Dot abounds in bureaucrats. There's the "Green Dot Home Office," the "Green Dot Management Team," "Green Dot Corporate," the "Charter School Management Corporation" and the Green Dot board of directors. The "Green Dot Home Office" is responsible for the majority of policy decisions at each school and for the school budget. Purchases not originally budgeted can't be made without "Green Dot Corporate" approval. "Corporate" also does all purchasing, perhaps from some charter supply company.

Payroll? There won't be any payroll snafu at Locke because that will be handled by the "Charter School Management Corporation." Green Dot may be a "nonprofit" but the profiteers have found a way to make a buck. I'll bet you're wondering if there is a connection between Green Dot's board of directors and the management corporation? Some enterprising Times reporter ought to track that one down.

Curriculum? In a charter petition that ran more than 150 pages, Locke's gifted kids got one paragraph! Special ed students? In an exceedingly long section, Green Dot discusses problems that might arise for special ed students at a charter school. The suggestion is that special ed kids should probably go elsewhere. Could that be why some charter school Academic Performance Index scores seem higher than traditional schools?

For those of you who criticized our public schools for teaching recent immigrants in their native languages, note this. Locke will use "sheltered techniques" -- a euphemism for instruction in native languages -- for basic subjects. There are also separate Spanish-language courses for "native speakers."

But the major fallacy in the Green Dot curriculum program is the requirement that every Locke student be on a college prep track for the University of California or California State University. Tucked away in a footnote is the escape clause: that such a curriculum "may not be realistic" for all students. You bet it isn't. Vocational education, which is what many of these kids would like, was barely mentioned in the petition.

Cultural courses? Many courses in the arts will not be immediately offered. Anyone reading the document immediately notes the lack of music at Locke. In the past, the school was noted for its music program.

Although anti-public-education ranters were quick to attack brainwashing by liberal teachers in traditional schools and colleges, they remained silent when Barr announced his own form of brainwashing. In Locke's social studies and history courses, "students will demonstrate an understanding of .... and a belief in the values of ... capitalism." Now we know why the Gates, Broad, Annenberg and Walton families have poured so much money into the charter school movement. Since when do we require our students to demonstrate on a test that they not only understand but believe in capitalism? That ought to go over big among the economically depressed living in the Locke attendance area.

What about the kids? How will Barr and Green Dot "empower" them? The application cited two examples. They get to choose the school mascot (perhaps a clown as symbolic of this whole experiment) and get to decide what clubs and teams Locke will have. What will happen when a group of young Latinos try to form the Hugo Chavez Socialist Club? Or when other kids want to invite the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. to speak?

And finally we come to discipline. Gifted kids got one paragraph. Disciplinary problems get several pages. That's a lot of space devoted to discipline in a charter organization that prides itself on not having such problems.

Lopez saw a school with 700 orderly kids who voluntarily chose to attend a summer session. What will he see in September when upward of 2,300 more involuntarily converge on the same campus? Barr talks about a group of small dispersed schools in his charter petition, but if Lopez is right, all those dispersed schools and kids will be located on the main Locke campus.

Perhaps Barr has a way of pruning the enrollment down to a manageable number. Lopez says the average class size will fall from 40 to 28 students. How can that be when the school will have precisely the same number of teachers in September as last year? One way is to have fewer students on the campus.

Kids won't be expelled or suspended for failure because Barr offers "creative credit" for those who fail. Just how "creative credit" meets the UC requirements isn't explained. But for those who are "subversive" to administration or faculty, it's detention! For defiance, disrespect or abuse of school authority, suspension.

Appeals are made to the Green Dot board of directors. What happened to "local control"? And those expelled can't go to another Green Dot campus. That apparently means they go back to LAUSD.

That foreshadows how Barr intends to solve the discipline problem. There won't be 3,000 students at Locke. Many kids will opt out, choosing to avoid those uniforms and the repressive tactics of the administration that Lopez trumpeted. Others will not be allowed entry into Locke, for one reason or another. If their parents won't volunteer for 30 hours a school year, Locke won't have to accept the kids. The LAUSD's traditional schools will. And for those kids who do show up on campus, there will be an Iraq-type "surge" of security officers to maintain the peace.

Lopez and The Times editorial board have an obligation to bird-dog Green Dot during the coming year and to ask the right questions instead of playing cheerleader. Members of the LAUSD board have an obligation to go beyond the glowing reports that come from Barr and Green Dot and to have a contingency plan when they finally realize that Green Dot and Barr have failed.

The rest of us have an obligation to make sure both The Times and the school board do their jobs.

Ralph E. Shaffer is professor emeritus of history at Cal Poly Pomona.

California Teachers Challenge Proposed Cuts

Teachers in Los Angeles taking part in a scheduled protest against proposed state budget cuts. They left their classrooms for an hour on Friday morning, then returned when the protest ended.


By REBECCA CATHCART
Published: June 7, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Tens of thousands of teachers formed picket lines outside nearly 900 schools here Friday morning to protest cuts to education financing proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help close California’s projected $17 billion budget gap.

If passed, the cuts would reduce financing for Los Angeles schools by $340 million next year, said A. J. Duffy, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, the local teachers union.

Mr. Duffy said the union, which represents 48,000 teachers, had announced plans for the hourlong protest more a month ago, allowing principals and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest K-12 public school system, to work together to plan supervision of almost 700,000 students between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. Substitute teachers and administrators from neighboring districts were brought in to sit with students in auditoriums, gymnasiums and on playgrounds, he said.

When the protest ended at 8:30 a.m., teachers reported to their classrooms for their regular duties. School district officials said they opposed the budget cuts, but denounced the protest as a disruption of the school day. The district failed to win a court injunction in early May to prevent teachers from leaving their classes to take part in the protest.

On Thursday night, Superintendent David Brewer sent an automated call to parents, notifying them of the protest and calling it “the wrong message” to send to legislators and to the community.

Judge allows L.A. teachers to protest California education budget

The school district loses a bid to block the demonstration. Teachers can skip the first hour of class while aides and administrators monitor students.

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 6, 2008

Los Angeles Unified School District officials urged parents to send their
children to class today even though union leaders are encouraging teachers
to skip the first hour of instruction to protest the state's education
budget.

"Schools will still be the best place for them to be," Supt. David Brewer
said at a Thursday morning news conference at 10th Street Elementary School.

The Los Angeles Unified School District filed for a temporary restraining
order to block the job action Thursday, but Los Angeles County Superior
Court Judge David P. Yaffe declined the request. Earlier in the week, the
state Public Employment Relations Board also declined to file an injunction
on behalf of the district, which has expressed concern that the
demonstration could endanger students.

"We're pleased that the court understood that the district request was not
reasonable," said teachers union President A.J. Duffy.

District officials said students will wait in cafeterias, auditoriums and
playgrounds and will be overseen by aides, parent volunteers and
administrators as teachers are picketing. School officials plan to deploy an
additional 450 employees from central offices to campuses to help supervise.


The demonstration, organized by United Teachers Los Angeles, is intended to
draw attention to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget, which provides
a $193-million increase over last year's $56.6 billion in education funding.
But L.A. Unified estimates that it will face a $353-million shortfall
because the budget does not include a cost-of-living increase and cuts
support to certain programs that will have to be paid with unrestricted
general funds.

Teachers will lose an hour of pay for protesting, which union leaders said
is the best way to draw legislators' attention.

Along with Brewer, state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell asked
all teachers to report to work on time and discuss the state's budget
process with their students instead of picketing. He said he was concerned
about safety and warned that the district could lose revenue if students
don't come to school.

"I understand the level of frustration . . . but we also know our teachers
need to be in class, on track," he said.

The protest comes as the Board of Education prepares to vote on the district
budget Tuesday. District officials have said that they hope to avoid cuts in
the classroom, but that about 6,500 probationary teachers could be laid off,
a possibility that the union has vowed to fight.

Schwarzenegger, who this week had asked teachers to reconsider reporting
late, said he understood their concerns. "He's just as frustrated over the
budget as they are," spokesman Aaron McLear said.

Some parents, like Cindy Kaffen, whose daughter is a second-grader at
Hancock Park Elementary, said they plan to protest with teachers. Kaffen
said she wasn't worried about student safety.

"The district got rid of a crossing guard position, so [students] have to
dodge traffic when they cross the street. . . . I'm really not concerned
about the demonstration," she said.

Duffy said he expects all of his nearly 48,000 members to participate in the
demonstration, but some have said they don't like the idea. "How petty of
those teachers to take away valuable instruction time from students who need
more, not less hours in the classroom," said Scott Krier, a Panorama High
teacher who has been a union member since 1990, in a letter to Duffy this
week.

jason.song@latimes.com



*
Teachers and administrators from ... the Compton
Unified School District protest California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
proposed budget cuts.


Teachers and administrators from ... the Compton
Unified School District protest California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
proposed budget cuts.

*
Los Angeles Unified's attempt to halt teacher protest is
rejected

L.A. teachers union targets pact on charters

By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
http://www.dailynews.com/education/ci_8951448

Launching a pitched battle against Los Angeles Unified over plans to dole out more space for the growing charter-school movement, the teachers union said Wednesday that it will aggressively campaign against traditional schools sharing sites with the popular independent schools.

Demonstrations by parents and teachers and community meetings have already begun, just days after the district offered space to more than three dozen charter schools - the most so far - as part of a settlement of a lawsuit challenging the LAUSD's lagging efforts to share its facilities under Proposition 39.
But some schools and teachers said the plans are too disruptive because they include mixing some elementary and secondary students and allocating classrooms that already are in use.

"This has to do with a bad law, and instead of the district fighting this they chose to make a settlement that will impact the educational programs at the host schools by taking away precious space," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

"And having a high school or middle school on an elementary campus is total madness and a very serious potential security and safety situation for students."

Changing the law

In addition to rallying parents, teachers and community-based organizations, Duffy said, the union will begin talking with legislators about changing the charter law.

And he said he has already received dozens of complaints from parents concerned that the decision will lead to overcrowded classrooms and cuts in key services and programs.

"Anything that impacts the already existing programs at the school is unacceptable because that's not good for our students," Duffy said.

But Caprice Young, head of the state's Charter Schools Association, said the union's campaign is motivated by fear and not concern for students' welfare.

"Duffy is just frightened that the teachers on those campuses are going to realize that they don't have to be confined to the rule-bound system that they're currently working under," Young said.

"When they're teaching side by side next to charter schools, they're going to see that they can be treated like professionals, that they can have control over the curriculum, that they can be engaged with the students in ways they've always desired, and they're going to want that freedom."

For now, the LAUSD finds itself caught in the middle of trying to comply with a legal settlement while also grappling with scarce space.

Greg McNair, the LAUSD associate general counsel who oversees the district's Proposition 39 program, said the district does not believe the law benefits either charter or noncharter students.

But McNair said the offers of space for charter schools will not be revoked unless it is determined that space calculations have been inaccurate.

While he acknowledged that sharing campuses might not be the answer, a dialogue is needed to find a better solution.

"It's a law forcing something to happen that just can't happen at LAUSD, and we feel badly for charter and noncharter parents," he said.

"We'd like to use this as an opportunity to bring everyone to the table to have a dialogue to have a solution to this issue: How do we get seats for charter-school students who need seats?"

Young said part of the problem is the district's unwillingness to open a handful of closed campuses.

While district officials say they've offered to use bond money earmarked for charter schools to bring closed campuses up to code, charter officials said they never received such an offer.

Currently, there is about $60 million in facilities bond money for charter schools. Each school would cost about $15 million to prepare for student occupancy and could accommodate up to three charter schools, McNair said.

While encouraged by the district's efforts to give more space to charters, charter leader Jacqueline Elliot said the discontent on both sides indicates alternatives are needed.

"We don't want the public-school campuses to feel like charters are being forced onto them and we don't want to go into situations where schools don't want us," said Elliot, founder and co-CEO of PUC Schools.

"LAUSD can help charters find better facilities and give fiscal support. It doesn't have to be this."

A parent's concern

Jennifer deSpain, parent of a Taft High student, said the offer of space at Taft to charter schools will compromise services.

The district has offered CHAMPS charter 15 classrooms at Taft.

And deSpain said she also is concerned about security as well as the loss of students - and state money - by eliminating an open-enrollment option that allowed Taft to offer leftover seats to students districtwide.

"This school has worked so hard in improving test scores ... so another school can come in and use our facilities? It isn't fair," she said.

"Why should our students and our school lose this space? It's a detriment to the success of Taft to provide space to a charter school."

Still, some charters that have long struggled under difficult circumstances are looking forward to finally having a school to call their own.

The 140-student Synergy Charter Academy of South Los Angeles has been operating out of a church facility for four years.

While the learning environment has been less than ideal, in a community where nearby schools are underperforming, Synergy students have gotten high scores on statewide standardized tests.

The district now has offered the charter six classrooms at nearby Hobart Boulevard Elementary - space it will use to start up a middle school, said Meg Palisoc, co-founder and co-director of the school.

"We're a nomadic school ... and we are grateful and excited to be able to get some space," Palisoc said. "What will be helpful is if we don't have to pack up all the time.

"We really believe that the achievement gap is too big a problem for any one group to solve and we really want to work together - and we're going in hoping LAUSD will have the same attitude."

For the latest school news, go to www.insidesocal.com/education.
naush.boghossian@dailynews.com

Judgment day for L.A. teacher union officials

---

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-utla18feb18,1,4237908.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

From the Los Angeles Times

Three years after dissidents took control, a vote will rate their performance.

By Howard Blume
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

February 18, 2008

The band of left-wing, dissident back-benchers that took over the city teachers union three years ago faces a verdict this week on its revolution. United Teachers Los Angeles is holding elections, the results of which will affect not only teachers but also school-reform efforts and city politics.

UTLA's members are the 48,000 teachers, nurses and school psychologists in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The union's endorsements and street troops help elect city and state politicians, and can carry the most weight in school board elections. And UTLA can impede or propel various efforts to improve the education of the 700,000 students in the nation's second-largest school system.

The union's record over three tumultuous years will give members much to ponder. It includes lost elections, protracted contract struggles, an explosion of mostly non-union charter schools, the response to a botched payroll system and a still-evolving power equation involving Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Much of the spotlight will fall on 64-year-old A.J. Duffy, the passionate, volatile union president who is seeking a second three-year term. But an entire leadership slate faces a rank-and-file referendum. On bread-and-butter issues, Duffy points to a cumulative 8.5% salary raise and to achieving slightly smaller class sizes while maintaining health benefits. More broadly, his team has championed the idea of individual schools governing themselves -- with teachers in a leading role. The concept plays to mixed reviews among school reform experts.

Duffy's main challengers are a former union vice president, Becki Robinson, 60, and a current vice president, 56-year-old Linda Guthrie -- who, like Duffy, is fielding a slate of officers. Both challengers have high-level union leadership experience that predates Duffy's.

They rate Duffy's performance on standard contract issues as only fair, and fault him for "losing" Locke High School to a charter company and surrendering the school board to a majority endorsed by Villaraigosa. They also echo outside critics, who cast Duffy as frequently an obstacle, someone who can be obstreperous and rude, not to mention unwilling to embrace needed reforms.

"I am notorious," said Duffy, who also can be charming. "I drive people crazy. I want it done yesterday."

Teachers' mailed-in ballots will be collected and counted Thursday. Only 29% voted in the previous election.

Duffy unseated one-term incumbent John Perez, in close alliance with dissidents who had gradually built a following through their writings and activism. The leftward edge in a left-leaning union, this group had opposed many union initiatives as not sufficiently principled or progressive.

Perez said he found it particularly galling that during his tenure they argued against hard-won salary settlements that were among the highest in the county.

"For 20 years, they've been haranguing the membership, telling them that the union's weak, that it can't protect them," Perez said of the dissident group that Duffy later allied himself with.

And then Duffy became the leader, promptly walking into the storm of Villaraigosa's bid for control of L.A. Unified. UTLA opposed mayoral control, but Duffy later agreed to compromise legislation without going first to his membership -- a mistake, he said. His membership ultimately voted to oppose the legislation, and the courts threw it out.

The mayor's fallback was to elect allies to the school board, which again put him at odds with UTLA.

Until last year, the school board was controlled by candidates the union had endorsed, but it lost that majority to Villaraigosa in two stages. In 2006, the union spent at least $200,000 trying to elect UTLA staffer Christopher Arellano, but his campaign collapsed after revelations about a past criminal record and exaggerated academic credentials. Winner Monica Garcia sided uniformly with Villaraigosa. Then last year, UTLA split two races with the mayor's allies, while sitting out two others won by his picks.

"Our strong suit was not in the political sphere," said Joshua Pechthalt, a union vice president, also running for reelection, who teamed his dissident faction with Duffy. Taking over UTLA "was a wake-up call in terms of how much more work needs to be done to organize our chapters and our teachers. And that is something you don't understand until you are sitting in the position and you have to move the project forward."

As in the dissident days, said Pechthalt, part of the job is putting up resistance. The union upended a plan to save money by combining classes midyear at schools where enrollment had fallen. Principals, parents and students didn't like this proposal either, but scrapping it added to district expenses.

So did winning health benefits for part-time cafeteria workers, which had UTLA's full support. In Duffy's view, every new dollar spent in the service of teachers, other school staff or students helps starve a spendthrift, largely superfluous central-office bureaucracy. UTLA and the district have yet to settle on salaries for the current school year; Duffy insists that he'll get teachers a raise.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Union-Friendly Maverick Leads New Charge for Charter Schools

Posted at: http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=7368

Comment by George Schmidt, Schmidt, publisher of Substance newspaper in Chicago:

(By the way, when there is no tenure, the main targets of firing and harassment are the outspoken teachers who want to change the system, or who criticize the boss, NOT the lazy, incompetent teachers, who are portrayed as the chief beneficiaries of tenure.)

You'll get better education coverage in Substance than in the NY Times.
Send $16 to:
Substance
5132 Berteau Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641-1220


By Sam Dillon

LOS ANGELES — Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city’s chronically failing high schools.

In just seven years, Mr. Barr’s Green Dot Public Schools organization has founded 10 charter high schools and has won approval to open 10 more. Now, in his most aggressive challenge to the public school system, he is fighting to seize control of Locke Senior High, a gang-ridden school in Watts known as one of the worst in the city. A 15-year-old girl was killed by gunfire there in 2005.

In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union. And he has mobilized thousands of black and Hispanic parents to demand better schools.

Educators and policy makers from Sacramento to Washington are watching closely because many believe Green Dot’s audacious tactics have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement nationwide.

“He’s got a take-no-prisoners style,” said Jaime Regalado, the director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “He’s channeled the outrage of African-American and Latino parents into the public space in a way that’s new.”

Charter schools are publicly financed but managed by groups separate from school districts. Most other major charter organizations have focused on opening easier-to-run elementary and middle schools, not taking over devastated high schools.

Mr. Barr says, “We want systemic change, not to create oases in a desert.”

And while most charters have nonunion teachers and are often called union busters by opponents, Mr. Barr, a former fund-raiser for the California Democratic Party and co-founder of Rock the Vote, prefers to work with organized labor. Teachers at Green Dot schools have a contract, though one less rigid than at other Los Angeles schools.

Mr. Barr’s posture, as well as promising results at some of his schools, has attracted teachers to his side, even while splitting the larger teachers union, some of whose officials have been fighting him tooth and nail. Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, is working with him to put a Green Dot school in the South Bronx.

That alliance embarrassed United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents some 40,000 teachers. A. J. Duffy, its president, said in an interview that his union had allowed work rule waivers for some Los Angeles schools, but had erred several years ago by ruling out an arrangement with Green Dot.

“We could have and probably should have organized the Green Dot schools,” Mr. Duffy said. “They started with one charter school, now have 10, and in short order they’ll have 20 schools in Los Angeles, with all the teachers paying dues to a different union. And that’s a problem.”

The union representing Green Dot teachers, Association de Maestros Unidos, has a 33-page contract that offers competitive salaries but no tenure, and it allows class schedule and other instructional flexibility outlawed by the 330-page contract governing most Los Angeles schools.

Andrew J. Rotherham, who worked in the Clinton White House and is co-director of Education Sector, a research group in Washington, said, “Green Dot is mobilizing parents in poor neighborhoods and offering an alternative for frustrated teachers, and that’s scrambling the cozy power arrangements between the school district and the union to a degree not seen anywhere else.”

Mr. Barr has not just used his charters to challenge the district. He is also an ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who has also battled the Los Angeles school district, seeking mayoral control.

The district superintendent , David L. Brewer III, met with Mr. Barr several times last spring to discuss his proposals for Locke, but those talks broke down.

“Mr. Brewer has said he continues to be interested in partnering with Green Dot,” said Greg McNair, who leads the district’s charter school division.

Green Dot is part of a new wave of nonprofit, high-performing charter chains that have grown rapidly with philanthropic financing, in Green Dot’s case especially from the Broad and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundations. Others include the Kipp Schools, in 18 states, and Achievement First, with 12 schools in New York and New Haven, said Ted Mitchell, head of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a San Francisco group that works with several chains.

Mr. Mitchell said that only Green Dot was mounting such an aggressive challenge to the local school board. “Many charter organizations try to induce different behavior by providing examples of good new schools,” he said. “But only Green Dot is trying to provoke a school district to behave in radically different ways.”

Some people voice skepticism about Green Dot’s methods. Clint Bolick, a lawyer who has represented many charter schools, said: “If union bosses start patrolling their hallways, that’ll be the death knell of charters, as it has been for public schools. There has to be a genuine perestroika for Green Dot’s approach to work.”

Tactics aside, the chain has had promising results. An early high school that Green Dot founded, Ànimo Inglewood, has raised the percent of students proficient in math by 40 points since 2003, and 79 percent of its students from the class of 2006 went on to college. Green Dot keeps enrollment in its high schools below 525. Incoming freshmen who need it remedial tutoring get it, and thereafter pursue a college-prep curriculum.

Three years ago, Mr. Barr negotiated with district officials about overhauling Jefferson High School, a dropout factory in downtown Los Angeles. When the talks bogged down, Mr. Barr concluded he needed clout.

Green Dot organized a parents union, and its members, buttonholing neighbors in supermarkets and churches, collected 10,000 signatures endorsing Jefferson’s division into several smaller charter schools.

Mr. Barr marched from Jefferson High with nearly 1,000 parents to deliver the petition to district headquarters. The authorities refused to relinquish Jefferson, but the school board approved five new charters, which Green Dot inaugurated last fall, all near Jefferson and drawing students from it.

Green Dot’s recent organizing suggests that many teachers are as frustrated as parents.

Locke, designated a failing school for much of a decade, is awaiting its fourth principal in five years. This spring, Mr. Barr drew up a charter plan and began meeting with teachers to explain it. He envisioned using the Locke campus for smaller schools that emphasize college prep and give teachers more decision-making authority.

He invited Frank Wells, Locke’s principal, to tour a Green Dot charter in May, a day on which Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be visiting. Before parents, teachers and the secretary, Mr. Wells denounced the district as using Locke as a dumping ground for incompetent teachers.

“I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall,” Mr. Wells said.

On May 7, teachers began circulating a petition endorsing Green Dot’s plan for Locke, and more than half of Locke’s 73-member tenured staff members signed. Bruce Smith, an English teacher who gathered signatures, said most young teachers were eager to sign; older teachers were reluctant.

“Among the people who opposed us, nobody said, ‘The district is doing a great job here,’ ” Mr. Smith recalled. “It was mostly, ‘What about our job security?’ ”

The district authorities accused Mr. Wells of fomenting the revolt, dispatched guards to escort him from the building, and dismissed him, Mr. Wells said. Binti Harvey, a district spokeswoman, declined to discuss Mr. Wells.

A decision by Locke’s teachers to break with the district would be an embarrassment for the school district and the teachers union. Both began lobbying the teachers. Last month, the district rejected Green Dot’s petition, saying 17 teachers had withdrawn their endorsement, leaving it without the majority necessary to comply with a charter conversion law.

But a newly elected board of education is to reconsider the petition in August.

Mr. Barr says that if he does not win the chance to use the Locke campus for his new charter schools, he will surround it with Green Dot’s next 10 charter schools, which are to open nearby in 2008, supported by a $7.8 million donation from the Gates Foundation.

“If the district doesn’t work with me, I’ll compete with them and take their kids,” Mr. Barr said.

— Sam Dillon
New York Times
2007-07-24

Union targets charter schools

BY NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN, Staff Writer
LA Daily News

Article Last Updated:06/10/2007 09:44:34 PM PDT

Implicitly admitting its antagonism to the charter school movement has failed, United Teachers Los Angeles now wants to unionize their faculties and push for more independence in the classroom.

UTLA President A.J. Duffy says the union has created a committee to study how it can organize charter schools created by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"We have come to the realization that we need to look at organizing teachers at charter schools," Duffy said. "It's not just organizing charter school personnel, which we have an internal committee looking at. It's pushing the reforms that we've been pushing for two years including local control of schools."

With 103 charter schools in operation at the LAUSD - a number expected to grow to more than 150 in two years - UTLA has watched many of its teachers leave traditional public schools. Many of those who remain have demanded the same classroom freedom offered by the charters.

And in what may be a critical first step, charter powerhouse Steve Barr, head of Green Dot Public Schools, is in talks with UTLA as he works to convert the troubled Locke High School into a charter.

Barr's teachers are members of the California Teachers Association, the umbrella organization of UTLA, and are among the few unionized teachers at LAUSD charters.

"We're having very public conversations with teachers represented by UTLA across the city and also with UTLA. I hope it leads to something but we've been talking for years," Barr said. "I don't believe you can go into a 100 percent unionized industry and change it with nonunion labor."

Hostile to union

But Barr said the charter movement is, for the most part, hostile toward the union. He added that charters are missing a chance to form a productive relationship.

"As relationships start to come together between the unions and unionized charters, the people that will be left out of the equation are non-unionized charters," Barr said. "The charter movement is more stubborn about these kinds of relationships than the unions are."

Charter schools are probably one of the biggest political land mines around which Duffy has to maneuver. Duffy has blasted the independent schools for years, and is now seen by many rank-and-file members as flip-flopping on the issue.

The union president said his position is clear: If a school chooses to turn charter and they want UTLA as the bargaining agent, then he must negotiate.

But the issue goes beyond bringing in more dues, Duffy said - it's about making real reform happen.

Barr hopes the new school board, along with the mayor, will apply a sense of urgency to embrace charters and the best practices they offer.

"It's all aligning because there's got to be some radical restructuring in that district, which is going to be painful and bloody," Barr said.

"With a new school board, a parent revolt and a teacher revolt happening, I'm very optimistic, and I think when A.J. Duffy and his team realize that we have it all in common, it's going to be very powerful."

But recent events show that it may not be enough to work with a few leaders who share the ideas for change.

Recently, Brewer was working feverishly behind-the-scenes with Barr to develop a model that would transform the challenged Locke High School in South Los Angeles.

Duffy was part of those meetings and was on board, but when Barr said could not wait until Duffy got his 48,000 members on board, it forced the UTLA president to back out.

But the outcome at Locke will likely become the blueprint for future relationships with the union, Barr believes.

"I think there's a perfect storm brewing," he said, citing shared goals like more money to classrooms, more teacher pay, smaller classrooms and having more say on budget and curriculum.

Inevitable trend

"I think it's inevitable with this (union) leadership that this trend is now happening faster than people anticipated. I think these guys understand those trends and I hope they get in front of it."

David Abel, an education advocate, believes Barr's move to eschew the union's backing to get something done is the only way to change the direction of a school district as large as the LAUSD.

"Barr is on the right track. Clearly we have a broken, almost crippled school district and he doesn't have time to reflect," said Abel, chairman of New Schools Better Neighborhoods, a civic advocacy organization.

Caprice Young, head of the California Charter Schools Association, said now that their schools have proven academic records and high satisfaction among teachers, the union cannot ignore them anymore.

And the district's traditional public schools are raising the pressure by contacting charter operators like Green Dot for guidance to convert - most recently Taft High School in Woodland Hills and Santee in Los Angeles.

In fact, Young said she would put up the association's resources to help train UTLA to create their own high-quality schools.

"The leadership of the union is going to have to listen to its own membership and they're saying we have to start charters," Young said. "They're seeing their peers leaving LAUSD to go to charters and they're loving it."

naush.boghossian@dailynews.com

(818) 713-3722

Lessons for UFT Activists From LA Union?

A radical change for two union militants

The former dissidents, now powerful insiders, shaped the tough tactics that got L.A. teachers more than just a raise.

By Joe Mathews
Times Staff Writer

February 15, 2007

At United Teachers Los Angeles, veteran classroom instructors Joel Jordan and Joshua Pechthalt were longtime outsiders, considered a bit too radical for a union long known for its progressive politics.

Now, as leaders at the nation's second-largest teachers union, they are applying their ideas in ways that could reshape Southern California's politics and schools.

On Tuesday came the largest practical demonstration of the union's new approach to date: a three-year union contract.

The agreement was sealed after months of unusually confrontational rhetoric and aggressive public protests staged by the union's leaders. And the deal's details — particularly its mandate for class size reduction and new job protections for union activists — reflect the long-standing emphasis by Pechthalt, Jordan and their allies on broadening UTLA's advocacy beyond salary and benefits.

"This contract is a representation of our vision, in a concentrated and limited form," Jordan said after a news conference to announce the agreement.

In the months ahead, union leaders say, they intend to use a similar approach in two other big battles: the March 6 elections, which could reshape the Los Angeles school board, and the implementation of a state law that, if it survives court challenges, could grant Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and perhaps the union itself greater influence over the district.

UTLA's more aggressive stance is personified by A.J. Duffy, the dapper, occasionally bombastic union president who communicates with the membership and tussles with the press. But according to people both inside and outside UTLA, the strategy has been shaped by the little-known Jordan and Pechthalt, self-described "union militants" who now hold key leadership posts.

Jordan, a top staffer, and Pechthalt, a vice president, have long ties to activist politics and to Villaraigosa, a former UTLA staffer who once represented Pechthalt in a grievance against the Los Angeles Unified School District. Along with Duffy and two other allies, Pechthalt and Jordan were unexpectedly swept into power in elections two years ago by a membership frustrated at stalled contract talks.

Their dissident status had been cemented over two decades. They staged demonstrations without the approval of union leadership. They supported bilingual education when California voters didn't, opposed standardized testing as it became popular and questioned whether homework was necessary. They published a newsletter criticizing the labor movement and their own union, particularly its focus on electing school board members to secure power and good contracts.

Instead, they said, UTLA should reinvent itself as the base for a social movement that would engage in aggressive organizing of parents and communities, confront even friendly politicians and use militant tactics rarely employed by staid public employee unions.

"UTLA has never realized its full potential, which is to organize at schools, with teachers, parents and the community," Pechthalt said. "We need to create a broader movement for public education."

But this approach has caused alarm among some in the union and in political circles. Rank-and-file teachers and even other UTLA officers suggest that in their zeal to change the organization, the new union leaders have neglected some of the nuts and bolts of unionism.

"UTLA is a labor union and has the structure and mechanisms and funding and politics of a labor union," said Warren Fletcher, a union chairman at City of Angels School downtown, who has been both ally and critic of Pechthalt and Jordan. "I'm concerned that we're approaching things from the perspective of some sort of grand movement."



Jordan, 64, an avuncular alternative-school teacher, and Pechthalt, a funny, mustachioed social studies teacher, met 20 years ago. They were introduced by a mutual friend, UCLA professor Robert Brenner, a classmate of Jordan's at Beverly Hills High School.

A trumpet player in his youth, Jordan became radicalized during the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, where he was a student. He left graduate school to teach in the Oakland public schools. He quit to drive a truck and later became an organizer in Los Angeles for Teamsters for a Democratic Union. By 1980, Jordan had returned to teaching. He eventually took a job at Mid-City Alternative School and stayed close to Brenner.

"We both developed the same sort of emphasis, a first principle that the activity and organizing of the membership of a union, rather than the leadership, is the key to power," Brenner said.

Pechthalt, 53, took a class from Brenner at UCLA during the 1980s on social theory and comparative history. Pechthalt was the son of radicals. His father, a Colombian immigrant, was a chicken farmer turned politician who briefly moved the family back to South America when Pechthalt was a child. His mother, a bookkeeper, actively opposed the Vietnam War.

Brenner had a lasting impact on Pechthalt. The professor argues that the world economy and global capitalism are in decline, a view that Jordan and Pechthalt say they share.

"Joel and I developed a critique of the narrow trade union perspective," Pechthalt said. "With the tightening of the economic pie, the only way to challenge that was to build a broad-based social movement for public education."

During UTLA's last strike, a nine-day walkout in 1989, Pechthalt and Jordan organized a rally in Exposition Park with Villaraigosa's help. In 1992, Pechthalt led a one-hour wildcat strike at Manual Arts High School, which included 30 teachers and 1,500 students, to protest cuts. The district tried to discipline Pechthalt; Villaraigosa guided his successful grievance.

About the same time, Pechthalt and Jordan began publishing A Second Opinion, a newsletter that frequently criticized UTLA. Among their contributors were other dissidents, including Julie Washington, now a vice president, and David Goldberg, now union treasurer.

"We need to once more begin transforming the image of teachers as friendly Caspar Milquetoast do-gooders into a unified, mobilized and proud bunch of unionists," Pechthalt and Jordan wrote in August 2004.

By then, Jordan was running a campaign to take over the board of directors and three officer positions with a slate of dissidents called United Action. The slate did not field a presidential candidate, and did not think Duffy, the only challenger to incumbent John Perez, stood a chance.

But Duffy, an unsinkable sort who favors fine suits and two-tone shoes, was undeterred. The son of a Brooklyn insurance executive, he was slow to learn to read and "was a tremendous disappointment to my parents," he said. In his 20s, Duffy moved to Philadelphia, where he lived in a commune and started a day-care center.

After moving to Los Angeles, Duffy earned his teaching credential. He taught social studies at Drew Middle School near Watts and special education at Franklin High in Highland Park. He frequently ran afoul of principals but sharpened his fighting skills in grievances.

Though campaigning for the union presidency on his own, Duffy found he agreed with Pechthalt and Jordan on the need for militancy; United Action endorsed Duffy, and vice versa.

Their timing was good. In February 2005, the frustrated membership elected the entire slate, including Duffy.

The new leaders claimed some victories for their new approach. They persuaded teachers to wear red shirts on Tuesdays as a sign of union solidarity. They pushed the district to reduce some of the mandatory assessments of students that teachers complain take class time. They also supported other unions. Duffy and Pechthalt were arrested during a demonstration in favor of airport hotel workers last September.

The leaders' philosophy also led them to a deal they came to regret with Villaraigosa to support state legislation granting him more influence over the school district.

They opposed his initial bid for a full takeover, instead pressing him behind the scenes to pursue a partnership with the union. The compromise legislation, AB 1381, was negotiated behind closed doors in Sacramento. That secrecy, along with provisions granting more power to the superintendent, upset some of UTLA's rank and file, and opponents gathered signatures for a referendum on the deal.

After AB 1381 became law (it has since been blocked by a judge), members voted to overturn the union's support of the agreement, leaving UTLA an official opponent of the law its own leaders negotiated.

"Many of the current officers of UTLA do not have a clue what the rank-and-file membership has to say about educational reform or raising student achievement or protecting public education and does not seem to take the time to even bother to find out," former union vice president Becki Robinson wrote to The Times after the deal.

The reversal left Villaraigosa deeply skeptical of the union's ability to deliver on any agreement, said sources close to the mayor. In school board races this spring, the mayor and the union are backing different candidates.



Union officers saw the contract fight, in part, as a chance to make amends for AB 1381 — and mobilize as they had promised.

They sponsored a tour of campuses to highlight overcrowding and held two massive rallies of teachers. They broadcast radio ads calling for smaller classes and more authority for parents. And they repeatedly threatened to strike.

"We have to destroy this district," Duffy, 62, told teachers last month at Nightingale Middle School in Northeast Los Angeles. "We have to pull it apart. We have to dismantle it. The only way to do it is with conflict."

The contract was sealed Monday, as the union began a strike authorization vote. District officials said negotiations gained momentum when Jordan personally joined the talks.

The deal produced a 6% raise — less than the 9% the union had previously demanded but more than some school board members thought was prudent. Union leaders, for their part, emphasized their gains on non-salary issues that were often the subject of articles in the old dissident newsletter.

The contract includes both reductions in and caps on class sizes (which will average about one or two fewer students per class). It gives new protection to teachers active in UTLA; anyone transferred for their union activities can appeal to a mediator.

Said their ally Washington, who was on the negotiating committee: "This is just a beginning."

*

joe.mathews@latimes.com

*

Begin text of infobox

Pushing militancy

For 15 years, teachers Joshua Pechthalt and Joel Jordan, now top officials of United Teachers Los Angeles, published a newsletter called A Second Opinion. Among the frequent contributors were current union vice president Julie Washington and treasurer David Goldberg. In articles with headlines such as "The Illusion of Reform Through 'Cooperation,' " A Second Opinion argued that the union should eschew conciliation in favor of more militant public actions. Some excerpts:

On the need to make the union part of a greater social movement:

"Such a movement in the street would of necessity involve those most affected by and involved in education, teachers and support personnel, parents, students and community — as well as other users and providers of human services. Its methods would be mass demonstrations, job actions and direct action, not just traditional lobbying."



— Unsigned editorial, September-October 1991

On the failure to pursue a strike during a previous contract dispute:

"In the final analysis, UTLA leaders refused to lead a strike because they were more concerned about embarrassing our 'friends' in Sacramento than about fighting for a decent contract."



— Editorial, April 1993

On strikes:

"We also have to take on the notion that the people of Los Angeles will view a strike negatively. We can do that by championing genuine school reform that raises per-pupil spending, lowers class size, creates smaller, more humanistic schools and challenges the illusion of reform…. If parents see that UTLA is the only organized force willing to fight for real school reform, we will gain their support whether we strike or not."



— Pechthalt, March-April 2000



On the value of school board elections:

"The current state of negotiations underscores the failure of President Perez and the other officers to offer a strategy that builds the power of the union to win a good contract and improve conditions at the schools. Rather, Perez has prioritized using the union's resources to endorsing candidates, winning friends at the school board and the state Legislature, and then relying on them to deliver the goods."



— Pechthalt, January-February 2005

On testing:

As long as poverty remains pervasive and funding for public education a low priority, we must view the clamor to raise test scores with skepticism. The market mentality that pits students against one another for limited college slots and the possibility of a decent life, while teachers feverishly teach to tests so they can move up the career ladder, is the antithesis of what real education should be."



— Pechthalt, April-May 1998

On former Supt. Roy Romer



Arrivederci Romer

Goodbye, we're not your fools

District of a million administrators

Mini districts full of your dictators

Money spent on bureaucratic waste

Far from our schools

Arrivederci Romer

It's time for us to part

Beaudry, Belmont, Broad call out to haunt us

You make our class size swell so you can taunt us

The Rockies beckon. Can't you hear them calling in your heart?



— Brian Wallace, retired teacher, fall 2004

On the Iraq war:

"The values of tolerance, respect for diversity, alternatives to violence, and critical thinking that we try to instill in our students are also in jeopardy…. Corporate media domination has allowed the Bush administration to get away with selling the American public an ever-shifting package of justifications for war without subjecting them to closer scrutiny."



Jordan, April 2003

JOE MATHEWS, Times Staff Writer




latimes.com

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