LAUSD, Green Dot, and the Voice of a Teacher

The corporate charter school movement is getting ready to rear it's ugliest face as LAUSD prepares to action off 250 schools (with part of this process headed by former Broad Resident Parker Hudnut). Media outlets in LA have frozen out the voice of teachers, painted union members as totally crazy, and refused to take any kind of critical look at this rapid expansion of charter schools despite a growing body of evidence that should give us reason to pause.

The story of Green Dot story is much, much deeper and disturbing than mainstream media outlets let on. In the article below, Emerson Middle School teacher Carolyn Jacobson highlights some of the more questionable aspects of the Green Dot narrative constructed by PR whizzes, corporate honchos, and philanthrocapitalists backing the expansion of charters:

The Revolution of Separate, but Equal

By: Carolyn Jacobson, Emerson Middle School teacher

Westwood's Emerson Middle School, where I teach, is the target of a hostile takeover by the most powerful charter school corporation in Los Angeles. We were singled out because Emerson is the neighborhood school for one of the charter revolution leaders, Ben Austin. He is a paid consultant for Green Dot as well as a city official with strong ties to the mayor. It's no coincidence that he is also an organizer of the most vocal parent group advocating privatization of our schools.

For many years, some neighborhood parents visiting our campus have expressed fear when they see our diverse student population. They ask if it is true we've stopped busing in kids from Pico-La Brea. They want their children in our gifted classes because children from other cultures "do not have good work habits" and "those children" would be a negative influence on their own. They accuse Emerson of having both a "culture of failure" and a "gang problem," and have been rude enough to say these things directly to me and to others who work here, often with our students within earshot.

Frankly, they are afraid of the very thing that the teachers, administrators, staff members, and neighborhood parents who choose to send their children to Emerson believe is one of our greatest assets: we are a true microcosm of Los Angeles. Thirty different languages are spoken on our campus. Our students are growing up without racial prejudices and cultural biases because they are personally familiar with the variety of cultures, sub-cultures and ethnicities that exist in this city - the very thing desegregation was to promote. Diversity is working on our campus!

We are a Program Improvement school on the list for potential takeover through the Public School Choice Initiative primarily due to lower test scores for our English learners, our learning disabled, and our students living on the edge in poverty.

Their scores have little to do with their learning. We get them to read and critically discuss Shakespeare, to come up with solutions for global warming, and to get involved in their communities by tackling the issues of poverty at home and abroad. Most go on to very successful high school and college careers. And yet we are a "failing" school.

In a recent article regarding the charter school movement and its affiliated Parent Revolution, Mr. Austin stated that he was excited to send his child to his exemplary neighborhood Warner Elementary School, but Emerson is "failing," and he is working on that. Some neighborhood students are on waiting lists to enroll at Revere Middle School in Brentwood because it is a "better school" with "higher test scores." What all are aware of, but won't publicly discuss, are the demographics:

Warner: 75% White, 17% Asian, 2% African American, 6% Hispanic, 6% English Learners, 7% Learning Disabled, 3% Living in Poverty. 2009 Academic Performance Index (API) 971.

Revere: 45% White, 10% Asian, 16% African American, 26% Hispanic, 6% English Learners, 10% Learning Disabled, 27% Living in Poverty. 2009 (API) 848.

Emerson: 17% White, 5% Asian, 22% African American, 54% Hispanic, 19% English Learners, 12% Learning Disabled, 57% Living in Poverty. 2009 (API) 709.

The corporate privatization of public schools, the school choice initiative, is the latest form of segregation on the Westside. It is the final push-back, the last, bitter act of the "white flight" that began in the 1970's with public schools desegregation and the busing that accompanied it. Those who advocate for "school choice" are merely repeating a slogan used by segregationists from the past.

It seems that the soldiers for equity and true advocates for children are now left to fight this monster alone. We are fighting to educate all the children of the neighborhood, including the children of maids, mechanics, gardeners, and the homeless. With both city daily newspapers supporting charter takeovers, we do not have many friendly outlets to allow our voices to be heard above the clamor of special interests that would like to monopolize our schools for profit, jobs, and/or political gain.

The rhetoric ingrained through continuous recitation of "failing schools" and "No Child Left Behind" has clearly worked. Schools are judged strictly by the results of one standardized test and not by what goes on in the schools themselves.