Broad, others want half of LAUSD students in charter schools in eight years, report says

[n2doc]

Backers outlined an ambitious strategy to place half of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District into charter schools over the next eight years, a move they said would serve as a model for the rest of the nation, according to documents obtained by The Times.

The 44-page report is dated June 2015 and outlines a campaign of fundraising and building political awareness aimed at reaching the goal, which the report said would require $490 million.

The report cited numerous foundations and individuals who could be tapped to raise money, including the Bill and Melinda Gates, Bloomberg, Annenberg and Hewlett organizations. Among the individuals cited as potential targets for fundraising were Eli Broad, Irvine Co. head Donald Bren, former entertainment mogul David Geffen and Tesla's Elon Musk.

It also suggested a strategy of grassroots organizing and civic engagement designed to generate more interest among parents in charter schools.

L.A. Unified already has the largest charter school program in the country, representing about 16% of total enrollment. But getting to 50% would mean creating 260 charter schools that would provide 130,000 seats, the report said.

more

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-broad-draft-charter-expansion-plan-20150921-story.html

[hollysmom]

1. honestly I don't know when people will accept that charter schools, for the most part

are a rip off.

[roody]

2. Whom will that make richer?

[eridani]

3. Confidential Charter School Memo Blasted as 'Outline for a Hostile Takeover'

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/09/23/confidential-charter-school-memo-blasted-outline-hostile-takeover

According to teacher and education reform watchdog Peter Greene, writing at his Curmudgucation blog on Tuesday, the plan reads as "forty-four pages of How To Completely Circumvent the Public School System For Fun and Profit."

"This is not just about educational quality (or lack thereof), or just about how to turn education into a cash cow for a few high rollers—this is about a ham-handed effort to circumvent democracy in a major American city," Greene continued. "There's nothing in this plan about listening to the parents or community—only about what is going to be done to them by men with power and money."

Among the plan's sharpest critics is LA Unified school board president Steve Zimmer, who characterized it to LA School Report as a destructive strategy that would ignore the needs of thousands of children "living in isolation, segregation and extreme poverty."

"This is not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy," he told the online news site. "It’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly-funded school that assumes that other kids will be injured by that opportunity. It’s not appropriate in terms of what the conversation should be in Los Angeles. The conversation should be better public education options and quality public schools for all kids, not some kids."

He added: "To submit a business plan that focuses on market share is tantamount to commodifying our children."

And in an interview with the LA Times, Zimmer called Broad's plan "an outline for a hostile takeover."

"There's nothing in this plan about listening to the parents or community—only about what is going to be done to them by men with power and money."
—Peter Greene