Sign Up For Our Newsletter

LA teacher on takeover deal

LAUSD English teacher Doug Lasken is less than optimistic on the takeover:

The California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles were set to kill mayoral control, but they have done a 180-degree turnabout, moving from vocal opposition to vocal support. Endless e-mails tell members that “takeover is dead” and that we have a great deal coming in AB 1381. Why the dramatic change? The unions don’t really explain it, relying as they do on membership’s docility. But the clear suggestion from vague pronouncements is that local control over curriculum will be greatly enhanced.

So what’s wrong with local control of curriculum?

Potentially, a lot.

California students are highly transient. Do we want a different reading theory facing students in each district? The state is well into a major reform involving explicit phonics instruction, most notably in elementary schools implementing the Open Court program, which replaced the previous use of “whole language.”

"Whole language"?  Heaven help us.  (For those who aren’t aware of California’s disastrous experiment with whole language, go here for a harrowing account.)  Meanwhile, Lasken offers an interesting take on why the unions threw their support behind the deal:

The tacit promise of local control of curriculum, in the minds of many, is that under the mayor’s plan neither the state nor the district would have the authority to mandate explicit phonics instruction. This could help explain why the unions, whose curriculum mavens loved whole language, did its switcheroo. The same goes for Jackie Goldberg, termed-out assemblywoman and former L.A. school board member who supported whole language as a board member and routinely denounces explicit phonics in the Assembly. Goldberg, who hopes to be LAUSD superintendent under the new regime, just did the same 180 as the unions.

Admittedly, the motives of Goldberg and the unions are a matter of speculation, but that’s the point. The unions, Goldberg, in fact everyone currently supporting the plan — including the mayor himself — are saying nothing about AB 1381’s impact on curriculum. We are asked to fast track this thing on the basis of slogans and pressure.

After the roller coaster our kids have been on, we deserve better than this. At the very least, we need the mayor to come forward, show some knowledge of curricular issues, and indicate where he stands.  (emphasis added)

Did Goldberg support this hoping to cash in a favor once she leaves office?  If so, this deal is getting more odorous by the second.