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Steve Barr: a man with clout

Via EducationNews comes this interesting news: Steve Barr, the man behind L.A.’s phenomenal Green Dot charter schools, could be on the verge of having carte blanche with the state board of education:

On Wednesday, the state Board of Education is poised to vote on giving Green Dot the authority to create independent charter schools without having to first get approval from local school districts.

It would mark the first time a charter operator in Los Angeles won that power, and only the second time in California.

"It’s just insurance. We will exhaust all efforts to work with the district but just in case we have this in our hip pocket to use," Barr said Monday.

"We’re really trying to figure out how to take research and development (at charters), couple it with political will and create systematic improvement. We’re not going to create a district with 1,000 charter schools.

"The goal is for all LAUSD schools to have the basic tenets we know work and eliminate the need for charters."

Without having to fight his way through the bureaucratic and political obstacles of Los Angeles Unified, Barr hopes to demonstrate what works in public schools and spark citywide school reform. 

Of course, the usual suspects (UTLA and LAUSD) oppose the idea.