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Los Angeles Charter Moratorium Rejected

“LAUSD rejects voluntary moratorium on new charter schools”
by Barbara Jones
Contra Costa Times
November 13, 2012

Following a flood of protests from parents and charter supporters, the Los Angeles Unified board on Tuesday soundly rejected a resolution seeking a voluntary moratorium on new charter applications while a strategic plan is developed to better govern their explosive growth.

Board member Steve Zimmer said he saw the need for an in-depth study of the district’s charter system, which now educates some 110,000 students and has thousands more on waiting lists. He wanted to monitor how well charter schools are educating students and ways to share methods for closing the achievement gap and boosting parental involvement.

“The milestone of 100,000 is a moment in which we should step back and reflect on what is working in our role as (charter) operator and what isn’t,” he said. “We need to have a real strategy and a real plan.”

But parents and charter supporters saw his resolution as a challenge to their right to choose the appropriate school for their child, with speakers sharing personal stories of how charters had changed their lives.

“You shouldn’t just vote against the resolution,” said parent Katrina George, whose handicapped son struggled at a traditional school but thrived once he was enrolled in a charter. “You should do the opposite and open more charters. At the end of the day, this should be about the kids.”

Zimmer’s colleagues said they’d tried to talk him out of pursuing the resolution, and Superintendent John Deasy said it was unnecessary.

“The work can be done without the resolution,” Deasy said.

In the end, Zimmer and board member Bennett Kayser cast the only yes votes for the resolution. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte had left during the debate and was not present for the vote.

Zimmer’s original resolution, introduced in September, called on the board to postpone or refer new charter applications to the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Critics noted that would be illegal, and he revised the proposal to ask charter operators to voluntarily hold off on submitting new applications until a timetable was in place for the suggested reforms.

Parents signed petitions and as many as 2,000 demonstrators flooded the street in front of LAUSD during a lunchtime protest. Most were gone by the time the board got through a lengthy agenda.

“We’re not the enemy,” said charter pioneer Joe Lucente, repeating comments he made during the demonstration. “Our very existence benefits all students, whether in traditional or charter schools… Don’t fear us, embrace us.”

The board also wrestled with arequest to renew the charter for Gabriella Charter, which shares space with Logan Span School in Echo Park. Parents from both schools – both of them thriving – said there just wasn’t room on the campus to meet the needs of the students.

The board OK’d the extension with the charter, which boasts an arts education program and an API of 894, with the understanding that Deasy will try to find additional space for Gabriella.

Zimmer said it was just this sort of situation – “a collision of goodness” – he wanted to avoid when he introduced his resolution.

“The system has become about competitionand not innovation,” he said.

“I want to know what we can do best when we collaborate.”

Board members Tamar Galatzan and Nury Martinez admonished Zimmer that he could not work around Proposition 39, the voter-approved measure that requires school districts to accommodate space requests from independent charters.

“Ten years ago, voters approved Prop. 39,” Martinez said. “To continue to have these debates when you know what the law is polarizes hundreds of thousands of parents … Be done with it, Mr. Zimmer.”