Sign Up For Our Newsletter

end run around reform?

That’s the ominous opinion from the L.A. Daily News (hat tip: Charter Blog).  Upshot: an LAUSD school looking to go charter is running into a number of procedural obstacles from the district.  But the devil is in the details:

Instead of making Parkman a charter, LAUSD and UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles–ed.) brass propose making it a "waiver" school. Although short on specifics, the idea is to keep Parkman under the control of the LAUSD – and with a UTLA-represented staff – but extend it some of the autonomy enjoyed by charter schools.

Union and district officials make no secret that what they do at Parkman might provide the model for how to extinguish the charter movement and block Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plans for taking over the LAUSD. And that ought to make anyone concerned about the future of public education in Los Angeles nervous.

If what the union and district are proposing is to undermine public enthusiasm for charters by coming up with something even better, well then, by all means, let’s see what they have to offer. That’s the sort of innovation charters are supposed to foster.

But given that both organizations have spent decades fighting reform, it seems they may have something more nefarious up their sleeves, namely, thwarting charters through a combination of bureaucratic obstruction and smoke-and-mirrors PR.

We’re shocked, shocked.