Abolishing the LAUSD (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Clarita: apartment, to rent, transfer)

[majoun]

While at the present time it does not seem likely for the state to abolish, take over, or break up the LAUSD immediately (probably the single most negative factor hurting Los Angeles' quality of life and desirability - Bratton, iirc, even stated that LAUSD's failure is the true root of LA's gang problems), apparently the state does have the power to do so:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools29nov29,1,7728739.story?coll=la-headlines-california (broken link)

In January, the California Department of Education will meet to decide what to do about LAUSD. All of the possible options would represent a very big change. Hopefully, the state will order the LAUSD broken up or abolished. This would be a giant step in improving education in L.A. and making areas currently served by LAUSD more attractive for families.

[EscapeCalifornia]

The people running that failure of a system need to be demoted to the lunchroom.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

The people running that failure of a system need to be demoted to the lunchroom.

How about merely having them paint over tagging and gang graffiti?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by majoun

How about merely having them paint over tagging and gang graffiti?

Ohh, even better.

[jessemh431]

They should seriously do away with it. It sucks. I live in Playa Del Rey and am assigned to Westchester High. Can you see a little, white, nerdy/cool-at-the-same-time kid going there. It's sad I can't go to my local high school because LAUSD grouped my desirable area and Westchester with bad places such as Inglewood. The majority of the kids are from Inglewood, so It's not a good school. I now have luckily transferred to another nearby district that is much better. The schools should be split up into either a westside district or So. Bay and W. LA districts, South (Central) district. Long Beach district. SFV should split into north, south, east and west. E LA district. Hollywood district. Beverly/Brentwood/Westwood district. Hollywood district including Silverlake, Los Feliz, WeHo, Miracle Mile, K-Town, and Fairfax. Pasadena/San Marino. Central SGV. East SGV. Santa Clarita. Lancaster/Palmdale. Catalina. Aguora/Calabasas. Downtown can either be South SFV or Hollwyood-i don't think they'd wanna be part of E LA or S Central. Oh yea, and South County district for places like Bellflower and Paramount.

[greggd]

What is the current problem with the LAUSD? I would like to hear first hand info.

I was under the impression that the quality of education declined because they had to teach english to elementry students rather than the traditional curriculum.

One thing I do know is that when I was in PE class there were about 5 or so kids that didnt run around the field. Now when I drive by, I would say 60% walk the field/track. lazy. fat-a'xes

When I attended, it was a given that I would go to my local elementry, jr high, and high school. Is it different now?

Now are the local schools not for the local residents or is it open to anyone who wants to attend or be bused in?

[jessemh431]

You can pretty much go to any LAUSD school you want, so most at Westchester come from Inglewood and similar areas. They comfortable there since it is now 65% black and less than 10% white. They have driven away all the local Westchester and Playa Del Rey kids because they bring gang violence and just plain stupidity to the school. The test scores are horrible. My aunt works there and my uncle used to work there. My aunt saw one kid get knocked out and then beat until he was bloody just for his cell phone. There are police there at least once a week arresting kids. The campus has like 10 campus police.

Well, in my case, I don't want to say what school I go to since there may be some creeps on here. I will say this though, I was taken out of public schools in 2nd grade because I was too smart. I was as smart as 4th graders. I then went to a private school and hated since I like big, crowded places. So, I got in on permit to another school in middle school (6th grade). They kicked me out in 7th because they were overcrowded with so many kids doing the same thing as me-avoing LAUSD. I really liked the school, so my mom decided to rent an apartment there where my dad would sleep to prove residency so I could stay at school there. It's okay for my dad anyways though because he wakes up extremely early to go to work, and now he doesn't wake us at 5:00. Now I'm in high school and loving it. All of my friends that I made early on lived in Playa/Westchester and none of them go to WHS. Several go to my high school now, and others go all over the area to either better schools in LAUSD, schools not in LAUSD, or private schools. My aunt doesn't even want me going to WHS because she knows how bad it is.

Our country is now so obese because people don't try in PE. At my school, the students don't care about PE since colleges don't really care what you got unless you get an F. Some care about their grades, like me, so I try. I am a little overweight, but not much. I look larger than I am. My BMI is normal, but almost to overweight. The students at my school are mostly quite fit. Our sports are pretty good for a school with 1200 kids competing against other schools with 4000, such as West Torrance. Our school is quite fit and our sports are even-basketball, volleyball, football, baseball, and softball are all pretty good. Our best sports are swimming, water polo, and baseball. With sports that good, you can tell our school is quite fit, but many inner city schools are full of obese Hispanic girls (it's a fact that Hispanics tend to be more obese and that girls tend to be more obese. i'm not being racist).

That is a good theory on why schools are so bad. All these Mexicans come here and don't know English. Well, they are in our schools right? Yep, and they bring the scores down. If you notice on this map, most areas with good education are not part of LAUSD, such as San Marino, El Segundo, SaMo, Culver, Beverly, Westwood, Santa Clarita, and Torrance. They all happen to be wealthy also, where everyone knows English
LA Life - Find Your Place in Los Angeles

[majoun]

Originally Posted by greggd

What is the current problem with the LAUSD? I would like to hear first hand info.

I was under the impression that the quality of education declined because they had to teach english to elementry students rather than the traditional curriculum.

The causes, in order of when they happened:

1. The lawsuits that led to the short lived busing program of the late 70s and the busing program itself.

2. Proposition 13 (BIG cause, and the most important one)

3. Poor campus security and gangs which caused those who could afford it to pull their kids out of public schools

4. Financial mismanagement on an Enron type level and a blind devotion to the status quo which didn't work ,e.g. the horrendous "Open Court" system

5. Immigration related problems

6. White flight and eventually middle class flight - however the current "family flight" might actually be beneficial if it keeps the number of kids in all of LA down

Those are just a few of the problems, I'd say that prop 13 and the related budget cuts were the biggest factor. Without Prop 13 and under different management I think LAUSD could have handled any immigration related problems quite easily.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

They should seriously do away with it. It sucks. I live in Playa Del Rey and am assigned to Westchester High. Can you see a little, white, nerdy/cool-at-the-same-time kid going there. It's sad I can't go to my local high school because LAUSD grouped my desirable area and Westchester with bad places such as Inglewood. The majority of the kids are from Inglewood, so It's not a good school. I now have luckily transferred to another nearby district that is much better. The schools should be split up into either a westside district or So. Bay and W. LA districts, South (Central) district. Long Beach district. SFV should split into north, south, east and west. E LA district. Hollywood district. Beverly/Brentwood/Westwood district. Hollywood district including Silverlake, Los Feliz, WeHo, Miracle Mile, K-Town, and Fairfax. Pasadena/San Marino. Central SGV. East SGV. Santa Clarita. Lancaster/Palmdale. Catalina. Aguora/Calabasas. Downtown can either be South SFV or Hollwyood-i don't think they'd wanna be part of E LA or S Central. Oh yea, and South County district for places like Bellflower and Paramount.

many of the places you mentioned already have their own school districts, and are not served by LAUSD. what would be the point of bringing better districts like pasadena and santa clarita into this reorganized system of yours? or even worse ones, like paramount?

[majoun]

Originally Posted by katenik

many of the places you mentioned already have their own school districts, and are not served by LAUSD. what would be the point of bringing better districts like pasadena and santa clarita into this reorganized system of yours? or even worse ones, like paramount?

You are correct that many of the places he mentioned have their own districts.

However, if Mayor Tony had succeeded in his plan to put the LAUSD under city control, West Hollywood was planning to join the Beverly Hills district, and geographically that does make sense.

It also makes geographic sense for Pacific Palisades to join the Santa Monica district, particularly since the SM district including Malibu is actually illegal under state law which requires school districts to be contiguous. No one knows how that situation came to be either ; I'm not sure why the Palisades is part of LAUSD and not SMUSD.If it were to be annexed by SMUSD than the district would be contiguous.

Regardless, I was really hoping that Tony would succeed in taking over LAUSD (particularly since he's opposed to Open Court), but if he couldn't do it, maybe Arnold can....