The Challenge of Conversion Charters

According to an article published late this evening by Connie Llanos at the Daily News, the charter application for Birmingham High School has been approved.

Birmingham is one of the coveted LAUSD schools, highly rated, and well regarded.  It's a model for the type of schools that are clamoring for real local control.  But after watching the cablecast of the the meeting last week, it was also a perfect example of what could go wrong by taking that first step.

The Daniel Pearl Journalism Magnet asked not to included, so they'll be completely autonomous.  Many magnets operate in this way, with the exception of test scores and other things that get muddled and included with the main campus.

And after 80 of 120 teachers signed the charter petition, some (others claim many) changed their minds.  At the LAUSD board meeting, many parents claimed having no knowledge of the petition.  Students claimed to be harrassed for questioning the charter.

As a parent in one of LAUSD's highly coveted elementary schools, I can see where the problems are going to crop up.  We're non-Title I, and we all want autonomy to control our destiny--that is, until the realities of losing lifetime health care scare off the senior teachers.  Or until different factions claim harrassment.  Or until there's a disagreement in the vision of the petitioners.

I wish the Parent Union/Parent Revolution and other groups well, but I wonder how we get from where we are surviving despite LAUSD to surviving without LAUSD.  Parents want change, but are they willing to do it without the teachers and administrators that make their schools great?  And how many schools will LAUSD let go before they realize they're letting the best schools go, making their job even harder?