My "Network" Moment

I’m having that “Network” moment, just like when the character melts down in the 1976 movie and says “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  Being a parent with a child in LAUSD is already a challenge.  I navigate the various deadlines of magnet programs, open enrollment, and anything else to get my kids into schools that seem as good as the ones I went to when I was in school.  As a parent, I’m faced with incredible tasks of fundraising to provide the things that are normal parts of school—field trips, assemblies, art, music, and even PE.  It’s essentially a full-time job.  I’m supposed to understand it takes forever to get an LAUSD psychologist to test kids for giftedness, and that I can’t pay for outside testing to move the process along.  Sending a kid to public school becomes a full-time job trying to stay on top of the issues of the district, the issues at the school, the volunteering in the classroom, and making endless meetings with the PTA, its variety of committees, or the school’s site council.  And as a parent who survived LAUSD long enough that my son made it to dealing with LAUSD high school issues I found out that college units taken while in high school don’t count toward high school graduations or GPAs.  And I eventually realized navigating the college admissions process is strictly on your own, unless your child is planning to attend a local community college.

Yet, overall, for the last dozen years, we’ve had it good.  Apparently too good.  My son entered kindergarten in 1995, and by first grade, California schools choose to limit class size to 20:1.  I believe it was K-2 at first and then third grade came later.  But the younger grades were treated to some really manageable class sizes.  This allowed some parents to consider public schools, at least through elementary school, and save the tuition for later in their student’s career path.  My daughter came along ten years later, and I was able to pick up what I learned with my son, fine tune it to a whole new level, and actually share it with other LAUSD parents for free.  Through Open Enrollment, she’s been attending a phenomenal school in Granada Hills: fewer than 450 kids, great parental involvement, superb teachers, and an amazing principal.

Now comes the largest financial crisis of the last several generations, and we have to cut back.  But it seems the cutbacks are different depending on how much funding the school is entitled to.  Oddly enough, the schools that are showing that they can get by with little added funding now get even less.

Frankly, I’m mad as hell—at everyone.

I’m mad at politicians in Sacramento who just don’t get that they can’t be everything to everyone.   They’ve held up the budget so long we’re now facing budget deficits far into this year and making cuts that should have been made last year

I’m mad at UTLA.  While the other unions are at least willing to sit at a table and discuss being a partner to address the district’s budget woes, the union is now advocating a one-day strike during state-mandated testing.  They’re willing to have their pay docked for a day while they strike, but they won’t sit down and discuss the same day’s pay as part of a furlough with other unions.  When UTLA talking head AJ Duffy talks about cutting LAUSD district office or central office “fat” he fails to mention that those same jobs he wants to cut are held by former teachers who thanks to bumping rights are headed back to our schools.

I’m mad at LA’s Mayor Villaraigosa.  I couldn’t figure out why *he’d* come out in favor of wage cuts, until I read that the schools most likely to be adversely affected by the bumping rights are the schools in his little empire.  If he can’t get teachers talking about salary freezes and wage cuts, he’s going to be running for governor with yet another major failure to his credit.

And I’m mad at other parents who just say throw more money at the mess and make it all go away—for now.  What’s become so painfully clear in recent weeks is how top heavy the district is, and that no amount of paring will resolve that.  If we don’t fix this system, we’ll be back to this next year, with less to show for it.  If we vote for the tax increases, no one learns--not the politicians, not the unions, not the bureaucrats, no one.

And I’m mad at taxpayers for voting for bond issue after bond issue without ever asking for a real accounting as to where the money went.  Whether for moving full-steam ahead on sites with oil fields under them or newly discovered fault lines; or for continuing to build and holding “update” meetings where far more staffers attend than community members, no one asked the obvious questions.  With declining enrollments in so many areas, what are we building and for whom?

And I’m mad at a district that essentially says if a school isn’t over 1000 kids and has 40+ percent free lunch applicants, there isn’t enough money in the equation to save a single teacher.  My daughter’s perfect-sized 440 student school will receive a whopping $29,000 to offset the loss of three or more teachers.  We already have NO aides, and many positions will be going to half-time or less—our Assistant Principal, our librarian, our cafeteria staff, and our custodial crews.

And I’m mad at other parents for not educating themselves on these issues before they tilt at windmills.  We’re still accepting what we’re being given, and not demanding the best education for our kids.  Or we’re being used as pawns in other groups’ games.  Why is it that great school districts like Conejo Valley Unified or Simi Valley Unified can manage small schools without Title I funds and without PI funds?  How can we be leaner and still be a contender?

The whole system has to change.  People who leave the classroom should not have bumping rights for years.  I can see a short grace period to see if the new position is workable to the employee, but what happens when someone comes back to the classroom after years in the Ivory Tower of Beaudry and now has to catch up with all the new procedures and techniques?

I’m not for blowing through the entire stimulus in a year—certainly not before we start looking at the causes of the problem to begin with.  And if we blow through the stimulus this year, whose fault will it be next year when we’re out of money and out of options?  We have to face there will be larger classes--and teachers will be let go.  It's NOT the fault of parents.

We have more than one stake in this game.  As taxpayers we pay for this ridiculous system.  Public education is hardly free.  As parents we provide our children to the system so that the district exists at all.  Yet, we don’t have a union.  We don’t have campaign war chests.  We’re simply parents.  Yet we are the customers.  We have to realize that we have the power to be equals in this equation.  So our "Network" moment requires sticking our heads into the schools, contacting the media, and telling them we aren't going to take it anymore.

It’s time to find a system that works.  If that means breaking the entire district up, starting over, or storming Sacramento, I’m ready to do it.  If it means talking about going charter, I’m willing to do it.  Will the other integers of education, come with us?  I don’t know, but they’re clearly outnumbered.   Do we want to partner with them?  Maybe.  If they're willing to partner with us.