Another consequence of the LAUSD building boom is that it goobles up neighborhoods and displaces people as it demolishes housing. The current catch phrase in City Council is "affordable housing" that a developer or the developer's friendly Council member has to mention in the presentations and it's like a secret password to open the doors to approval of more development, only the "secret password" is neither a secret nor what it purports to be, "affordable." Demolishing of housing happens often to the areas where the housing costs are relatively low, and where many people may have long paid off their homes. At the same time LAUSD schools are being built, a certain number of families are usually displaced, taking their children with them. This is only a little of what happens in the whole eco-system of construction in the LAUSD environment.
See what the blog, L.A. Curbed has to show in Echo Park where change is continuing
"Curbed Wire: Echo Park Loses A Street, Hollywood Construction Report," Thursday, June 4, 2009, by Dakota. http://la.curbed.com/archives/2009/06/curbed_wire_echo_park_loses_a_street_hollywood_construction_report.php Marathon Street is being closed by the City as requested by the LAUSD for school construction, although the size of the school will not be changing.
The posting refers to the blog, "The Eastsider L.A." for more details.
"City blinks in stand off with school district over Echo Park street closure " from June 2, 2009. Much of what I mention is also noted here, not by coincidence, not by copying ideas, but because that is what actually is there for all to see, no matter who writes or comments on it.
The LAUSD is down to about 2,000 teachers to be laid off, but the Construction program is still going full speed ahead. It's on course to have about 110,000 empty classroom seats by the end of the program in 2012, as the enrollment continues to decline. A few months back, a District person said they were completing one school a month.
How does that work? Building goes on in the face of declining enrollment and the District is searching for money to keep the teachers from being laid off? Well, most of the reason is due to the fact that the money on the operations and money on the construction and modernization side is required to be kept separate. So you can pass by a number of sites and see construction continuing while nearby schools have teachers launching campaigns to save their job.
Money for the building side was authorized by one of several bond measures from years back. Because the wheels at LAUSD spin slowly, you have a long delay that comes between the voter approval and the actual spending.
The bonds for the school buiding programs were approved by voters in the usual way, "Looks like a good idea," and a "Yes" vote is generated. That creates authorization for BORROWING money to do the work. I think most voters see most Bond measures for the first time when they hit the polling place and read the inviting language that welcomes a "Yes" vote- and here we are, loaded with more public debt and more schools are being popped out month by month, destined to be populated by charter schools, the only ones that are growing.
One of the ideas of handling money that I noticed in working in public agencies, and in the LAUSD in particular, contributes to the condition. That happens when there is money available in the erratic funding channels, often a feast-or-famine matter. You just don't give it up, and the "use-it-or-lose-it" rules that most bureaucracies follow in budget matters where "saving" or "carrying over" the money is not allowed, simply creates a culture of spending. And sometimes that is done with uneconomical choices made as a result, sometimes those choices are outright wasteful of the money available, but the "were going to lose it anyway if we don't spend it," works to remove any guilt on these matters. It's like a gift card that has an expiration date, spend it or it's gone. (Note: In California, actual gift cards, by statute, don't expire... yet).
Meanwhile, LAUSD continues with trying to be all things to all people without really equipping students to be able to do the best that they can. The main problem that LAUSD schools have that keep most low performing students in that category is the poor reading skills possessed. Some in high school really are three grade levels behind according to assessment testing. I and other teachers exchanged the same question, "What happened earlier when they were one or two grade levels behind?" Another factor for high school problems arising is a change in school practices. From what my 9th grade students told me, middle school did not introduce them to either "final exams" in their classes, or "failing" in their report cards and repeating the grade. All produced bad results, making high school their rude awakening in some cases, when it should not be a battle against students- they just were not taught anything differently, part of the "system's" casualties. They were not prepared for high school, just as high school is not sufficiently preparing the masses for "after-high school" life, what ever it may be.
Well, you always have good students, succeeding students and student that excel in school. They are not the problems. The attention to the other end of the spectrum is what causes so much of whatever problems you want to examine, in or out of school. The dropout problem in intertwined with this condition, as well, and until the LAUSD stops diluting its attention by spending disproportionate time on diversity and multiculturalism (as with City Council, overemphasis on "diversity" really now operates to promote separatist mentalities, no assimilation here) and begins pushing the academics and actual subjects of functioning in society, we will continue to see this poor outcome, unabated and still sucking up tax dollars for little rewards in exchange.
Charter schools vary in their approaches, but what helps them is the flexibility they are afforded by being of a much smaller organization. They can react more quickly to needs and adapt which keeps them successful in most cases. The LAUSD is too large to do that and until they truly subdivide the District, it will stay the way it is.
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