There was something that came on the agenda for Wednesday's Council meeting that appeared to be worthwhile, but the only question to me was, "Why did this take so long to happen?" The Council came to agree on a resolution- and that's all it can do since the City Council has no jurisdiction over the LAUSD schools- and made this resolution, a purely advisory item, to support the LAUSD mandatory school uniform policy when it brings it up.
The motion was co-sponsored by Jose Huizar, Council member for CD-14 and former LAUSD Board President before he arrived at City Council. If you don't remember, it was after Mayor Villaraigosa left CD-14 for the higher calling to the Mayor's office that CM Huizar moved up in office and pay.
The only wonder I have is why Jose did not make a substantial effort WHILE serving as LAUSD's Board President for this. But again that rule of thumb applies, especially so with government, "better late than never."
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As appearing on the agenda today:
"ITEM NO. (20)
09-0366
EDUCATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS COMMITTEE REPORT and RESOLUTION relative to support for any plan by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to implement a mandatory district-wide school uniform policy.
Recommendation for Council action, as initiated by Resolution (Huizar - Hahn - LaBonge), SUBJECT TO THE CONCURRENCE OF THE MAYOR:
ADOPT the accompanying RESOLUTION to include in the City’s 2009-10 State Legislative Program SUPPORT for any plan by the LAUSD Board or Superintendent to implement a mandatory district-wide school uniform policy, IF AMENDED to delete the phrase “including in the City’s 2009-10 State Legislative Program.”
Fiscal Impact Statement: None submitted by the Chief Legislative Analyst. The City Administrative Officer has not completed a financial analysis of this report.
Community Impact Statement: None submitted.
(Rules and Government Committee waived consideration of the above matter)"
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The current policy of LAUSD is to allow each school to decide for itself whether it will have uniforms.
A parent spoke in Spanish through an interpreter to the Council about the positive experience that the policy brings and her remarks were very relevant, perceptive and supported the ideas that I have long agreed with. The benefits of a mandatory school uniform policy far outweigh the disadvantages that may exist from adopting the school uniforms policy.
A big feature she included was that there was some deterrent effect with gang involvement Also mentioned was that the students appeared to do better overall in school after the uniforms were adopted. Discipline is improved and you can identify which are the school's students inside and outside of school by the uniforms. It helps school security. The expense of the fashion race is bypassed and a better attitude is formed by students.
The Markham Middle School experience in city was cited by an official who also spoke. I believe he may have been a school police representative. The beneficial outcomes that arise from adoption of the school uniforms policy were related by him
Council Member Cardenas said he would vote for the motion, but that he requested also that there be documentation of the benefits that resulted that were attributable to the wearing of school uniforms, rather than making the assumptions that the beneficial changes described will actually happen and that they will happen as a result of school uniforms being adopted by a school.
This was something interesting and unexpected to hear from a CM. Usually it is THEY, the CMs that make far-reaching assumptions and predictions, citing no authority or factual basis for the conclusions that they present in proposing the assortment of motions that they continue to generate.
In that same process there is little opportunity to challenge the conclusions that the CMs state in their presentations, especially right before a vote that ends up in the usual fashion, a “unanimous” vote of all CMs present, apparently reflecting little of any contrary public comment made by members of the public to whatever degree that it appears compelling, immediately preceding the vote. The “done deal” effect in operation again.
But here, CM Cardenas seemed to be hedging his bet and on the face of it, I don’t see any ill wind blowing from that Northernly direction. Am I suspicious or doubting? Over time and through observation, I have just come to see that all that happens is not usually a result of only what is presented in city council meetings and there’s often more happening to be seen later.
For now, this is all that can be done by the City Council- they have their own greedy hands full now with trying to fix the city budget with a mounting deficit. The ball is in the LAUSD’s court- to use another sports metaphor that I follow with one more below.
The LAUSD’s action on uniforms would be something more than a pure “Hail Mary” pass to try to improve the performance of a generally failing school district. There is much present to address the concerns of the opponents of such a policy and we can get to that later, if and when LAUSD get things moving.
As I have said before, the District moves too slowly on things, too much attributed to putting politics ahead of function usually. It’s the students that get churned out of the District's schools year after year in June graduations, or earlier by dropping out, that are shortchanged. THEY suffer and WE all will suffer, too as a result of the consequences of an under-educated youth.
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When I was last at Lincoln already four years ago, there was no leadership in handling dress code violations, to the extent that the existing dress code was known. Teachers were not encouraged to do anything about that. In fact, there was more of an environment to ignore even obvious violations that mostly arose with the female students, lest you be accused of some misdeed yourself as a teacher.
And so it was at LHS, from the top down. Only one teacher, who I admired for actively and successfully addressing the problems as they arose, able to act on this. (It was something that motivated me as a teacher to not ignore students throwing trash on the ground, especially when they were standing right next to a trash can, as I walked from one classroom to another. Those things CAN be handled successfully for all concerned with some postitive attitudes.)
Here, a mandatory uniform policy would essentially bypass that entire situation and maybe help to right the ship. If concerns are that "expense" is an issue, there are many solutions for that as the need arises.
For now, let's see how long LAUSD takes to try to save it's programs and schools with a practice that's been followed in most if not all Charter Schools and the Catholic and other private schools for years. The prospect of a Charter School taking over some or all of the facilities at Lincoln is real- 5 consecutive years of PI status, "PI-5," but the process moves so slowly, maybe some effective changes can be made to ward off those proposals when made.
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