What's wrong with LAUSD?

By Eric Roth, Contributing Writer

Board of Education Member
Valerie Fields.

Helen Burnstein, the former president of the United Teachers of Los Angles, used to argue, "Teachers want what students need." Many Jewish educators and parents feel the same way about Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). "Jews want what LAUSD needs." Educational excellence, higher standards, and more enrichment activities have become the mantras of educational reformers.

But de facto segregation seems to have returned to LAUSD despite court- ordered busing, and the Belmont and South Gate fiscal disasters have done little to alleviate the widespread perception that the opaque complexity of LAUSD's bureaucratic structures are wasteful, counter-productive, and scandalous.

Board of Education members Valerie Fields and David Tokofsky, along with other board members, have been shaking up LAUSD, hiring a new interim superintendent, announcing bold programs and discussing splitting LAUSD into 11 subdistricts.

Amidst the chaos and numerous educational disappointments inside LAUSD, an awkward question has re-emerged. "What's the Jewish stake in LAUSD?"

LAUSD, established in 1855, remains the second largest school district in the nation, serving over 680,000 students and employing approximately 36,521 certificated personnel as regular kindergarten through 12th grade teachers. In addition, the district employs 27,728 non-teaching personnel, totaling more than 64,249 regular employees. The $7.5 billion dollar educational institution also stretches over 708 sq. miles.

"The monster is too big," says Jayne Murphy Shapiro, a candidate for 41st Assembly seat and founder of KIDS SAFE, representing the conventional wisdom of many Jewish residents in the San Fernando Valley. "Smaller is better." Shapiro, a 23 year Valley resident, has made educational reform and breaking LAUSD into smaller, more manageable districts a cornerstone of her candidacy.

But a breakup of LAUSD could be seen as another suburban gesture of noncommitment to Los Angeles inner-city residents. Whether by accident or design, the sharp social and geographical separations seem likely to increase. Educational and social concerns seem to be gaining the upper hand over civic pride in a strong urban school district.

Over the last 40 years, LAUSD has experienced a huge demographic shift. The latest figures show that only 10 percent of LAUSD students are white. Further, approximately 65 percent of students are Hispanic and 20 percent of students do not speak English in their home.

If Los Angeles County has become the "new Ellis Island," then LAUSD has become the major force for introducing immigrants to American society. The focus on a multicultural curriculum and bilingual education, often grounded in racial classifications, might have increased the alienation of some Jewish families, say observers "People don't understand the classroom situation," sighed a Jewish high school social studies teacher with 14 years experience with LAUSD school in a poor neighborhood. "We've got 15-year-old kids who come here speaking no English from rural Mexico who haven't gone to school in years. Juan might read at the third-grade level by his senior year, but that's up from zero. We've helped Juan -- and yes, he's below the national grade level. Shock, shock."

Students in a Jewish day school classroom.

Many Jewish students have defected from the public school system, opting to go to more exclusive private schools. According to a 1997 survey of 14,000 households, including 2,640 Jewish households, education remains a priority. Twenty percent of students go to private schools and 15
percent go to non-Jewish private schools. "Most Jewish families are not in private," says Pinnie Herman, the principal investigator/author of the survey. "Most can't afford it."

Instead, some parents move to a smaller school district. "I bought a smaller house than I wanted at a price I couldn't afford so my daughter could go to Santa Monica," says a late-30s Jewish mother. "I couldn't care if the schools teach Physics and Japanese if I'm worried about her safety."

Another 30-something mother of three states, "I'm terrified and mortified at the prospect of sending my children to LA Unified."

The growth of charter schools, and the increasing popularity of school vouchers among Jewish parents that can be used at private institutions, also reflects this concern about LAUSD.

The preference for private religious school, however, might also reflect a pull towards a values-centered education rather than parents feeling pushed away by LAUSD.

"Our parents often want a values-centered, moral education that they feel may not be available in a secular setting," said Liz Leshin, the director of development at Sinai Akiba Academy, a Westside Jewish day school affiliated with the Conservative Movement. "We have students coming from several school districts, not just Los Angeles."

The cost of private education, of course, remains a factor in educational decisions. So some Jewish parents are supporting proposals, made popular by conservative candidates, for school vouchers so they can afford to choose their own school -- public or private. "Maybe I can't change LAUSD, but I can help my child," goes the argument. "Why can't we just take our tax money and choose a school that we trust?"

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), reflecting a strong current in Jewish community, still argues that vouchers are a false solution with more problems than advantages.

"As our country becomes increasingly diverse, the public school system stands out as an institution that unifies Americans," argues the ADL on its Web site. "Under voucher programs, our educational system -- and our country -- would become even more Balkanized than it already is.

With the help of taxpayers' dollars, private schools would be filled with well-to-do and middle-class students and a handful of the best, most motivated students from inner cities. Some public schools would be left with fewer dollars to teach the poorest of the poor and other students who, for one reason or another, were not private school material. Such a scenario can hardly benefit public education."

Elliot Gould participates in
the Jewish Community Relations
Committee's Koreh L.A. program.

An indication of the importance of public education to the Jewish community has been the work of Koreh L.A. The broad-based coalition of Los Angeles Jewish organizations and synagogues, initiated by the LA Jewish Federation, has been mobilizing Jewish volunteers to help public school children learn to read. "The Los Angeles Jewish community, with its extraordinary level of literacy and its proud tradition of volunteerism, can play a vital role in remedying the injustice that is illiteracy," reads the Koreh L.A. mission statement.

The Jewish Community Relations Committee formed Koreh L.A., along with the Los Angeles Jewish Coalition for Literacy, because recent studies indicate that "67,000 third grade students in Southern California 'can hardly read at all,' and nearly 80 percent of our fourth-graders don't read at grade level. This grim situation continues despite evidence which suggests that those who cannot read by the third grade are doomed to academic failure."

"Even if not one Jewish child is in the public schools, it is still important for the Jewish community to support public education," argues Michael Hirschfeld, the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations at The Jewish Federation. "An intelligent, educated population is going to be less intolerant, less discriminatory, and more sensitive."

 

 

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