LAUSD Candidate Forum: PROP-39 Co-Locations

“The current implementation of PROP-39, which considers rooms used for Special Education Services as ‘empty’ and potentially reallocates these classrooms to charter schools, is a concerning practice that needs reform.”

– BD3 Candidate Richard S. Ramos

There are still two months before candidates for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board need to begin collecting signatures so that they can appear on the 2024 ballot. So far, 22 Candidates have registered their campaigns with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, allowing them to begin fundraising. This includes nine candidates in Board District (BD) 1 [A], seven in BD3, three in the fifth district, and three in BD7. You can find your Board District on this website.

With the local news media having largely abandoned any ongoing comprehensive coverage of public education, voters find it difficult to obtain the information they need to make an informed decision. This problem is compounded by the millions of dollars spent by the charter school industry and the unions, drowning out the voices of candidates who do not have access to big money.

To provide voters with information, this ongoing series will give every candidate the opportunity to express their opinions about issues facing the LAUSD. The first round asked about PROP 39 co-locations.

Under past iterations of the board led by members like Monica Garcia who were backed by the charter school Industry, these publicly financed private schools were given advantages when demanding space from public schools. It was only after supporters of public education won a majority in the last election that the harm that these arrangements have caused public school students is being addressed. The LAUSD Board is currently considering a resolution that would finally put formal policies in place to regulate how charter schools are provided space under PROP-39. Unless these supporters can successfully defend three of the four seats that are contested next year, the window will close on the opportunity to enforce this policy and finally fix the problem.

The questions for this round were sent to every candidate who has registered with the Ethics Committee using the email that is listed on its website.

1. Do you support the "Creating a Charter Schools Co-Location Policy to Mitigate Impacts Caused by Proposition 39" authored by Board President Jackie Goldberg and Dr. Rocio Rivas?
2. Under The way that PROP-39 is currently implemented, rooms used to provide Special Education Services are considered to be "empty" and must be turned over to a charter school to satisfy its demand for space. As a Board member would you work to end this discriminatory practice?
3. The text of PROP-39 specifies that charter schools that base their space requests on inflated enrollment must pay an over-allocation fee. Currently, charter schools have a past-due balance of $3,708,006. As a Board Member would you revoke the charter of any school that refused to pay these fees when a bill is presented?
4. In April of last year, $7,678,022 of over-allocation debt was suddenly wiped off of the balance sheet without any explanation to the public. As a Board Member would you demand an investigation to determine whether this write-off was legal and proper?
5. The North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) was co-located on the campus of Sun Valley High School / Valley Oaks Center For Enriched Studies (VOCES) when one of its administrators was accused of “abhorrent child sex abuse” against a student. It does not appear that parents of students on the public school campus were ever notified about these accusations. As a Board Member would you terminate the PROP-39 lease agreement for any charter school that put LAUSD students at a district campus in danger?

The candidates were asked to reply with a "Yes” or a “No." The following charts summarize their answers:

The candidates were also given the opportunity to clarify their answers. These are available in the following articles:

Board District 1:

• Kahllid Al-Alim

Board District 3:

• Andreas Farmakalidis
• Janie Dam
• Richard S. Ramos

Board District 5:

• Karla Griego

[A] This includes the incumbent, George McKenna, who announced his retirement after filing his paperwork but has still not officially withdrawn from the race.

____________________________

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.