Tanya Who?

“GET ON BOARD

Take A Stand For Educational Equity”

– Tanya Ortiz-Franklin

During her 2020 campaign, LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin presented herself as someone who would be singularly focused so as not to be distracted from addressing issues affecting the students of the District. For example, when I asked her for a statement on an article I was writing about an education issue, she admonished me for asking anything besides “Black lives mattering and…racial justice” in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. Also when she was asked for comment on a revelation that she had been kicked off the Del Rey Neighborhood Council for being absent for 61.5% of the meetings, her campaign stated that “she left the neighborhood council regretfully” because she was unable to “commit the time and still fully serve the students of the LAUSD”.

Unfortunately, this focus did not follow Ortiz-Franklin into office as she has often left her constituents feeling unrepresented. The most obvious example is her lack of leadership during environmental crises affecting her board district. When the students of Catskill Elementary School were being affected by a long-term “nauseating odor” emanating just less than two miles from their campus, she was a no-show at an event where she could have addressed their concerns. Her office was also silent as the Harbor Area dealt with the supply chain crisis that had left trucks idling on neighborhood streets, spewing toxic fumes into the air. Students cannot achieve “Educational Equity” when they are missing school due to asthma attacks and other side effects of being bombarded with truck exhaust.

Even on her signature issues of “Black lives mattering and…racial justice” Ortiz-Franklin has fallen flat. This is especially true when these “values” interfered with the needs of her campaign funders from within the charter school industry.

Baldwin Hills Elementary and Orville Wright Engineering and Design Magnet are two highly regarded schools that have among the highest percentages of Black or African American students in the LAUSD. According to the California Department of Education School Accountability Report Card (SARC), 77.4% of the students at Baldwin Hills Elementary are classified as belonging to this racial category. At Orville Wright, 60% of the student body is Black or African American. The vast majority of students at both schools are considered to be “Socioeconomically Disadvantaged.”

As parents of Baldwin Hills Elementary fought to be free from a PROP-39 co-location with a charter school that stymied its ability to build upon the success of its Community Schools model, Ortiz-Franklin was nowhere to be found. She was also silent as the LAUSD bureaucracy laid plans to shut down Orville Wright and turn its campus over to a charter school. Students cannot achieve “Educational Equity” when their schools are yanked from under them for the benefit of publicly funded private schools.

Even with her lack of accomplishments, Ortiz-Franklin feels that she deserves another four years in office and has filed with the Ethics Commission to run for re-election. Will her constituents even know who she is when they see her name on the ballot?

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. 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.