[Sosfbay-discuss] Public Education Under Attack ~ Food for Thought and Commentary

[alexcathy at aol.com]

 Dear Green Friends, 



The announcement below was posted to the GPLA e-list.  I think this is
a textbook example of the main challenges of the California Green Party
today.  Is there a distinct difference between being the Green Party
and the so-called "progressive" wing of the Democratic Party?  



Or are we Greens just "liberals in a hurry" like some described U.S. Communists in the 1930s.  



I hope I don't offend anyone.  I am just throwing this out as food for
thought and comment.  For a couple of years I have pleaded for a
serious discussion of education and I never seen anything about these
issues like I've seen about, say, Iraq,  Afghanistan, Israel, and
Palestine.   



PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ONE-PARTY DEMOCRATIC LOS ANGELES


The Los Angeles Unified School District is a never-ending train
wreck.  It's a monstrous bureaucracy operating out of a twenty-story
downtown skyscraper: tremendous waste in both capital and operating
expenditures; a merry-go-round of superintendents including Admiral
DavidL . Brewer with his $45,000 expense account and his $3,000 monthly
housing allowance on top of his $300,000-a-year salary.  In DecemberLAUSD
paid this bum $517,500 to sail away midway through his four-year
contract to run the nation's second-largest school system (and simply
because Mr. Brewer was "black" those claiming to be "Our Leaders" in
inner-city Los Angeles told us his half-million dollar golden parachute
was a sign of "respect" for "Our Community"). =C
2 



Meanwhile, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the Los Angeles Democratic Party Machine. 
My Congresswoman Diane Watson, my Assembly Member Karen Bass, and half
the inner-city Dem bosses (just like Assemblyman Joseph Coto in San
Jose) like to boast about their education backgrounds and their special
love for "education" -- the liberal catch-all "solution" for every
problem including global warming and world peace.  If the Democratic
Party nominated a ham sandwich for high office theUTLA would endorse it
on the ground that a flat sandwich is closer to the "grassroots" that
they all pretend to bleed for and any objections to the failure of the
sandwich to articulate policy positions dismissed as "cultural bias."  



Los Angeles "public" school are, in effect, semi-privatized already. 
The better schools are in neighborhoods where parents and the community
raise a lot of money.  Don't say it isn't so.  My grandson attends a
"public" elementary school where hundreds of thousands of dollars are
contributed every year by kids' families to support things like a
computer lab, music, and chess classes.  Meanwhile, kids in lousy
schools are still stuck in inadequate facilities where young,
idealistic, committed teachers routinely get dumped on and "Good ole'
Boys" with seniority get rewarded.  And by the way, this has nothing
whatsoever to do with the ethnicity or "race" of the people involved. 
I've seen "People of Color" as some of the worst r
eactionary
deadbeats.  



The conventional Democratic Party liberals -- those world famous "Hollywood Liberals" who gave a lot of money to Barack Obama -- safely ensconced in Malibu, Beverley
Hills, or Santa Monica do not send their own children to such schools,
if they send their kids to public schools at all.  These liberals cry
"Fight the cuts!  Fight the cuts!" and their "activism" is done.  



THE 10 KEY VALUES OF THE GREEN PARTY 


Our 10 Key Values include Grassroots Democracy, Decentralization,
Respect for Diversity, Community Based Economics, and Sustainability. 
The monstrous centralized arrogantLAUSD/UTLA
Establishment with their sick "racial" politics and their gutless
mantra about "education" as the solution to all problems, while leaving
the dysfunctional economic and social systems undisturbed, stands in
opposition to our key values?  



For example, given our 10 Key Values why... exactly... should the Green Party take a knee-jerk position in support of the monstrous centralized arrogant race-obsessed LAUSD/UTLA Establishment?   



When I lived in San
Jose, my wife taught school in the East Side Union High School District
and in the San Jose Unified School Disrtrict where our daughter teaches
English today.  During those years Mr. Jose Coto ran the East Side
Union High School District into the ground.  Nevertheless, that
scoundrel was rewarded for his incompetence with a nice cushy seat in
the California State Assembly where today all his sins are forgiven and

forgotten and Assemblyman Joe Coto is routinely praised by people who
ought to know better as a Democrat supposedly "fighting back" against
the meanie Republicans.




The Green Party in the cities must be the Second Party -- the small 'd'
democratic opposition -- to the corrupt and incompetent Democrats.  The
right-wing California Republicans, sure enough, want to destroy public
education.  Therefore, it is our duty to articulate a convincing
progressive reform agenda.  We must make a complete break with the
mental slavery of thinking of ourselves as "Liberal Democrats."  We
need to stop thinking that all we have to do to define a Green position
is take the slogans whispered by Democrats and yell them louder.



I hope I don't offend anyone.  I am just throwing this out as food for thought and comment.    







Alex Walker

Los Angeles Greens 






 



-----Original Message-----

From: Shane Que Hee <squehee at ucla.edu>

To: gplac-forum at lists.cagreens.org

Sent: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 4:16 am

Subject: [GPLAC-Forum] Public Education Under Attack ~ Join the Fight Back Conference ~ This Friday & Saturday, March 27th & 28th ~ UTLA Human Rights  Committee Conference in Los Angeles








From: fdorrel at sbcglobal.net

Subject: Public Education Under Attack ~ Join 
the Fight Back Conference ~ This Friday & 

Saturday, March 27th & 28th ~ UTLA Human Rights 
Committee Conference in Los Angeles

Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:09:58 -0700

UTLA Human Rights20Committee Conference


“Public Education Under Attack”
“Join the Fight Back”

Friday & Saturday, March 27th-28th
At
UTLA

3303 Wilshire Blvd. 10th Floor, Los Angeles  90010

. . .

Charters and Privatization-- 
Mat Taylor, Sarah Knopp,  Room 826

An overview of the challenges and issues surrounding the charter school spread in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and strategies to face 
the increasing privatization of public education   

(Facilitator: Mark Rich)

. . .










 

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