Schools Reach Beyond The Classroom

On the eve of launching LA’s new Education Examiner, I attended a Los Angeles Public Library “ALOUD” discussion stimulated by the new book of America’s leading populist, progressive Education theorist Diane Ravitch:  Slaying Goliath. UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl very capably nailed out the corners of a conversational tapestry warped by the current reality of today’s educational landscape on the ground, in our schools, as felt by kids and teachers in every classroom; a tapestry woven by the weft of administrative realities, political pressures and evolving ideology.

It’s not enough to understand what we experience in the classroom as our kids learn and grow. That’s a snapshot in time of their experience; the system of which they are an integral part is informed by more, a political landscape of economics, rhetoric, law, power, governance – local, regional and federal. It is fundamental to our responsibility as citizens of a republic, to trace and follow construction of this integrated fabric: the weave of daily experience shot through with politics and policy.

That’s why we all need to contribute as informed, voting participants in this system, indeed to any of them. As families and community members orbiting the school system, we are blanketed in daily struggles of homework, interactions, socializing, communicating, growing, sharing, creating, following instruction. But aside from all that, we are all mandated with a concurrent – separate – responsibility: we must engage as voters to elect members of the Board of Education because they are in charge of the policy and politics that steer the hand of our public schools.

In March while the world fixates on Super Tuesday’s presidential candidates, there will be four important elections in LA Unified’s (LAUSD) northwest Valley, southern, south-central and northeastern sections of LA. The LA Education Examiner will bring you news of these races, which collectively will determine the majority policy of LAUSD’s Board of Education. Conducted in even- and odd- district numbers every four years as a group, this year’s elections in districts LAUSD1, LAUSD3, LAUSD5 and LAUSD7 involve more than half (over one million) of registered voters eligible to vote in LAUSD. You can register here up to two-weeks-plus-one-day before the March 3, 2020, election day. Click here to find your new Vote Center.