LAUSD parents demand changes

Frustrated by what they called low academic performance and unresponsive teachers and politicians, dozens of parents from around the Los Angeles Unified School District gathered downtown Thursday for the first meeting of the Los Angeles Parents Union.

They were led by Steve Barr, founder of the charter school system known as Green Dot Public Schools, who said the union will not attempt to build more charter schools, but will use the lessons learned in charter schools to work for change within the LAUSD.

"There are a lot of parents (at the meeting) who are in communities that are coming to Green Dot and asking them to open charter schools in their neighborhood out of desperation," Barr said. "What we're saying to them is, 'Hey, forget opening charter schools in your neighborhoods. Let's organize and take over the existing schools and demand that all schools have the same values as our charter schools.' "

At Thursday's meeting, most of the parents in the audience also stood to make statements.

"There are lots of good teachers in the district but there are more bad teachers," said one Spanish-speaking mother, who addressed the group through a translator. "But we can't hold teachers accountable because they are so well protected by their union ... so we need a union to help us, too."

But Barr emphasized that the aim was to unite the parents, not to attack teachers or take over the school board -- although he added that if the school board does not support the parents union, he believes the parents have the clout to replace board members.

"If people get in the way, we may have to replace them," he added. "When there's only 10,000 to 20,000 votes in a school district board election and you're organizing parents by the thousands, they're going to have a say."

The union's goals include keeping all LAUSD schools to 500 or less students, making sure every student can go to college by requiring college prep courses and increasing school-based control of budgets and hiring and firing.

The new union hopes to make progress by getting involved in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's effort to increase mayoral control of the schools, Barr said, and a mayoral spokesman agreed there is significant overlap in their goals.

"The tenets that they laid out, like the small schools -- the mayor has for a long time supported the idea of small learning communities and increased local control," spokesman Nathan James said.

A.J. Duffy, president of the teachers union United Teachers Los Angeles, applauded the parents for organizing.

"Anybody who interjects themselves into the discussion about quality education helps advance the debate, and that's good," Duffy said.

And while he added that he's not a "fan" of charter schools, Duffy nevertheless said that charters have provided many good lessons about how to run good schools.

South Bay area school board member Mike Lansing could not be reached for comment.

In the coming weeks, the Los Angeles Parents Union plans to hold "teach-ins" and "coffee talks" in communities all over LAUSD to explain its goals to more parents and recruit more community members into the union, explained Green Dot associate Ryan Smith.

"What I'm asking each of you to do is to organize your neighbors," Smith told parents. "We'll have a lot of people who've seen small schools work come to talk about how we can do this in our communities. ... Let's make sure we all mobilize together."