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Los Angeles School District Dodged A Bullet
Graciela Ortiz, the Charter School supported candidate in last November’s LAUSD BD5 election is under investigation in a corruption probe.
– Los Angeles Daily News
The popular narrative is that the current LAUSD School Board is anti-charter schools. In reality, very few of these publicly funded private schools are ever held accountable for their misdeeds. Compared to Charter School shill Nick Melvoin, who once voted to renew the charter of a school where only 3.26% of the students met state math standards, anyone asking probing questions may seem overly strict. Still, the current Board only takes action when cases of fiscal mismanagement, failed academic performance, or incompetence are too striking to ignore. They are even too timid to ask the head of the Charter School Division why he wiped away $7,678,022 of charter school debt without any explanation.
The last School Board Member who took oversight of Charter Schools seriously was Bennett Kayser. He was so suspicious of these schools that he once reflexively voted “no” for a renewal of one, not realizing that the motion was to deny. He immediately changed his vote when he realized his error.
Supporters of the Charter School Industry retaliated against Kayser by spending over $2.6 million to promote Ref Rodrigez’s dirty campaign to unseat him. They provided this support despite signs of corruption, including claims from Rodriguez that janitors from the PUC charter school chain he managed had donated the maximum amount allowed under the law to his campaign. After winning this election, prosecutors obtained evidence that Rodriguez had personally reimbursed the donors and was charged with felony money laundering, eventually pleading guilty and resigning from his board seat. This left residents of BD5 unrepresented for nearly a year.
