"Charter accountability is critical to ensuring that our students and families are not taken advantage of by charter schools"
- LAUSD School Board Member Karla Griego
Keith Dell'Aquila, CCSA Vice President for Greater Los Angeles Local Advocacy
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CCSA Vice President for Greater Los Angeles Local Advocacy, Keith Dell'Aquila's appearance in front of the Board was intended to help charter schools win approval of their charter renewals. School boards have not been able to review these charters for the past couple of years after Governor Gavin Newsom gifted the schools with extended terms due to the COVID crisis. With this gift now expiring, the Board was holding public hearings for ten schools whose renewal will be voted on next month. The only Board District not represented on this list is Nick Melvoin's BD4.
While the political campaigns run by the supporters of charter schools were ethically challenged, often attacking supporters of public education on a personal level, Dell'Aquila gave the appearance of wanting to build bridges offering "honest and sincere wishes of congratulations and excellent success on the Board" to Sherlett Hendy Newbill and Karla Griego. He extended an invitation "to work with us in tandem" so the Board could "stand in partnership with the charter school community".
Proving that the CCSA is an adversary on whom you can never turn your back, Dell'Aquila peppered his calls for de'tente with exaggerations that have become a hallmark of the public relations campaigns run by the charter school industry. He started by claiming that "one in four public school students attends a charter school", when these schools are privately run and were designed to be separate from the public school system. Even if you accept his definition, reviewing the data shows the number is closer to one in five (20%).
In arriving at his 25% number, Dell'Aquila used an enrollment of 120,000 students in charter schools. This is 11,480 more students than the LAUSD lists as part of its demographic data. It would also indicate that there are more students in these publicly funded private schools this year. If it is true, it would mean that charter schools have reversed their multi-year trend of losing students. This would be very surprising at a time when the number of school-age students in Los Angeles is declining and charter school failures have reduced the number of available schools. An email was sent to Dell'Aquila asking for clarification but, as of publication, a response had not been received.
In an attempt to show that "the children attending charter schools are the same children in District public schools", Dell'Aquila cited demographic data that showed the publicly funded private schools he represents serve substantial numbers of students from at-risk communities. He omitted that the LAUSD serves a greater percentage of students in three of the four categories he listed, making his schools cheaper to operate as they shift the costs of meeting these responsibilities to LAUSD schools.
The one exception was the population of students with disabilities, where a previous study showed the District tends to serve those with more severe categories that are, too often, ignored by their charter school counterparts. Since these numbers are not audited, it is impossible to know what types of disabilities Dell'Aquila includes. While the LAUSD only includes students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) in their numbers, schools like Granada Hills Charter will sometimes include students with 504 plans when reporting their numbers in unofficial settings. Students with 504 plans require slight modifications to their education process. These modifications, like being granted additional time to take a test, often have no real cost. IEPs allow fundamental, and sometimes costly, modifications to how services are provided.
In pointing out that Newbill and Griego are parents, Dell'Aquila suggested that this would help them "understand that there is no more important responsibility than ensuring your child is safe, secure, valued, and nurtured". If this is true, the parents on the Board should question why his organization has lobbied against earthquake standards that would ensure charter school buildings meet the same requirements as buildings housing all other types of schools, thus endangering the lives of charter school students.
Surprisingly, Dell'Aquila focused on safety when four of the charters that are up for renewal are run by KIPP. This nationwide chain of charter schools tried to build a facility on a former battery-manufacturing site in Cudahay where soil samples showed "levels of arsenic... as high as 14.5 milligrams per kilogram". The site is also "contaminated with toxic gases" which "can cause cancer, cognitive and motor impairments, liver damage, kidney damage, and impair one's immune system, development, reproductive system, and fertility". The project was canceled when concerned citizens went to court to force the charter chain to conduct environmental studies it had avoided by gaining the support of politicians the charters had financed during their campaigns.
In closing, Dell'Aquila noted that "too frequently the experience of families who come into [the LAUSD Board Room] is one rooted in fear", without reflecting on what is causing the anxiousness of charter school families. While the overwhelming majority of charter schools are renewed by the LAUSD Board, the CCSA still fills the Board Room with parents and students who have been told, often falsely, that their school is in danger of imminent closure. Teachers have reported that they have been threatened with termination if they do not show up. In the rare event that government agencies hold one of these schools accountable for their wrongdoing, they are faced with parents who have been told the action is being taken because the representatives hate charter schools.
While the CCSA would like to pretend that Newbill "represents" 41 charter schools and Griego "represents" 47 charter schools, the truth is that these charter school students are represented by the (often unelected) members of the governing boards of the schools they attend. The LAUSD School Board's sole responsibility to these students is to ensure that these schools are not harming them. This can only be done by ensuring the renewal process is thorough and that only schools that are properly serving their students are permitted to operate.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. 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.
