Some people lament term limits, saying that it means that some of the best and brightest legislators are forced to leave office too soon. Personally I am a fan of term-limits, for a number of reasons. But that is the topic for another day. But I did want to say that one of the advantages of term-limits is that we get to bring new talent into the legislature. In the case of the voters of California’ 38th Assembly District in Northern Los Angeles County, they elected Cameron Smyth. Smyth is shaping up to be an outstanding legislator, and I know that he will make a tremendous impact during his time in Sacramento.
There are a number of issues about which Smyth is passionate, but certainly seeing that kids are able to receive a quality education ranks right up there. It is because of this passion for the well-being of young people that he has taken on the challenge of trying to deal with the Los Angeles Unified School District. When I say "deal with" — what it means is that Smyth realizes that the district is too vast and too bureacratic. Anyways, I will let him tell you all about the problems of the LAUSD, and his proposal to help the children who are caught up in that huge district… – Flash
For anyone unfamiliar with the many challenges facing Los Angeles Unified School District, let me briefly review the situation. LAUSD is enormous, consisting of over 700,000 students – nearly as many constituents that reside in each of our state Senate districts! To give you an idea of how large this is relative to other school districts, currently only 2% of the school districts in the nation have more than 25,000 students. In fact, the Superintendent would not be able to hold a staff meeting in Dodger Stadium because it would be too small to accommodate everyone!
**There is more – click the link**
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
I would say the same thing goes for the Kern High School District which covers the high schools in Bakersfield, Arvin, Shafter, and Kern Valley. We need to break up these megadistricts.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mr. Stine:
Please tell me that you are NOT comparing some high school district in Kern County with LA Unified.
Please, please, please!
January 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Folks-
Right under our noses, as many big districts were moving toward decentralization and reform, the federal government enacted NCLB , which now ensures that NO “local control” can really happen at all. Until California and LAUSD together get the COURAGE (Like Edu. Commissioner Christensen and the state of Nebraska has) to demand autonomy in curriculum AND assessment, NOTHING will change and our poor kids will continue to fail.
Louis Pugliese
LAUSD Board Candidate
SmartenUpLA.com