Blog: Activists Announce the Recall Campaign of LAUSD President Mónica García

She has failed to listen to our voices, the students, and she refuses to see any of us to hear our stories. — Mary Ann Reyes

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 saw nearly three dozen parents, students, and activists hold a press conference in front of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board Room announcing the start of an official recall campaign for LAUSD Board of Education President Mónica García.

Speakers announced Ms. García had been served with an Notice of Intent to Recall on April 7, 2012, and the City Clerk of Los Angeles was provided appropriate papers as part of the protocols for recall. While Ms. García's privatization policies and wrongheaded budget priorities have long been an anathema to social justice activists, the recall proponents cited Ms. García's recent unconscionable cuts to critical programs including School Readiness Language Development Program, Early Education Centers, Elementary Arts, and Adult Education, while the district holds over $700 million in reserve as the final straw. The text of the Notice of Intent follows:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO RECALL MÓNICA GARCÍA, DISTRICT 2 TRUSTEE, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Vera Padilla, Maryanne Reyes, José Lara, Ken Montenegro, Robert D. Skeels

STATEMENT OF REASONS

Mónica García has consistently ignored the voices and needs of our parents, students and communities, employing repression to stifle legitimate dissent. Under García's leadership, tens of thousands of teachers, librarians, and health and human service employees have been subjected to reduction in force notices. While some of these educators have been rehired, the net effect has been teacher demoralization; a disincentive to enter the teaching profession; a disruption and marginalization of impoverished schools; and arguably illegal classroom overcrowding. Under García's watch, hundreds of millions of dollars in LAUSD properties and resources have been given to privately managed charter school corporations, systematically starving public schools of resources. García has overseen several destructive school reconstitutions and closures, despite warnings from scholars that such drastic “reforms” do nothing to improve outcomes. García has been a party to handing public schools over to charter corporations which are documented to perform worse than the schools they replaced. The hallmark of García's tenure has been hundreds of millions of dollars squandered on unnecessary tests, consultants, and questionable hiring priorities. This budget mismanagement has led to the current situation where programs critical to poor and immigrant families including: The School Readiness Language Development Program, Early Education Centers, Elementary Arts, and Adult Education have been cut, while the District holds $700 million in reserve. Under García, LAUSD has taken Federal Title I and Title III funds (supporting low-income students and English Language Learners respectively) away from school sites. We believe García’s abysmal failure to address the needs of LAUSD District 2 stakeholders leaves us no option but to demand her recall.

The five proponents of the recall are all long-time LAUSD District 2 residents comprised of one student, one teacher, and three community activists. Two of the proponents were participants in the highly successful OccupyLAUSD campaign that brought the abject truth to the consciousness of the Los Angeles public that members of the one percent including Philip Anschutz, Stephen Bing, Eli Broad, Jerry Perenchio, and Bill Gates control LAUSD.

The recall campaign was started in response to hundreds of poor and immigrant families wanting to see a LAUSD budget that puts their needs ahead of wasteful and unnecessary testing that degrades their children and deprofessionalizes teaching. Many Adult Education students, qualified to collect signatures on the recall petitions, have already volunteered for the campaign. The media coverage at the press conference was extremely favorable, and activists vow to bring their issues to the forefront of the education debates that until now have excluded those most affected by LAUSD policies.

Currently the proponents are on schedule to begin circulating petitions in late April or early May. They welcome any and all support from grassroots community members, progressive organizations, and organized labor. If successful in gathering the signatures of 26,608 registered voters in LAUSD District 2, then a special recall election will be scheduled.