School Board to Consider Measures Opposing Push for Massive Charter School Expansion

The Los Angeles Board of Education is expected today to begin considering two proposals aimed at limiting the growth and independence of charter schools.

The focus of the board’s deliberations will be a controversial $490 million plan to more than double the number of charter schools in Los Angeles.

One proposal under consideration would have the school board go on record opposing plans by the Broad Foundation and others to enroll half the district’s 650,000 students in charter schools within the next eight years, the Los Angeles Times reported. The other would require charters to disclose much more information about their operations -- including salaries, actions taken by the board against the schools and the services available to disabled students.

Both proposals are supported by the United Teachers Los Angeles union, which has emerged as the most vocal opponent of the charter expansion. Over the last few weeks, the union has held protest rallies, forged an alliance with organized labor in the city and even created an effigy of Eli Broad, the philanthropist spearheading the charter plan.

UTLA members picketed outside Stevenson Middle School on Indiana Street this morning and at various other schools around the city around 7 a.m., and handed out leaflets opposing charter expansion plan, said Kim Turner of UTLA.

City News Service