María Brenes: Maintaining The Status Quo For Special Education

“When we say $1.4 billion for special ed and we only have $700 million from the federal government and the other $700 million are coming from every child in this district, I’m not about defunding special ed. I just know that we have a serious issue to [sic] how can we serve our own kids?”
- LAUSD Board Member Monica Garcia

This is the seventh article in a series on serving students with severe special education needs. Please read the first part for an introduction to the issue.

For parents in Board District 2 who have children with special education needs, the November board election brings a chance to change the way these students are viewed by the district. The current board member, Monica Garcia, has said that those receiving special education services drain funding from “our kids”. Will her replacement share this view?

The two finalists in the November runoff election for this seat were sent questions about some of the issues that parents in the district are facing, but only Rocio Rivas responded. Her detailed answers showed an attitude that was the direct opposite of the board member that she seeks to replace. Her empathy and understanding of the needs of students with moderate to severe disabilities suggest that she would be likely to address the concerns of their parents.

Since her opponent, Maria Brenes, refused to answer these same questions, voters have no way to compare the views of the two candidates. Even an indirect comparison is difficult as Brenes has very little information about Special Education on her campaign’s website:

There are about 64,500 students in the district with special education needs enrolled in the LAUSD, and Brenes dedicated only 218 characters toward what she would do to meet their needs. However, these words tell families everything they need to know about the candidate; while “educators, classified school employees, and district leaders” will have a seat at the table, parents are not even mentioned. If she had bothered to reach out before publishing this page she would know that the problems with the delivery of special education services are hampered by much more than how resources are invested or how the staff is trained but rather that the entire system is badly broken. Rocio Rivas was willing to detail her ideas on fixing the system, which leaves the question as to why isn’t Brenes able to do the same.

Brenes’ refusal to address the subject of Special Education in a more meaningful way probably has to do with the fact that Brenes has reportedly been endorsed by the California Charter School Association (CCSA). Any in-depth conversation about special education funding would have to include the funding issues that are created by charter schools receiving the money to provide services for special education but then dissuading parents from enrolling children with disabilities in their schools. As a result, the LAUSD must provide special education services to a larger percentage of children with moderate to severe needs than their charter school counterparts.

The chances of Brenes driving change are also diminished by reports that she has already promised to appoint Monica Garcia as her Chief of Staff. If Garcia was willing to disparage children with special education needs from her board seat, imagine the damage she could do with power behind the scenes where her actions will not be seen.

The children of the LAUSD cannot afford a continuation of the status quo. As school starts, parents are desperate for help. Hopefully, they will get some in November.

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. 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.