The mayor’s office has NOTHING to do with education and the two should stay separate. With the mayor’s push in these last few years along with those outside business interests funding 5 of our current board 7 members (now down to 4 after disengaging from Zimmer after he realized their discrimination tactics) we’ve seen the forced policies of charter interests. School Choice was done by Yolie Flores while she worked part time for a Charter organization – the whole thing should have been thrown out as a conflict of interest and she should have been recusing herself from any vote to do with charter interest.

Money has corrupted what was once a trusted institution. Give our school board back to the people and keep the mayor’s office out of LAUSD as there are more cities than Los Angeles in this district. One mayor of one city has no right to make determinations regarding other smaller cities.

When Villariagosa tried to take over LAUSD (ignoring city charter/voter decision-making laws and taking it to the state for an illegal vote) Jackie Goldberg helped families force a town hall for him to answer questions because he refused to hear the other side. He ducked out during questions and answers, had plain-clothes police pushing parents around (I was one of them) and then ducked out the back door before answering public questions. He doesn’t care about our children and neither do those who are taking money from big-business charter interests.

I asked at that town hall why the mayor wasn’t providing what was within his capacity to do for improving children’s lives? Where are the safe neighborhoods so they can walk to and from school without fear? Where are the living-wage jobs for their parents so they can come to school well-fed and ready to- learn? Why aren’t there more affordable health clinics in neighborhoods to keep children and their families healthy? Don’t get me started on pot-holes….

If he can’t even provide basics required of his office, we could only wonder what mayhem would occur with him in charge of public education.

Keep in mind Eli Broad is a developer first. It’s about property, folks. Who has more than LAUSD? Think about it. What’s the REAL reason these folks feel the need to “control” LAUSD? If we continue to allow outside business interests to lead the discussion on our public school elections, soon we will have no public schools….at least those that would take ALL children.