History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Why charters and teachers don't have to be enemies
- 09-15-2011
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Opinion by John Perez/Los Angeles Daily News
John Perez served as UTLA president prior to A.J. Duffy
There was a new twist last week in the ongoing story of education reform and United Teachers Los Angeles. Former UTLA President A.J. Duffy announced his plans to start a charter school based on policies he opposed before stepping down two months ago. Duffy's seeming "conversion" has called into question whether UTLA leaders fight for causes we don't really believe in. As a former union president -- I served before Duffy took office in 2005 -- I have no regrets about having opposed the academic policies of most charter operators and the financial motives of their super-wealthy backers. I still support charter schools as they were first envisioned, as laboratories where educators could work without fear of failure on new approaches to improve the larger public school system. And, like my UTLA predecessors Day Higuchi and the late Helen Bernstein, I support the idea of union-inspired charters to "field test" the policies we propose in collective bargaining. That's hardly the picture, though, at most of the 200-plus charter schools carved out of the L.A. Unified School District. (more...)
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