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The Battle for LAUSD

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After a week of talking tough about his desire to take over the LAUSD, the mayor backed off today. Everyone except the Teacher's Union and the LAUSD itself, it seems, wants something drastic to happen in the leadership and controls of the school district. Voters are in the throw everything at it and see what sticks mode by giving $4 billion for construction of more schools and structures. We got asked to sign some kind of proposition petition yesterday at the grocery store to do something or other for parents to make them feel better about public schools. We overheard one mom ask, "Do you really think this will allow me to take my kids out of private school? I doubt it" before signing on the line in the hopes that something would change for the better.

The Daily News thinks the mayor is on the right track; Antonio Watch disagrees. NOTI Los Angeles, from what we can translate, thinks Charter Schools may be the answer; HorseSense and Nonsense says the Charter School love is misguided. Nobody seems to know how many LAUSD high school students fail to graduate. A Harvard study claims over 50%, LAUSD says about 19%.

All this confusion is making our head hurt. Can we take a pupil-free day?

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