Lawsuit seeks to overturn job protection for teachers. The latest on Assessor Noguez. Obama campaign goes on the attack, Romney counters. Is there a better way to give work permits to immigrants? Lakers, Clippers, Kings share LA’s Staples Center for playoffs games. The new world order has no leader.
Lawsuit seeks to overturn job protection for teachers
Laws protecting teacher tenure rules in California are being challenged in the courts. Students Matter - a new nonprofit that describes itself as an organization "committed to ensuring that all of California's children receive a quality education" - filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday.
“We have five outdated statutes that are on the books that handcuffs school administrators,” Theodore Boutrous Jr., Legal Counsel for Students Matter, said. “These laws preclude the schools from acting in the best interest of children.”
The complaint questions the constitutionality of those five statutes that protect teacher seniority, layoffs and govern the dismissal process. The group says the laws are "outdated and harmful". Students Matter is representing eight California based students ranging in age from seven to fifteen.
Boutrous added that LAUSD has paid 3.5 million between the years of 2000 and 2010 to fire four teachers who have committed criminal acts of misconduct.
“It's like WWIII litigation. It can go all the way to the appellate court, simply to get rid of a teacher that everyone would agree is awful,” he continued.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy supports the lawsuit, saying that using seniority to deal with teacher firings is unfair both to teachers and students.
“At the end of the day, you must use seniority, and seniority is the sole indicator, and I've been very clear on the fact that I think it's disrespectful and completely unfair. I am just prohibited from taking into account how a teacher does their job, what contributions they're making to the school, the students the community, what duties they do,” he explained.
Deasy also noted that children who live in poorer communities are at a disadvantage. “In schools where there are the greatest concentrations of youth who live in greater circumstances of poverty, you tend, and it's been documented quite clearly, to have the greatest concentration of least senior teachers. When you have to displace teachers by seniority, a far greater number of teachers are then moved out based on their seniority number in schools with the poorest communities,” he said.
Rosemary Ward, attorney who represents teachers in dismissal cases, said that the terms of the lawsuit would give administrators too much power.
“[Boutrous’] suggestion would be to give more power to the administrators to basically review these people in a shortcut fashion to decide whether or not they're going to get tenure. … Many administrators are not there and are biased, and we all take every effort possible to shortcut the rights afforded by the constitution,” she said.
According to Boutrous, there are plenty of public sector laws, such as due process, that protect teacher rights. “It really is not correct to suggest that it's these unique laws, which create this arbitrary system where the worst teacher in the world can't get fired, stays there forever, can get tenure after a very short period of time, and injure children’s lives by not teaching them effectively, [is protecting teachers],” he said.
Ward maintains that everyone in the district must work together. “We all need to take a deep breathe and realize here – it is a collaborative effort. To be successful, it's got to be a united effort amongst the teachers, parents, administrators and the students. If the teachers are not backed, you are putting any teacher, even the best of teachers, into an impossible situation.”
What benefits could there be to challenging teacher protections? Does a case of this nature detract from the quality of education students receive? If you’re a teacher, what are your thoughts on this case?
Guests:
John Deasy, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School district
Theodore Boutrous Jr., Legal Counsel for Students Matter from Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher
Rosemary Ward, Attorney who represents teachers in dismissal cases
Obama campaign goes on the attack, Romney counters
Barack Obama’s campaign went on the offensive this week with an ad targeting Mitt Romney’s time running the investment firm, Bain Capital Investments. They’re not alone, the Obama affiliated Super PAC, Priorities USA Action came out with a remarkably similar video as well.
According to the ads, one titled “Steel” from the Obama campaign itself and the other called “Heads or Tails,” from the Super PAC, depict Romney and Bain as heartless capitalists whose huge profits were won on the backs of hardworking men and women in Middle America. “Steel” will air in several important battleground states including Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania in an ad buy that cost the campaign about $4 million dollars. Romney was quick to fight back.
Within hours his campaign released their own video touting the accomplishments of Steel Dynamics, a company that, according to the ad, may not have existed if it hadn’t been for Bain Capital. The campaign also released an earlier ad slamming Obama’s handling of the economy using quick cuts from news stories highlighting the economic turmoil of the last couple of years.
So, how truthful are the ads on both sides? Was Romney a vampire capitalist? Are Obama policies poisoning the economic recovery?
The Obama campaign has made a calculated decision to go after Romney’s record at Bain, meanwhile throughout the campaign Romney has chosen to highlight his business background. Is Romney vulnerable in that area?
And, many have pointed out the incredible similarities between Obama’s campaign ad and the one released from Priorities USA Action. Are the supposedly unaffiliated groups a little too close for comfort? Who will win the political ad wars?
GUESTS
Brooks Jackson, Director of FactCheck dot org, a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center
Tom Hollihan, Professor of Communications, Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, University of Southern California; Author of "Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age, Arguments and Arguing"
Selection of ads from the Obama campaign
Selection of ads from the Romney campaign
Indictments coming in LA assessor's corruption scandal
District Attorney Steve Cooley is readying grand jury indictments for the criminal probe into Assessor John Noguez's office, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The investigation centers around Noguez who may have received bribes in exchange for making cheap property tax assessments for campaign contributors.
"We of course are not talking a lot about what we found because the search warrants were executed a couple of weeks ago and they are still under seal," Cooley said during today's AirTalk with Larry Mantle show. "The items that were seized are being forensically and otherwise evaluated, but we are proceeding toward the potential for criminal filings, which may come by way of filing a criminal complaint or by seeking grand jury indictments."
Cooley also said that multiple indictments are likely. He chided the union for assessor's office staff for advising employees not to cooperate with investigators unless they receive an okay from their employer.
"They're telling potential witnesses that, until they permission from the No. 1 target, they can't talk," Cooley told the Times. He was referring to an internal memo issued by the California Association of Professional Employees.
Cooley has a copy that advises staff to "refuse to answer any questions, or provide any information or documents to a district attorney's representative without a written order by the assessor's office to comply." D.A. Cooley said the author of the memo will probably be the first summoned to testify to a grand jury. A lawyer for the union defends its position.
Reporter Jack Dolan of the L.A. Times has been covering on this story, and told AirTalk that through interviews with employees at the assessor's office, it became clear that there may be an issue.
"John Noguez's administration didn't invent this notion of lowering property values for campaign contributors it's just that it rose to what employees said seemed like an entirely new level after Noguez's election… The process that the appraisers are complaining about is their work, their assessment gets ignored and a top official from the Noguez administration, in the mind of the appraisers, will come to an arbitrary number that is much lower. The tax bill is calculated off that lower number. These are allegations, but these are allegations that we've heard repeatedly by numerous employees," he said.
Dolan says that Noguez has not spoken to the Times for a couple of months, but that his reps have insisted that nothing improper was done and that these lowered assessments were justifiable and legal. However, he says, there was one significant exception.
"There was one allegedly rogue employee who just apparently on his own with no documentation, no authorization and no real explanation, lowered the assessed values for about 125 property owners on the west side, we're talking Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades. When we finally interviewed him, we interviewed him numerous times and he finally went on the record, he said he did otto try and drum up campaign contributions of John Noguez," he said.
Cooley says the investigation has moved beyond its initial stage and within a "short time frame" there will be charges coming forth against Noguez and his administration.
Weigh In
Who else could be swept up in the criminal probe? Are staff members concealing information? Will property taxes allegedly lost in the scandal ever be recouped?
GUEST
Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County District Attorney
Jack Dolan, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times
Is there a better way to give work permits to immigrants?
Currently, work visas are obtained using a waiting list and a lottery system. UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri is proposing an auction system in which U.S companies would bid electronically for permits to hire immigrant workers. Because these permits would be market based, government would no longer be assessing the skills of immigrant workers but rather companies would decide what skills they value and bid for the permits that fulfill their needs.
Each auctioned permit would be attached to a temporary work visa which would allow the visa holder to move from job to job thus giving workers greater freedom to find the best working conditions and reducing the opportunity for exploitation. Our present work visa system favors family reunification and non-market based qualifications.
With work permits starting at $7,000 for high skilled labor and $1,000 for seasonal, lowered skilled workers, this proposal could bring millions to cash strapped federal and state coffers. One drawback would be the elimination of the lottery for green cards for people from low immigration countries but it may resolve some of the problems related to the demand by businesses for low skilled labor that fuels thee illegal immigration.
GUESTS
Giovanni Peri, Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis and author of “Rationalizing U.S. Immigration Policy: Reforms for Simplicity, Fairness, and Economic Growth,” a research paper for The Hamilton Project at The Brookings Institution which outlines his proposals for auctioning work permits for immigrants.
Steven Camarota, Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies
Lakers, Clippers, Kings share LA’s Staples Center for playoffs games
Call it a VERY full house. Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles is not only home to basketball’s Lakers and Clippers, but it also houses hockey’s Kings. For the first time in the 13-year-old building’s history, all three teams have made the playoffs in their respective sports, have furthermore made the second round, and will each be playing two games in Staples Center between Thursday and Sunday. That requires a lot of set-up, break-down and strong limbs.
Game 3 of the National Hockey League’s Western Conference finals between the Kings and Phoenix Coyotes is Thursday evening. On Friday evening, the Lakers play the Oklahoma Thunder for the National Basketball Association’s Western Conference semifinals. On Saturday afternoon, the Clippers face off against the San Antonio Spurs, also for the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals. Then that Saturday night, the Lakers play against Oklahoma. On Sunday, the Kings and the Coyotes play at noon, and the Clippers and Spurs go up against each other that evening.
According to Lee Zeidman, the Staples Center’s senior vice President and general manager, it takes a crew of 35 people two hours and 15 minutes, provided there’s no hockey overtime, to convert the facility from an NHL rink to a basketball court. That includes covering the ice, taking down the glass barrier around the rink and laying down the basketball court floor and VIP chairs. It takes 25 Staples employees an hour and a half to convert the floor between Lakers and Clippers games, said Zeidman.
Are you excited about this whirlwind of sports teams all using the Staples Center back-to-back, or is this a traffic headache on the horizon?
GUEST
Lee Zeidman, the Staples Center’s senior vice president and general manager
Author Ian Bremmer: The new world order has no leader
In his new book “Every Nation for Itself” author and global risk analyst Ian Bremmer argues that world governance is failing.
International bodies such as the G-7 or the G-20 are ineffective at global governing because no one state has the clout to move an agenda forward and each state has enough power to block any undesirable initiative. The stalemate, according to Bremmer creates a power vacuum that the author finds troubling and disconcerting.
What’s left when no country emerges as the world leader? Bremmer calls it G-Zero, a world dominated by uncertainty, severely hampered by its inability to find agreement among nations on vitally important issues such as trade policy, international macroeconomics, climate change and financial regulatory reform. What will come out of this leaderless condition? In his book Bremmer makes predictions about who wins and who loses in this new international order and what this all means for the United States.
GUEST
Ian Bremmer, author of “Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World” (Portfolio)