Only 8% of voters turned out to give George McKenna a victory in the 1st district school board election this week, but that vote could greatly impact the future of the roughly 640,000 students in the LAUSD.
Superintendent John Deasy no doubt would have preferred the politics on a school board favoring the charter reform movement, but McKenna’s win solidifies a 4-3 pro-teacher union school board and marks the second time in two years that a labor candidate has won against a well-funded charter reform candidate in an open seat.
So what happened to the influence of the charter reform movement? And from iPads to UTLA’s contract, what obstacles lie ahead? We’ll take a deeper look at the direction of LAUSD under a charter reform superintendent and a pro-labor school board.
Guests:
Annie Gilbertson, KPCC education reporter covering LAUSD
Fernando Guerra, Director of The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles and Professor of Political Science, as well as Chicana/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University; SCPR Board of Trustees member
Alex Caputo-Pearl, president, UTLA
Gary Borden, Executive Director, California Charter Schools Association Advocates