Tokofsky the Money and Run
One of the more offbeat politicians in Los Angeles is School Board member David Tokofsky. A longtime member of the board, he's a former teacher, fairly liberal but was part of former Mayor Riordan's attempt in 1999 to take over the school board.As a liberal, David's probably never met a tax increase he didn't like. And here he goes again.
David is proposing an increase in the parcel tax which will add another $150 a year to the hundreds of dollars homeowners are already paying in school bond measures, let alone just basic property taxes.
Remember, when folks like David want to tax homeowners, we're not just talking about David Geffen or Aaron Spelling and their mega-mansions, but in reality hundreds of thousands of people in places like Silverlake, Pico-Union, North Hollywood, South Central, etc. who own little four room houses and many of whom are senior citizens living on fixed incomes. It wasn't that long ago that huge property tax increases drove old folks from their homes and it was Proposition 13 that provided some relief. ("Father" of Prop 13, Howard Jarvis, pictured right)"We made some drastic cuts, but before I ask voters for additional funding, the district needs to budget its money more wisely and efficiently," he said. "That puts us in a difficult position to ask for more local funding when the district has a long way to go to improve its budget process."As we said just the other day, the LAUSD needs to get its fiscal house in order. In California, $1 out of every $2 collected in taxes goes to education. The schools have plenty of money, they just honestly waste it.
School Board President Jose Huizar
And perhaps, The Sister City is getting through. Our favorite School Board President Jose "Weezy" Huizar is making noise that he may not support Tokofsky's taxing proposal. Now we know that could just be that he's getting ready to run for Antonio Villaraigosa's very soon to be vacated Council seat, but its possible he's getting religion. We shall see.
Tokofsky's proposal has not been greenlighted by the School Board yet, and if so would most likely show up on the November ballot (along with a construction bond measure already adopted by the board). The good thing is that the tax proposal requires a 66% vote, but that doesn't mean it will fail with the higher percentage of renters that vote these days.
Mayor Sam to David: Listen to your President. He's onto something.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 6/29/2005 12:14:00 PM
23 Comments:
Huizar is on the fence because he's scared to take a position now that he's running for CD14. That's not leadership.
Huizar just championed the A-G program which will cost around $100 million to implement and drastically increase the drop out rate - especially among Latinos. Kind of late to become a tax conscious elected official, isn't it. Yet another example of Parke Skelton dictating policy for our Latino community. Do you also tell Huizar what hand to wipe with, Parke? What would look better on a campaign brochure?
That is ironic.
Huizar is always on the fence. He's about as engaged as someone in a coma.
All of a sudden LAUSD wants the taxpayers to pay for their incompetencies. The A-G program will make it harder for Latino students because they don't have the best classrooms, text books or even great teachers as the more affluent schools on the Westside. A-G is setting them up to fail.
When will the press and media realize that Huizar has been presiding over this mess for a couple of years now. I don't agree with Tokosky's proposal but Huizar is the man in charge - or is he out of his league as LAUSD president.
I wonder if Tokofsky will feed the media alot of juicy stories about LAUSD business deals during Jose's CD14 campaign. Tokofsky is always feeding stories to the media.
All Tokosfsky does is leak gossip to the media.
Why all the blame on Jose? I think there is enough to go around.
If any of you have been to a single meeting you will see that getting the board to do anything is like herding cats. Jose is the President in name only as each board member does whatever they want to do. Yes, Jose has a greater say on the agenda, but any member can put a pet project on the agenda.
Jose has been on the board for four years and was finally able to get ALL students to have the possibility to attend college. Yes, it will be difficult at first to transition to this "new system" which the rest of the state and country has been already following. Yes, we don't currently have the resources to meet this demand. Yes, there maybe some students who drop out - but not because they are being given the opportunity to take classes to go to college but in spite of being able to take these classes.
Why do we think so little of our students and teachers?
Before I can back any bond - I too would like to see what cuts Tokosfsky is willing to make. And don't patronize me with that citizen’s advisory committee bullshit. All they do is rubber stamp the D.O.'s requests for funding. What about oversight and accountability on change orders? Yeah we give the construction contract to the lowest bidder and then they rape us on the work order changes!
-El Sereno
Our students, including Latinos, will go as far as they are pushed and for years students at LAUSD have been neglected and have been set on a course to failure. Huizar's A through G initiative reminds me of progressive policies set during the civil right's movement.
In our elusive quest for equality we have failed as society to prepare our children for an academic career. During the board meeting I heard people argue that who was going to do the blue-collar work...and this came from counselors from Bell High School. These people should be fired!!!!
El Sereno, is Huizar the president of the LAUSD or not? If he is unable to assert himself why let him run CD14? Don't keep making excuses for him, Enrique.
Making excuses for Huizar? Enrique/El Sereno just gave a campaign speech for Pacheco. Is Huizar just going to be a councilman in name only?
And then El Sereno mentions that "Jose has been on the board for four years and was finally able to get ALL students to have the possibility to attend college."
Guess what, he's also giving ALL students the increased possibility to drop out. You should know, college is not for everyone. With the new system if you are not college bound, might as well drop out in the 9th grade. It's a great idea but so is utopia.
The problem running for higher office from the LAUSD is that you have to take responsibility for the mess over there even if you improved the mess.
For someone seeking to change the world, LAUSD is the place to be. There is so much room for improvement. Only thing is, Huizar hasn't improved anything. At least Tokosfky was able to coach a national academic decathalon champion. Huizar has championed sweeheart deals for his financial backers.
8:12 AM Post: There are so many intractable problems at the District that even if you make improvements, the District will still be under-performing.
So even if Huizar improved the District (which I don't think he did) he still presided over the mess known as LAUSD.
Dear Anonymous,
July 1st, 2005
5AM-AV will wake up and possibly take a shower.
5:05AM-He will look in the mirror and try to find himself and focus.
7:00AM-He has finished finding himself and putting on makeup.
7:55AM-Drives off
8:20AM-AV noticed he did not have his family with him.
8:25AM-OH SHIT, he brought the wrong wife. He gets the right one and darts off.
8:45AM-He looks in the mirror to find himself again, while ACE and Parke count the $$$$$$$ in the LIMO.
Parking structures, land, schools?????? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ALL for the three bandidos.
The event should be called, "THE THREE BANDIDOS."
An individual would have to have the decency and guts to come out and be the whistleblower for the incompetencies and back deal rooms of Huizar. Will a good conscious person please tell our government of the hypocrasy and white collar crimes occurring at the level of politics in Los Angeles?
"Yes, there maybe some students who drop out - but not because they are being given the opportunity to take classes to go to college but in spite of being able to take these classes."
You have no idea how negative this mentality is to a culture, especially minorities. You ignore the fact that we have a dropout crisis. The educators and administrators need to be held accountable FIRST!
After the dropout rate is dealt with, we concentrate in implementing the LIBERAL EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMS ON OUR KIDS.
PATHETIC HUIZAR AND ANON.
Huizar is only good for one thing:
BROKERING BACKROOM DEALS FOR THE THREE BANDIDOS.
When are we going to see Sleazy Huizar's list of accomplishments as prez of LAUSD? What can he possibly list? A higher drop out rate, 48 killings in LAUSD schools since 2003, worst overcrowded schools on Eastside etc. etc. etc.
David tells his white rich folks he supports building smaller school, but on the eastside he supports building larger schools?
Wake up people Eli Broad, Richard Riordan and Peter Soberoff are David's and Huizie's PUPPET MASTERS...
We already hold teachers and administrators accountable first. They get fired all the time.
In all the threads on education, I don't recall anyone mentioning trying to hold parents accountable? When do we start asking them to pay for notebooks and crayons?
That many murders in the schools is something to address, but so would be all the murders that happened during Nick's term. What has or did each do to prevent or change these murders from increasing?
I'll be the first to agree that higher education is not for everyone. But it is stupid to ask who will do the low wage jobs. Yes, giving everyone the opportunity to go to college is utopic - so was having integrated schools and universal kindergarten.
Kids drop out not because the curriculum is harder, but because they don't have the support system to get through it. I know of NO teacher that would fail a student if that student tried to do their homework everyday. Yes, they may bring it in with some manteca from last nights tortillas, but they made an effort.
Kids drop out because there is no support structure at home. No care taker to oversee who there friends are and keep them in line. There are a plethora of kids from single family homes that make it, one is getting sworn in right now, so this is not an excuse either.
Enough with my ranting, back to the thread. I don't want to pay $150 a year more in taxes when the corporations that own downtown are going to be assessed the disproportional same. That is what split roll is all about – they reap nor benefits they should pay more. David doesn't want to discuss this because he is being bank rolled by Broad and other downtown building owners. Unless a split roll tax is discussed, this bond is dead before it ever started.
-El Sereno
SOMEONE PLEASE RUN AGAINST TOKOFSKY!!!! PACHECO, MOVE IN TO THE DISTRICT, WE'LL VOTE FOR YOU.
Mayor Sam,
Your advise to David is "Listen to your President?" Huizie is just as corrupt as David. They are both Riordan Boys. Right?
Explain your logic please...
And to the last Blogger, Pacheco is not any better. See Pacheco's Poll on Mayor Sam.
Follow the $$$$$$$ and the truth will set you free...
Ruff Ruff
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