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Friday, August 31, 2007

Non-Profit Absue Alert: Villaraigosa's More "Flexible" and "Autonomous" Non-Profit Fund Raising Vehicle To Fix LAUSD Cause Antonio Cares About Kids!

AW, HELL NAW! IF ZD IS CONCERNED OVER NON-PROFIT ABUSE, HOW DO YOU THINK HE FEELS ABOUT MAYOR ANTONIO’S OWN “FLEXIBLE” (LAUSD) SCHOOL NON-PROFIT?

Shady LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa couldn’t get his hands on the entire LAUSD school system budget, so he has to settle for a small starter cluster. Brad Pitt and George Clooney should make a movie about this scam. “LAUSD 11.”

From Press Release [ZD comments in brackets]

The partnership will be part of the District’s new Innovation Division for Education Achievement (IDEA), which was created as part of Superintendent Brewer’s plan to transform District schools.

[It’s innovative, all right. Innovative in ways that it allows a mayor to pull off the bigger disappearing act since David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. Let’s call Antonio “David Cofferfield”. (He makes coffers disappear.) It was created as “part” of Brewer’s plan...” (Yeah, Brewer has a plan, and the mayor’s shady board backers decided they would approve this as “part” of it.]

Partnership schools will receive 'increased flexibility' in exchange for 'increased accountability.' [What is the method of accountability? How do you plan on achieving it? If you don't will you give the money back?]

Mayor Sam comment poster Jack Hoff adds, "Zuma, this sounds like the beginnings of 'Flexible Accountability'!"

Among the reforms offered to partnership schools are 'increased budget autonomy and funding', increased 'flexibility from LAUSD policies' and the possibility of 'modified collective bargaining agreements'. [CITIZEN'S ALERT!!! THIS IS NOT A TEST...THIS IS NOT A TEST!!! Antonio just decided he can do whatever he wants with LAUSD money!]

Partnership schools will be held accountable for results in student achievement, safety and parent satisfaction goals within specific time frames. [Again, by what method and measure? What does “held accountable” mean? So Villar may not be able to improve results, but the schools will be held accountable if he fails?!?! So looks like the parents, kids and teachers will be punished if he doesn't raise achievement. But like his mass transit plan, he making demands before he's fixed the system. (Hasn't fixed the schools yet, but he will be demanding accountability. Like he will be demanding people take public transpo, even though he hasn't fixed that system. (Not enough) Does Villaraigosa give the money back if HE fails?]

With approval by the Board of Education, LAUSD intends to contract with the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a new 'non-profit organization' created by Mayor Villaraigosa to support and manage the two families of schools. The partnership will be managed under the auspices of IDEA. Created earlier this summer [public hearing minutes, please], the division drives transformation of LAUSD schools by fostering school innovation proposals and community partnerships while benchmarking and replicating best practices and accountability measures districtwide. [Antonio is a supporter of Semilla. Is he going to benchmark HIS non-profit business model off of that one?]

"I am delighted that the Mayor is partnering with LAUSD through our new Innovation Division [division, as in what it is doing to LAUSD] and look forward to working with them to improve outcomes for students as the Chair of the Charters and IDEA Committee,” said Board Member Marlene Canter. [Oh no...no wonder Canter is more mayoral muppet friendly on Charter approval stuff. They "initiated" her into the gang with a "Charter/IDEA" Chair position.

The Mayor’s office, through the partnership, will employ a team and develop a comprehensive plan to serve the families of schools and coordinate services to improve the surrounding communities. [Watch out for use the word “employ team” in the same sentence as “comprehensive”. (That’s Antonio’s way of saying, “Lots of spending will be needed to cover everyone....I mean everything.” ) Lots of consultants, project supervisors and people from Latham & Watkins will need to be involved in this partnership with the community.]

“I look forward to working with the Mayor on partnerships that will focus on kids and improving their academic achievement,” said Board Member Richard Vladovic. [Me too Dr. V. But if I know Antonio, this has nothing to do with that. Like when he campaigned on “family values.” This guy has a shameless history as a shell game master. Ask around. See if the people he makes promises to get a shred of what they were promised. And now a bunch of suckers just voted in a school board that is giving the shadiest politician in LA history more increased budget autonomy and funding, increased flexibility from LAUSD policies and the possibility of modified collective bargaining agreements for “Mr. Values and Ethics'” new (comprehensive) non-profit organization. Hey Tony Soprano, check this guy out. He can teach you some new "innovative" tricks.

Concerns:

* Flexible funding sources? Like the (conflict of interest based) private fundraising he did for AB 1381/LAUSD school board candidate backing when he raised private money from people needing Villaraigosa's approval for major projects in the City.

* School construction budget concern: Under Mayor's AB 1381, anything construction spending under $250,000 doesn’t need approval? What's the current situation? Don’t let them up it to $3 million the way they Riordan's failed mayoral takeover team wanted to.

* Front-end loaded contract concerns. Who is going to get to sit on his non-profit board? He gets to use the mayor’s office to fundraise for his private charity under the guise of LAUSD/kids, then he gets to spend that money however he wants and give it to whoever he wants. ZD WANTS TO SIT ON THE BOARD AND TAKE A SALARY, PLEASE!

* Basically, instead of one focused effort to transform LAUSD, you have a divided school board, pulling in different directions with no one vision. And now, besides a bunch of Charters being approved with no accountability or standardization (a million charter operators can have a million different methods/no standardization/no uniformity), you're letting the shadiest, non-result producing mayor in U.S. history grab a hold of the steering wheel, too, with his more "flexible, autonomous, private non-profit. (Once the money goes in, there's no accountability.) Just call Antonio "David Cofferfield. Cause he's real good at making the coffers disappear.

* This whole order of business and idea for all of this was decided upon by Antonio and his muppet school board. CAN I PLEASE SEE THE MINUTES OF THE PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THIS?

I hope the Mr. Mayoral Control plans on filling out a 700 form!

zumadogg@gmail.com

CLICK READ MORE FOR MORE:

“Today we are pouring the foundations for a historic partnership between LAUSD and the City that will transform L.A. schools and fundamentally reconfigure what education means for students, teachers and parents in Los Angeles,” Mayor Villaraigosa said.

[Who wrote that meaningless crap? You’re not ‘pouring the foundations’, you are announcing that you are ‘pouring the foundations’. Be careful saying, “WILL transform”. How do you know? This is just a big experiment. Chose your words more carefully please. That’s 100% rhetoric. “Fundamentally reconfigure.” We’ll that’s true. Fundamentally good or bad is the question.]

“This is the first time that the communities of Los Angeles and the school district are committing – as partners – to changing the culture and conditions, and at our lowest-performing schools.”

[It is? What the heck have they been trying to do the past thirty years? Deming says beware meaningless exhortations. Just because you proclaim, “This is the first time...” Doesn’t mean it is the first time it has happened, yet. Just because you say everyone is committing, well the parents have not showed up yet to prove commitment. I’m going to make an exhortation a la Villaraigosa. Zuma Dogg has partnered with the people of Los Angeles for the first time to commit to jumping out of our cars and taking much more mass transportation! (That doesn’t mean it’s the case.)]

“This creates a framework for a partnership that will foster innovation and student achievement in our schools,” said Superintendent Brewer. “Our commitment is to work together to propose specific partnerships to families of schools, with approval of partnership contracts by the Board of Education in the coming months. Our mutual goal is to work collaboratively to ensure that children in these schools graduate from high school college-prepared and career ready.” [See Brewer knows how to avoid propaganda/rhetoric through strategic wording: Words like “foster” and ”mutual goal” keep keeps it credible, as opposed to Antonio’s exhortations how “for the first time” this “will” happen.].

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Zuma, this sounds like the beginnings of "Flexible Accountability"!

August 31, 2007 10:41 AM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

Flexible Accountabiltiy, y'all!!! Huh...huh...huh...I wish I thought of that. I'm going to just delete your comment and say it as my own comment?

FLEXIBLE ACCOUNTAIBILTY, Y'ALL!!! It's the problem to the solution!

August 31, 2007 11:05 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Maria Casillas of Families In Schools, and Interim Director of the BHLC. (Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative (below),

It would be an educated guess, that the Mayor is preparing to be on top of Roosevelt cluster with Maria as his point person, because she has been feeding him details of Joint President's Commission on LAUDS Governance over the past 2 years (plus).

Casillas is the most knowledgeable authority in this area who along with Dave Able, the backing of Gates dollars, LA Chamber and associated power players has a touted track record of success.

So look for her to join Antonio’s coffer-reforming team.

August 31, 2007 5:41 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

This corruption from the Mayor shouldn't surprise anyone. He's nothing but a gang banging cholo from the hood who learned everything from EME. He doesn't have the integrity to do anything without trying to be sneaky, to lie, deceive in order to get his way. Problem is everything he's doing not one damn council member speaks out against. WE have no leadership in LA. AT a community meeting with over 100 people it was stated that during Mayor Hahn's administration this city wasn't in the mess it is now with all the bullshit of illegals, blight, corruption, bullshit and the rest. Every council member has attempted to do something illegal and got caught.

August 31, 2007 7:31 PM  

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