Recently at Reason.tv: Cracking the Education Monopoly—Los Angeles parents demand choice. And get it.

September 30, 2009

In "Unlocked," Reason.tv told the story of the successful fight to transform Locke High, one of Los Angeles' most notorious public high schools, into a charter school.

Charters are public schools, often run by private nonprofit organizations, that give students an alternative to traditional schools and principals and teachers more local control over how campuses are run. The transformation of Locke High, completed over objections from the teachers union, marked the first time an existing school in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was turned into a charter school.

On August 25, 2009, the LAUSD took another major step toward cracking the public school monopoly in the nation's second-largest school district.

Thousands gathered in downtown Los Angeles to sound off on a revolutionary school choice resolution put before the school board. Parents donning "My child, My choice" t-shirts faced off against union members and others who opposed the resolution, which would give students in some of LA's worst schools the choice to attend charter schools. In the end, the resolution passed by a six-to-one vote. Now, roughly 250 of LAUSD's 800 traditional public schools are eligible to become charters.

"Cracking the Education Monopoly" is produced by Ted Balaker and Hawk Jensen, who also narrates. Nathan Chaffetz field produced.

Approximately three minutes. Go here for embed code and downloadable versions.

If you have trouble embedding this video, check it out at Reason.tv's YouTube channel.

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|9.30.09 @ 3:42PM|#

I'm a train! WOO WOO!

TallDave|9.30.09 @ 3:46PM|#

Good stuff.

Tomcat1066|9.30.09 @ 4:16PM|#

Jeff Balla|9.30.09 @ 4:59PM|#

The link to "Unlocked" doesn't work. It goes to a 404 error page.

Oh, and the "Cracking the Education Monopoly" video was featured on Hotair.com and Ed Morrissey, whoever he is, wrote a little article about it. Congrats.

Jonas|9.30.09 @ 5:31PM|#

I know it will make me sound like a backwards racist type (but hey, I'm a libertarian, so I'm just inherently racist), but it's worth pointing out that even many black people (e.g. Zora Neale Hurston) were arguing in favor of "choice" to support segregated schools because they didn't want they're kids to be shipped off into schools to be homogenized into white culture and then treated as secondary to the white students.

Not that I would be for segregation, but judging by the way things have turned out for black students in many public school districts, maybe they weren't so wrong.

That being said, it's TOTALLY IRRELEVANT whether white segregationists used the expression. It makes only a little more sense than arguing that school "choice" would be like "aborting" our students or some bullshit like that. Different contexts for the meaning of "choice".

|9.30.09 @ 5:38PM|#

Parents donning "My child, My choice" t-shirts faced off against union members and others who opposed the resolution, which would give students in some of LA's worst schools the choice to attend charter schools.

So let me get this straight--as a childless taxpayer, I get to pay for the education of these children, but their parents are the ones who get to choose how the money gets spent. Because being related to someone who's getting something free entitles you to decide how and where they get that free thing. Have I got that right?

|9.30.09 @ 6:20PM|#

I want to find that woman who said "freedom of choice was a favorite phrase for southern segregationists" and smack her upside the head. I hate to break it to her, but it was probably a favorite phrase for civil rights activists as well.

Not to mention pro-"choice" activists, who I guess in our New Post-Racial Society are racists like damn near everyone else.

|9.30.09 @ 8:30PM|#

Because being related to someone who's getting something free entitles you to decide how and where they get that free thing.

Except that it's not free to them. They pay taxes too.

|9.30.09 @ 9:46PM|#

Re: Parse,

So let me get this straight--as a childless taxpayer, I get to pay for the education of these children, but their parents are the ones who get to choose how the money gets spent.

Yup. And the discussion on which would be better, the parents getting to choose where to spend YOUR money or the government getting to choose, is as irrelevant as the discussion on which would be better, if being eaten by a shark or by a bear.

|9.30.09 @ 10:10PM|#

So do the Charter schools have Union teachers? Because if they do, they're doomed to fail just like the old schools.

|10.1.09 @ 7:54AM|#

nmg, I don't think most school kids pay a significant amount of taxes.

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