LAUSD: An Anatomy Of Failure

You want to know why LAUSD is failing? It’s not because there are 750,00 students. It seems like its sheer size is the reason it’s a terrible institution. But that’s just not it. There are other giant organizations that actually succeed. I’m thinking of a business like Wal-Mart, which, love it or hate it, works. They are enormous and they make a profit. It works.

Or the US Military. With nearly 1 and a half million active personnel, the military proves that having a large number of people involved is not a deterrent to success.

(Now, I am not suggesting that the LAUSD ought to run itself like a business or like the Military. Not at all. (Although clearly the hiring of David Brewer as Superintendent a couple of years ago meant it occurred to someone that the Navy might be able to shape up our schools… Which did not turn out to be true in that case.))

I’m just saying you can’t blame the size of the district for why it’s a colossal failure. No, the failure of LAUSD is due to the people running the place. Pure and simple. People in positions of power who care more about their power than they do about the children they are tasked with educating. Or it could be equally true that they just exist inside this bubble of their own making, a bubble where incremental success is measured by every little increment. So to them, there really has been progress.

This explains why, when faced with a new good idea, they will reject it out of hand. Or why they might not even recognize a good idea when they’re presented with one. That’s the bubble effect.

It’s so maddening at times! And I am FAR from the only parent who feels this way.

There’s a facebook group growing by the minute with people who are mad about the new policy discontinuing inter-district transfers. They’re mobilizing and are a very well-organized and informed group. One of things they’re (and I’m one of them) maddest about is how the district changed a policy that affects over 10,000 students and didn’t tell any of their parents.

I found out because I have a few friends on the inside and one of them passed on an inter-office memo that, oh, somehow or other got leaked out to other parents and then to the media — but only now, 6 weeks after the memo was written, have parents received formal written notice of the policy change. A little late and a lot of money wasted there.

And that’s the problem. It’s not the size, it’s the way people who work there THINK. The decision to change policy and not tell people — why do they need to know? The decision to ban homemade food potlucks — why can’t they buy food? The decision not to fix up old schools but instead to build new ones far way — why do those children need new paint on the walls? It’s as if Marie Antoinette were running things.