Archive for November 2012

LAUSD FALSE IMPRISONMENT OF TEACHERS DOESN'T "BALANCE STUDENT SAFETY WITH TEACHERS' RIGHTS

witch hunt.jpg
(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Daily News Reporter Barbara Jones reports in her article "LAUSD 'jails' fill with teachers as misconduct complaints rise" that "the cost is enormous: $1.4 million a month in salaries...and $865,000 to hire substitutes. What neither she nor any other mainstream media reporter tells you is that this short term loss to LAUSD is more than compensated for when these housed, jailed or rubber room teachers- pick you euphemism- are coerced into resigning or are ultimately dismissed. Last year LAUSD brought false and often completely fabricated charges on the vast majority of the 853 teachers it forced out of their jobs, who were at the top of the salary scale or about to vest in expensive lifetime health benefits- something LAUSD is already $13 billion in the hole on for those teachers who have already vested and/or retired. By replacing these targeted teachers with novice teachers at the bottom of the salary scale and with much diminished benefits, LAUSD saves over $60,000 in salary and benefits per teacher. Do the math. This amounts to a $51 million savings in just the first year after these mostly innocent teachers have been liquidated. And this is a gift to the District that keeps on giving in subsequent years.
Continue reading

30

11 2012


by Leonard Isenberg
posted in
8 Comments

LAUSD: PUNISHMENT WITHOUT CRIME OR DUE PROCESS

kafka.jpg
(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) Hundreds of teachers are either being "housed" without work in "rubber rooms," already been forced to resign, or are in a protracted stall process that LAUSD with the present complicity of UTLA drag on for years to starve out falsely charged teachers before they get their day in a neutral forum. I've been waiting for 3 years now with no end in sight. Other teachers have been buried alive in this kafkaesque nightmare for far longer.
Continue reading

27

11 2012


by Leonard Isenberg
posted in ,
No Comments

"CULTURAL SENSITIVITY" AND LAUSD

Cultural sensitivity.jpg
(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) The most pernicious aspect of racism and prejudice as it presently exists in the Los Angeles Unified School Distirct's (LAUSD) and elsewhere in our society is that it tacitly defines Blacks and Latinos as inherently inferior and incapable of ever being able to evolve into something better. While this attitude is regrettably understandable in the mind of a racist, it also has become the dominant belief among many of the very same Latino and Black people against whom this prejudice continues to be practiced. It stands to reason that if we still live in a society that is more segregated today than it was in 1954, when the Supreme Court decided in the Brown case found that "separate but equal is inherent unequal," then people who continue to remain the product of such a destructive and still segregated public education system will continue to exhibit the ignorance and lack of self-valuation that are the hallmarks of segregation, racism, and a public education system that has no expectation that they can achieve to their potential.
Continue reading

15

11 2012


by Leonard Isenberg
posted in
2 Comments

SELF-DEFENSE FORM AGAINST THE LAUSD'S TEACHER WITCH HUNT

Constitution.jpg
With hundreds of teachers being targeted and removed from their teaching positions with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on trumped up charges without even basic constitutional guarantees of due process of law and in complete derogation of their rights as clearly laid out in applicable legal precedent, it is important that teachers so targeted seize the initiative, while not passively submitting to this witch hunt. To that end, the following document should be used to put LAUSD on notice, when they move for your illegal removal from you teaching position. Putting the district on notice like this will be the first step in a battle where you will frame the conversation for a change, while recapturing your status as an adult, professional, and well educated teacher who will not go quietly into the night.
Continue reading

7

11 2012


by Leonard Isenberg
posted in
1 Comment

ARE LAUSD TARGETED TEACHER STILL UTLA UNION MEMBERS WITH RIGHTS?

UTLA IMAGE.jpeg
(Mensaje se repite en Español) (For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) There is an interesting practice that UTLA engages in vis a vis teachers that have been targeted on bogus charges for removal by LAUSD, e.g. rubber room and others. This practice consists of UTLA depriving teachers put on "unpaid administrative leave" by LAUSD- pending a hearing- of all rights as union members. During the last election of UTLA officers, I was able to vote in the initial election, which took place before LAUSD put me on "unpaid administrative leave," but UTLA would not let me vote in the runoffs, even though there had been no adjudication of my culpability of any of the bogus charges that LAUSD had brought against me. I can understand this kind of reprehensible behavior from LAUSD, but why is UTLA rubber stamping LAUSD action against its members without any due process of law or the assumption that one is innocent until proven guilty in a neutral forum. It is now 2 years since I was put on unpaid administrative leave and I have yet to have my day in court, which LAUSD with the help of Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad continue to stall by asking for continuance after continuance.
Continue reading

2

11 2012


by Leonard Isenberg
posted in ,
No Comments