Education in the US today

Los Angeles Unified School District

California’s largest public school system according to student numbers is Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The school system is also the United State’s second largest district in public schools.

The New York City Department of Education tops LAUSD with the largest student numbers.

There were 694,288 students, 45,473 teachers and 38,494 other staff members at LAUSD in the 2007-08 school years. The county government is the largest in Los Angeles County, but the LAUSD is only second.

When it comes to the LAUSD’s school budget the district’s was $7.3 billion in 2009-10. United States urban school districts started having funding difficulties in 1978 following Proposition 13’s approval.

This action changed the funds provided to California’s school districts. LAUSD is one that is known to still be able to compete with other schools, such as larger and private schools, even though it is under funded.

LAUSD has a variety of ethnic student groups represented. These include Hispanic origin students at 73%, African American students at 11%, European American students at 9%, Asian American students at 4% and Filipino students comprise 1% of the student population. The Native American and Pacific Islander students take up less than 1%

combined.

Los Angeles along with many nearby Southern California area communities comprises the school district. The LAUSD even has a specialized police force, known as the Los Angeles School Police Department.

This law enforcement of LAUSD started in 1948 through LAUSD school police services.

A third of Los Angeles County preschools are enrolled with LAUSD. The school district even has as many buses used as the entire Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is in the thousands.

Transit school buses seat 78 to 52 passengers as depends if there are three or two per seat. A traditional school bus carries two per seat to hold 27 passengers on each bus.

When it comes to the school districts’ construction program it compares in expenditures with the Big Dig. The Big Dig was a major construction project in Boston dealing with various interstates, highways, tunnels and bridges scheduled to be built or rerouted throughout the area.

LAUSD also has cafeterias that provide around 500,000 meals daily that is similar to the food provided by local McDonald’s Restaurants.

When it comes to the reputation of LAUSD there are many elements to consider. This district is known to have poor maintenance, overcrowded schools, incompetent administration, high expulsion and drop-outs as well as poor academics. An example of the school district’s problem drop-out rates come from 2007 when grades 9 through 12 was at 26 %.

These issues have been amplified even though the district has put forth efforts with bond issues as well as renovations. One of the construction projects that was part of the effort included adding Santee Education Complex and South East, which were high schools opened in 2005. Also Arleta, East Valley, Contreras Learning Complex and Panorama are high schools that open to students in 2006.

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FIGHTING

for Opportunity

sCHOOL CHOICE YEARbOOk

2009  – 10

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Fighting for Opportunity

School Choice Yearbook 2009–10

An Annual Publication

Published by:

Alliance for School Choice

1660 L Street, NW, Suite 1000

Washington, D.C. 20036

(202) 280-1990

www.AllianceForSchoolChoice.org

Copyright © 2010 Alliance for School Choice, All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-0-9816482-3-1

Authors: Andrew Campanella and Ashley Ehrenreich

Book and cover design: Stacey Maloney

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing

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School Choice Yearbook 2009–10

Fighting for Opportunity

This Yearbook is dedicated to the parents and children

who, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, fight each

and every day for a better, fairer, and stronger education for

their children and for access to quality schools. We fight

alongside them to make the promise of school choice

and equal opportunity a reality.

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Fighting for Opportunity Alliance for School Choice

InTRODuCTIOn

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InTRODuCTIOn

School Choice Yearbook 2009 – 10

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Introduction

The past year presented the school choice movement with unprecedented challenges and

unique opportunities.

Because of state-level budget crises and electorally emboldened adversaries, the school

choice movement fought a seven-theatre war to protect educational opportunities for low-

income children. It was a rollercoaster ride of strong advocacy, emotion, uncertainty, and

nonstop hard work for school choice supporters in every state.

The epicenter of the battle for opportunity was Washington, D.C., where school choice

advocates mounted one of the strongest defenses of an endangered voucher program

in recent memory. However, educational opportunity was also jeopardized in Arizona,

Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

While 2009 brought setbacks—particularly in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania—no

theatre of our battle saw complete defeat. And despite the toughest year in a decade for school

choice, advocates effectively weathered the storm, making gains in some states and realizing

several significant successes.

School choice advocates made significant gains in states like Indiana and Florida, for

example. Indiana’s legislature created a $2.5 million individual and corporate scholarship

tax credit program, and Florida approved, with record bipartisan support, a dramatic

expansion to its tax credit program—making that program the largest in the nation.

In 2009, we saw, again, a significant increase in the number of students participating

in school choice programs (5 percent, to about 180,000) and an increase in the amount of

public money allocated for school choice programs—unexpected victories in what turned out

to be the worst economic climate in decades. And despite challenges at the federal level, an

ever-increasing number of Democratic state legislators last year joined with their Republican

colleagues to support school choice.

Interestingly, the media tide shifted in favor of school choice in 2009, at least on

the national level. The epic battle over the D.C. voucher program encouraged national

newspapers—from USA Today and The Wall Street Journal to The Washington Post and the

Washington Times—to powerfully editorialize in favor of school vouchers. Even progressive

commentators like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews this year offered enthusiastic endorsements of

school vouchers in D.C.

As we begin 2010, we encourage all supporters to recommit to the continuing effort to

advance the promise of educational opportunity. If 2009 has taught us anything, it’s that if

we’re willing to fight hard for what we believe in, most of the time, we will win.