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Candidates Tout Their Ideas

Samantha Oltman | January 30, 2013



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Campaign questionnaires don’t always yield reflective or candid responses from candidates, but a majority of LAUSD Board candidates have now responded to a questionnaire on the League of Women Voters’ Smart Voter website and their answers shed some light on what they think are the biggest issues facing LAUSD — as well as what’s needed to improve the district.

Click below for some highlights of what some of the candidates have to say, or click above for the full set of responses.  In the very near future, LA School Report is planning to ask and publish candidates’ answers to more specific education questions. What do you think we should ask? Meantime, don’t forget that candidates for District 6 are scheduled to appear tomorrow, January 31, at the next United Way Greater Los Angeles candidate forum.

Some examples of candidates’ responses:

Robert Skeels is running against School Board President Monica Garcia in District 2, an area including East and Central LA. He says the most important issue facing LA schools is standardized testing. Skeels says he plans to “resist” standardized tests and that “psychometricians and education experts agree that they should never be used for any high stakes decisions that affect students and educators.”

In District 4, which includes Hollywood and the Westside, Kate Anderson is running against District 4 Board incumbent Steve Zimmer, who has not yet responded to the questionnaire. Anderson says the quality of education in LA’s schools is held back by a “broken” system for evaluating and supporting teachers, as well as a lack of local control.

Antonio Sanchez, who running to fill departing Board Member Nury Martinez’s East Valley District 6 seat, says there is “no simple solution to fix the system,” but that a key issue is ensuring teachers “have access to the necessary resources and support to offer their students the best education possible.”

 

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