LAUSD Candidates Offer Ideology, Not Specifics

District 5 candidates hoping to join the LAUSD Board of Trustees offered philosophical answers rather then spelling out specific plans to tackle the district’s deficit during a public forum on Wednesday night in the auditorium of Benjamin Franklin High School.

During the two-hour forum, candidates Bennet Kayser and John Fernandez, both former LAUSD teachers; Luis Sanchez, former city commissioner and current LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia’s chief of staff; and write-in candidate Scott Folsom answered a series of questions ranging from decreasing the drop-out rate to closing the district deficit.

About 50 people attended the forum. Organizers said they the hoped the forum would help voters decide who should replace incumbent Yolie Flores Aguilar, who announced last she would not seek reelection.

The tone of the debate was respectful, and there were only a few times when candidates disagreed. But for the most part, candidates answered questions from an ideological point of view rather than offering a specific plan of action if elected.

For example, when the host, Philip Iglauer of the Northeast Coalition, asked candidates to name three ways they would close the district’s $408 million deficit and not layoff any teachers, none of the candidates listed the three options.

Kayser said he wouldn’t “talk about layoffs until everything else has been looked at.”  He said he wants to “build a culture of quality” in the district.

Folsom said the real solution to the budget deficit would come from Sacramento.

Fernandez said the only way to close the deficit is to work together. In fact, he said, that is one of his campaign slogans.

Sanchez said the district needs to “think outside the box” to create possible revenue sources, including putting a parcel tax on the ballot for 2012. He also said unions need to talk about furloughs and givebacks.

When Iglauer asked about decreasing the drop-out rate, all the candidates agreed that there are different reasons as to why students drop out and said that early intervention is the answer, but none of the cadidates elaborated. When it came time to answer a question about cutting art programs in the district, every candidate spoke passionately about how crucial and useful art classes are but only Sanchez gave a plan to keep the classes running.

“We need to start a foundation at the district level,” he said adding that many business and community members would be willing to donate money to the foundation. “I was the only person that brought a solution.”

Candidates did reveal more about their plans for the district during their personal introductions.

For example, Fernandez said the most pressing issue the district is facing this year is layoffs. He plans to avoid layoffs by cutting administrative costs and reviewing and evaluating every contract the district has with contractors in search of wasteful spending and conflicts of interest.

Sanchez said he wanted to focus on restructuring schools in an effort to reform them. He also supports a parcel tax and wants to reach out to business and nonprofits to help in schools.

Kayser recalled an incident that happened when he was a teacher to explain his plans. He related a story from his teaching days at Irving Middle School about the district's unsuccesful attemp to have air condition installed in his classroom. He said contractor after contractor came into the school, failing to do the job properly and increasing the cost of the project. He also described himself as a reformer and said that’s what he intends to do.

Folsom, on the other hand, described his priorities several times but did not talk about any specific plans.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” he said during his introduction. “We need more community involvement.”

He also praised teachers by saying that “they do God’s work.”

At one point during the debate, Sanchez called out the fellow candidates, saying that school board members can't waste time disucssing educational philosophy, rather than they must come to the table with concrete ideas.

Folsom disagreed. 

"I think we have a fundamental disagreement," Folsom said. "It's our job to provide philosophical guidance to the superintendent."

The candidate that wins this seat on Tuesday, March 8, will represent Highland Park, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, Glasell Park, several East Los Angeles communities and unincorporated parts of East Los Angeles.