Students are the priority

The mission of the Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is to represent a broad educational universe, where the interests of students learning must be put above the rest.

We expect this to be how the job that School Superintendent John Deasy has done is evaluated. It is fundamental that he remains at the head of LAUSD to continue with improvements in graduation rates and test scores, and the decrease in student suspensions.

This should be enough to give him a good rating. However, the School Board that worked with Deasy to implement reforms in order to turn around the downward path for learning at LAUSD is no longer there.

The current balance of the Board changed during the latest election, mostly because United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) donated significant amounts of money to candidates who opposed the reform agenda in LAUSD.

Now the Board is determined to make Deasy’s life difficult, so much so that the superintendent is prepared to resign early next year.

This situation is disgraceful, an outrage against all the parents who expect to get a quality education for their children from LAUSD. It is a slap in the face for the Latino community, which for a long time saw its children graduate without the needed knowledge while the adults were silently complicit.

We cannot return to the past, where the job wants of administrators and teachers were put first and then came the students. Students are the priority.

The LAUSD School Board must remember that, despite the fact that students don’t vote or donate money for elections, their learning is the most important. That is why Deasy must remain in his position and the members of the Board must remember that their commitment to parents is above any other interest.

The LAUSD Board must evaluate Deasy based on educational improvements