The World's Largest Rudderless Ship

Two years ago, the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) made a HUGE deal when it hired David Brewer to be superintendent. Mr. Brewer was an admiral in the Navy, but had never run a school district, though we was responsible for many training initiatives at the Navy College program. Only 2 years into a 4 year contract, it looks like he's on his way out. Why on earth would the board that just hired him be so sick of him already? Let's just say it's not due to great strides being made at LAUSD.

It comes down to a lot of politics. The mayor of LA, Antonio Villaraigosa, has lots of big plans for the city. Outside of helping developers revitalize the area around Staples Center, not much has oe to fruition. One of his big plans was to make the LA schools better. But, the mayor in LA doesn't really have that much impact on schools as they are run by an elected board. It's also tricky because some other cities' schools are part of LAUSD. So, he tried an end run through his friends in the legisature, but only got some crumbs. The next best thing, in his eyes, was to get his friends elected to the school board, which he was able to do. None of these new school board members had any loyalty to Brewer and didn't have much interest in working with him since he's not their guy.

So, some stuff must have been in the works because earlier in the week Brewer said that he wouldn't quit, but if the district bought out his contract (for about $500k) he would just walk. There was more than a little martyrdom in his statement. Then he busts out with, "I don't want to make this a racism thing. That would be too painful for the students, so just pay me." Hunh? He's a black superintendant of a majority Latino overseen by a multi-racial school board. Why in the world would a guy who has achieved so much in his life, and not by making excuses, play the race card? To use as leverage for the buyout?

Let's assume that racism is part of it. Isn't that a last lesson he would want to teach the under achieving students in his district? Or, if black-Latino racism is preventing the district from performing well, shouldn't we know about it?

The fact of the matter is that a school district the size of LAUSD is nearly impossible to manage. The school board's insistence on keeping the district so large so they can keep power while saving a few dollars is preventing it from being effective. The beauracracies are so intrenched and calcified that they greatest school district administrator in the world won't be able to turn it around. And with CA's budget problems, there's gonna be less money to do what needs to be done.

Yes, I'm going to keep writing those private school checks.