LA SCHOOLS - LAUSD parents and taxpayers do you ever wonder where the money to pay for the tests comes from?
Month after month there are end of the unit tests, quarterly Math tests, the Dibels tests, and more. The money to pay for the tests and the test preparation materials comes from the LAUSD budget funded by our taxes.
In order to pay for the tests, LAUSD must:
Increase class sizes;
Lay off school counselors, librarians, support people, custodians, and office clerks;
Cut art, music, sports, and gifted programs;
Reduce teacher salaries and health benefits.
Delay repairs at school even up to one year.
If there was only one test per school year (and one is all you need), just imagine how rich the schools would be with staff and programs; and how complete the education would be without the extreme pressure on the teachers and the students to continually raise tests scores. Unless the district used the money to hire more administrators.
(Stuart Goldurs has been teaching in LAUSD elementary schools for more than 30 years. He is greatly aware of the district waste, the superfluous bureaucracy, the fallacies of testing, the politics in education, and the other major issues of the time. As a long time resident of the City of Los Angeles, he has chronicled the changes that brought about the Los Angeles of today.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 51
Pub: June 25, 2013
