Education

Will UTLA Sue to Stop Turn Over of New L.A. Schools to Charters?

October 16, 2009 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Los Angeles Times has snagged an internal memo from lawyers who advise the United Teachers Los Angeles that urges the union to sue the L.A. Unified school district to block Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines from handing over newly built schools to charter operators.

The Los Angeles school board in August adopted a controversial new policy that will allow charter operators and other outside groups to compete to operate some 50 new schools that are slated to open over the next four years. Chronically underperforming district schools will also be opened up to outside operators. Supt. Cortines and his team have been working ever since to hammer out the details of how the competitive process will work.

Union lawyers say the policy is on shaky legal ground for several reasons, including its alleged violation of the current contract between the district and UTLA.

UTLA’s president, A.J. Duffy, was threatening legal action two months ago, but since the new policy was adopted, he’s also been encouraging groups of teachers to devise their own takeover plans for new and low-performing schools to submit for consideration by the district. According to The Times, however, not all of the union’s leaders are fully on board with that idea.

The situation is likely to stay very interesting in the coming weeks as the first deadline to enter into the competition to take over operations at a dozen existing schools, including several high schools, approaches next month.

A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read