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Parents made their voices heard at Education Summit
Submitted by Albert Olson on Mon Nov 02, 2009, 5:30pm
On May 28, nearly 100 Mar Vista and Venice community members came out to an Education Summit to voice their anger about the cuts to education, demand answers from LAUSD leaders, and to find out what they could do to make real changes. A fantastic panel - including Marlene Canter, the outgoing school board member for the area, Steve Zimmer, the incoming school board member, Michelle King, the superintendent for the area, Bill Ring, a long-time parent advocate, and Meagan Reilly, LAUSD's Chief Financial Officer - spent over an hour fielding difficult questions from concerned parents. "I found the information that was discussed to be honest and the facts offered seemed to be based in the difficult budget reality we are faced with," said John Ayers, a parent activist.
In question after question, parents expressed their frustration about teacher lay-offs and the cuts they were seeing in their local schools. A group of students called the Venice Student Union participated as well, demanding a better education for themselves and their fellow students. The panelists applauded the activism they saw in the room and encouraged us all to get even more involved. "Get to know the education code," Marlene Canter told the audience. "There is a lot in it that needs fixed and we can only do it if parents push for it."
The strong sentiment coming out of the room was that more activism is needed. We plan to do just that. The Education Committees of the Mar Vista Community Council and the Venice Neighborhood Council, who sponsored the Summit plan to continue the conversation with follow up meetings about what we can do to make real changes in our schools.
The Summit showed that parents and students in this community care about their schools and are willing to come together to guarantee a quality education for all of our students even in these difficult times. If you want to be a part of that activism, email me at Kate.Anderson@MarVista.org to get involved.
Kate Anderson
Education Committee Co-Chair