School District Not Undercutting LEARN

* I would like to respond to Abraham Hoffman’s letter to the editor in the Valley Edition, Sept. 3.

On behalf of the Board of Education, I have asked the superintendent to prepare a draft policy with which to evaluate specific proposals which may emerge to break up the district. The board will soon review this policy in public session and then take action to adopt or amend it.

In the meantime, it is no more than speculation to theorize about any change in district attitudes toward this breakup. There is no evidence to support Mr. Hoffman’s outlandish theory that senior district officials support the breakup in order to create jobs for themselves.

I agree with Mr. Hoffman that the breakup movement offers only a false promise to address the many challenges facing public schools today. The LEARN reforms under way in 192 schools offer a far better and more thoughtful approach to placing true local control at the school site. It is ironic that Mr. Hoffman’s school, Taft High School, voted to join LEARN just this spring and will begin implementation at school this week. I would hope Mr. Hoffman would be open to the positive support LEARN offers his school before accusing the district of undercutting these efforts. To the contrary, the district fully supports LEARN implementation at all schools and is proud of the exciting progress made to date.

MARK SLAVKIN

Slavkin is president of the LAUSD Board of Education.