The
graduation rate for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District
is down to less than 41 percent, it was reported recently. That’s the
second worst in the country.
Now if you were on the LAUSD board,
you’d probably figure there was hard work to do. You might even be
humbled by a number like that.
Silly you.
The board members of the LAUSD
think they’re doing a fabulous job. They must. They seem to have enough
time – not to mention the moral supremacy of unapologetic know-it-alls
– to stop and preach how a few small local businesses should operate.
How else can you explain the
board’s decision a couple of weeks ago to vote on a resolution
requiring any carwash company that wants to wash school district cars
to sign an agreement saying they are committed to allowing their
workers to organize a union?
The school board was so pleased by
this resolution, which passed on a 5-1 vote, that it put out a two-page
press release. It trumpeted the fact that the agreement was endorsed by
the United Steelworkers union and the AFL-CIO. It said it wanted to be
sure that businesses treat their employees "professionally and with
dignity." The school board president, Monica Garcia, who introduced the
measure, was quoted as saying that she was proud. "As a public
institution, it is LAUSD’s responsibility to ensure that our scarce
public tax dollars support only legal business practices."
Now you may think that, as a public
institution, it is LAUSD’s responsibility to use its scare tax dollars
to educate children, maybe so they wouldn’t have to work in a carwash,
but apparently you’d be wrong.
You also may think its LAUSD’s
responsibility to wisely use taxpayers’ money by giving their business
to the lowest and best bidder, and let the businesses worry about
whether they should be a union shop, but sadly, you’d be wrong about
that, too. Silly you.
The school board believes its
responsibility is to be an unrepentant toady for unions. And to take
time out to wag its finger at businesses and tell them how to operate.
Apparently, Garcia thinks it’s not a "legal business practice" for a
carwash to be a nonunion shop. The board members apparently think it’s
not possible for a nonunion shop to treat their employees
professionally and with dignity.
If you missed this carwash vote,
you’re not alone. There wasn’t a lot of news coverage. There was even
less about the lone dissenter, Tamar Galatzan. Luckily, her husband is
involved in an Internet radio show called "Off the Presses." She
managed to get her story told on that venue.
She pointed out that the district
has a huge budget deficit, maybe $700 million (although that number
varies widely, depending on the source), and she said "I don’t think
it’s the place for the school district" to take its eye off dealing
with that enormous problem so it can hand a bouquet to unions.
She said on the radio show that
when the resolution was brought up, the school board had been working
on budget issues, hearing from those about to be laid off, "real things
that are going to impact the instruction at our schools. And then we
follow that up with this (carwash resolution)."
Just think about the immense
challenges this school district faces. Budget problems, grand juries,
layoffs – and a dismal, second-worst-in-the-country 41 percent
graduation rate.
Hey, here’s a resolution: Whereas
the school board has made a true mess of things, and whereas the tax
money is truly scarce, and whereas the graduation rate is a profound
embarrassment, now, therefore, be it resolved that the school board
will not presume to tell anyone how to run their business. At least
until the school board has made the Los Angeles Unified School District
something this community can be proud of.