Endorsement: Re-elect Tanya Ortiz Franklin to the LAUSD school board

There are few voices of reason on the Los Angeles Unified school board these days.

A majority of the board overseeing one of the largest school districts in the country are willing puppets of a teachers union that doesn’t care at all about the best interests of students.

Incumbent school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin fully recognizes the problems facing the district and the fact that the district’s fundamental problems go back decades. Absent a majority of likeminded board members, however, there’s only so much she’s able to get done.

She recognizes, for example, the need for the district to show some restraint on the generous and costly healthcare benefits given by the district to retirees. “Our current post-employment liabilities approach needs a complete overhaul,” she told us in a survey. “While we must maintain promises kept to current employees and retirees, we must also find a better solution to achieve long-term fiscal health. We spend approximately 11% of our payroll on retirement benefits and the costs continue to increase.”

This is unsustainable, as it displaces money that should be going into classrooms and directly benefiting the education of LAUSD students.

Unlike the board majority, she also recognizes that charter schools are indeed part of the solution to the district’s problems. After all, the average charter school in LAUSD outperforms the average non-charter school.

“Charter schools can accelerate student achievement by implementing innovations, extending learning time, and being more rapidly responsive to their communities in ways that are sometimes difficult for the second-largest school district in America,” she told us. “Over the next four years we will see the renewals of 200 charter schools before the board and the continued conversation about co-locations and shared space for about 50 charter schools. I approach each decision considering the needs and impact on student achievement, operations and fiscal responsibility for all students.”

While we don’t agree with her on everything, Tanya Ortiz Franklin deserves re-election to the LAUSD school board. Hopefully, voters elsewhere in the school district help tip the scales in favor of a majority that can steer LAUSD in the right direction.