If you were at a Inglewood Unified School District board meeting, and were asked (coerced) into signing a mysterious petition, you may have been unintentionally signing your support to increase charter schools in Inglewood.
2UrbanGirls previously shared with you about a meeting where Joe Bowers, spouse of former IUSD board candidate Margaret Richards-Bowers, got into a shouting match with Ms. Bell, longtime IUSD critic, and was asked to leave by IUSD school police. It was during this same meeting that a Black Male Youth Academy representative shouted at LaTanya Kirk-Carter, about receiving a “cease and desist” and no longer being able to be on IUSD campuses.
It is critical to note that the founder of the BMYA was a former employee of IUSD working as the right hand to Kent Taylor and was also one of the primary spokespersons as to why Inglewood residents to vote YES on Measure GG. Did Kent Taylor flip the script to promote charters? Is that the REAL reason he was fired? It wouldn’t be so far-fetched since he is up to the same antics in neighboring Lennox School District.
While in the vestibule, Bowers was busy gathering signatures from attendees on the way out. 2UrbanGirls signed the petition as to see where it was headed. Bowers was also visibly upset when Ms. Bell came out to talk to the students from BMYA. He was overhead by 2UrbanGirls directing SJLI/BMYA staff to “keep the kids away from her (Bell)”.
Ironically, the Social Justice Learning Institute, vehicle for the BMYA, lists IUSD as a supporter on their website but received a cease and desist from LaTanya Kirk-Carter. Is the organization using the students in the BMYA to promote their agenda? Is IUSD funding them to do so?
Were residents duped into supporting the Bowers bid to bring Parent Revolution into Inglewood schools? Were those community forum and open letters by the Equity in Education Committee a rouse to gain false “community support” to empower Parent Revolution?
In an article posted on the LA Times website, discusses how parents in LA, Compton and Adelanto, all complained about signing petitions that weren’t clear and attending meetings where they were used to push the PR agenda. The March 2012 community forum was attended by IUSD advisory members Trina Williams and Arnold Butler, SJLI founder D’artagnan Scorza, former school board candidate Margaret Richards-Bowers, and Elliot Petty a former district 1 candidate who lost to Mike Stevens although he was supported by ally Danny Tabor. Doesn’t that whole lineup stink to high heaven?
Aren’t you glad a blog exists which holds archives of such occurrences?
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Are these representatives, Mr. Bowers and previous IUSD employees put his/her interest of where is the money going to create more charter schools. In a 2010 New York Times article titled Charter Schools’ New Cheerleaders: Financiers, reporters Tripp Gabriel and Jennifer Medina wrote the following about what was going on in the state of New York: “Wall Street has always put its money where its interests and beliefs lie. But it is far less common that so many financial heavyweights would adopt a social cause like charter schools and advance it with a laser like focus in the political realm…” Wall Street banks had become such big proponents of charter schools and had gotten involved in their development. Will this be like the housing bubble [educational bubble]. Our government is not seeing the educational bubble forecast since tax payers are putting more of the money. What could happen if the investors who put up the money “to build charter schools get to basically or virtually double their money in seven years through a thirty-nine percent tax credit from the federal government. In addition, this is a tax credit on money that they’re lending, so they’re also collecting interest on the loans as well as getting the thirty-nine percent tax credit. They piggy-back the tax credit on other kinds of federal tax credits like historic preservation or job creation or brownfields credits.”
What we do know is the Department of Education gives up to $500k for new charter schools. The State of CA was also a recipient of nearly $51 million dollars to advance public school options. The grants run from 2010-2015. However, parents wanted vouchers to pick the school of their choice, not be forced to enroll in a charter that doesn’t adhere to the same Ed. Code as public schools.
These individuals supporting charter schools, in the case of Inglewood, only care about getting their hands on the lucrative Measure GG funds they championed so hard for.
Urban Girl