We believe the Valley is different, that if the community had direct power over its own neighborhood schools, the people of the Valley would rally to the cause and bring the resources and leadership to bear to fix the problems and bring those scores up. When 299 schools out of 561 rank in the bottom 20 percent compared with other campuses across the state, it is intolerable. The burden for the board and interim Superintendent Ramon Cortines is to somehow find solutions today, not six months or a year from now. We support them in this Herculean task and urge them to move with all due speed to reorganize schools, push bad principals and bad teachers out of the way and produce improvement by next year when the new API is released. In the meantime, the Valley has every right to use its resources to push for a breakup, so that at least it can save its own children from a life of illiteracy and poverty.
People have a right to provide the best for their own children and the children of their community.
We no longer list the URL as it changes everyday this links are soon no good. San Fernando Valley schools, in general, fared better than other schools within the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District. District wide, more than half of Los Angeles Unified schools scored in the bottom 20 percent in the new API rankings. Even worse, most of the lowest-ranked Los Angeles schools scored below other campuses throughout California that have similar demographic factors, such as students' economic backgrounds and language skills. But the index also shows that some area schools rank at the very top statewide.