Erin Kutnick’s Blog

The recall committee, masters of spin and propaganda, were in attendance at the premier of a “documentary” that allegedly chronicles failing public schools.  At the center of the film is our very own district, Capistrano Unified.

Many things about the movie are disturbing.  The most disturbing is that the movie makers took the opinions of 5 or 6 individuals and thought that somehow that adequately represented a district with over 50,000 students.  nothing could be farther from the truth.  One of the parents interviewed doesn’t even have children attending public schools so how could he possibly know whether they are failing or not?  Why not interview the thousands of parents whose children attend top-notch universities, or the teachers who are in the classroom everyday?

Are public schools perfect, no.  But our district (up until the recall board took over) had an excellent reputation and was doing a very job at educating students.  We have highly trained administrators; hard-working, dedicated teachers; and devoted parents.  So there are 6 or 7 parents that are upset, what about the other 50,000?  Why weren’t they interviewed?  Was that an “inconvenient truth” that the movie makers didn’t want to deal with?

Not only did they limit the information presented in the film, they limited the attendance not allowing anyone who might question the validity of their data to attend making it even more biased.

One thing the film does accurately portray is the recall committee’s agenda to destroy public education in order to further their agenda for public school vouchers.

After several months of asking, we finally had some discussion last night at the school board meeting about changing the voting method within CUSD.  This idea has been discussed for years and was a main topic of reform and yet no one from the recall committee nor any of the reform trustees ever brought it up.  I finally had to request that the item be added to the agenda so that the idea could be considered.  Of course, trustees weren’t willing to make any decisions last night but they will discuss it again at the June 22 board meeting.  This morning, Ken Maddox is taking credit for this on his blog and stating that this is a “historic” event.

Bottom line is that the discussion should have already taken place but better late than never.  Concerned parents want this idea fully explored and the ultimate vote on whether to change will lie with the voters of CUSD.  We want to see this on the ballot of June 2010 so that if voter’s approve the change it would be in effect for the elections in November 2010.

I’ve requested an item be placed on next week’s agenda and the agenda was posted today.  Item 52, the last one of the evening, will be about possible changing the voting for trustees from the current “at large” to a “vote by trustee area”.  In order for this to change, it must go to the ballot and the voters in CUSD will be able to decide how they would like to elect their school board members.  With the district the size that it is, it just may be the time to make this change.  We need the trustees to vote to put it on the ballot.

Voting by trustee area will hopefully allow more people to run should they be interested and it will also allow voters a better opportunity to meet the candidates and make good decisions since they will only be voting on the trustee for their area rather than all seven.  I know many people who are in favor of this change and as always, I encourage all to attend the board meeting.