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Day By Day August 23, 2010 – Kiss Off
Ahhhh appearances, right, Chris?Look at the $578 Million new school in Los Angeles Unified School District.
Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968.
With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.
The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.
The fact is California’s budget cannot afford such largess. Bonded indebteness pays for these schools and with the success rate of Los Angeles Unified (very high drop out rate) it is doubtful that the interest on the debt service will be easily paid in future years – leaving the tab to other non-Los Angeles California taxpayers.
California’s public schools are a disaster because of the teacher’s unions and their involvement in the political process. Illegal immigration is also playing a big role in the decline.
One of these days, California taxpayers may wise up – or move out.
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The Day by Day Archive -
The Miguel Contreras Learning Complex Pool Flap
The Miguel Contreras Learning Complex opened across the street from the Los Angeles Chamber at 3rd and Bixel on Sept. 5, 2006 to 1,800 students.
Looks like Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Vilaraigosa, his parks department and the Los Angeles Unifed School District is in trouble again.
The water was off-limits. But it certainly seemed somebody was all wet Tuesday afternoon at an Olympic-size swimming pool near downtown Los Angeles.
Was it Vilma Cortez, who was standing outside 3rd Street’s new Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, demanding that its high school pool be open to neighborhood kids such as her own three children, who are whiling away the summer sitting in their nearby apartment?
Was it Los Angeles Unified School District administrators, who say the pool is already plenty used by students enrolled in campus summer school programs?
Maybe the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which insists the school pool was never designed for public access and lacks shallow kiddie wading areas, adequate showers and locker facilities?
Or perhaps Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose staff has voiced concern that public access to the pool is impractical from both a safety and liability standpoint?
What is the real problem here?
Is it perhaps the Mayor does not want to draw attention to the residents of this community who are primarily illegal aliens? Does he want to keep the rift-raft and Mexican Gang Bangers out?
Or does he wish to defuse criticism that the City and LAUSD are spending public money on illegal alien kids?
Flap understands that KFI’s (640 AM Los Angeles Radio) John and Ken will weigh in on this story this afternoon.
Stay tuned…….
The $160-million campus features three small learning communities and one autonomous New Technology High School, the Los Angeles School of Global Studies.
The Chamber and its affiliate UNITE-LA have been integral partners and instrumental in the development of the campus, which will equip students with 21st century skills to help them excel in an information-based, technologically advanced society.
Technorati Tags: Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, Antonio Villaraigosa, LAUSD, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: Pay to Play at LAUSD
John Torres, right, special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, holds a Ruger Mini-14, a .53-caliber semiautomatic rifle, one of several weapons seized or bought undercover, as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo listen at a Los Angeles news conference after law enforcement authorities fanned out across harbor areas of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., early Tuesday, July 31, 2007, in a huge sweep of gang members aimed at taking down violent offenders. Hundreds of federal agents and local police officers took part in the campaign that started at around 4 a.m.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Vilaraigosa spent over $3.5 million on Los Angeles Unified School District races to gain allies on the LAUSD Board, reports the Los Angeles Times.
And it is the usual “PAY TO PLAY” in the City.
Los Angles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at Panda Express opening at Universal City Walk, JUly 25, 2007
If you want a development project approved, you contribute to the Mayor’s pet project – the control of Los Angeles City Schools.
To help his candidates, Villaraigosa turned to an array of companies seeking to do business at City Hall, including real estate developers, media companies and potential tenants at Los Angeles International Airport.
Partnership for Better Schools received $25,000 from Entravision Communications Corp., a Santa Monica-based Spanish-language media firm that, according to its lobbying forms, is seeking new “advertising opportunities” with the city.
The committee also took $50,000 from Panda Restaurant Group, which hopes to obtain restaurant concessions at LAX. And it received $100,000 from New York City-based Fig Central LLC, which is seeking permission from Villaraigosa’s appointees on the Planning Commission to build an 860-unit condominium complex across the street from Staples Center.
And, once you have your amigos installed as LAUSD Board members, they vote to waive the reimbursement of legal fees owed the District from the failed Mayoral efforts to “take over” the LAUSD.
Flap asks: Is there a Grand Jury operating in Los Angeles County?
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Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: Villaraigosa Tries Again to Shift Focus
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: NBC Telemundo Expected to Announce Results This Week
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: Corina Villaraigosa Speaks About Commitment
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: Telemundo Ethics Probe of Mirthala Salinas Completed
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Watch: Mayor Heckled at Transportation Meeting
Technorati Tags: Antonio Villaraigosa, LAUSD, Los Angeles Unified School District
