Los Angeles County Alliance For Student Achievement

Parents of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District say the Board of Education puts politics ahead of students and the bureaucracy devours money that would be better spent in classrooms, according to a survey to be released today by a new reform group. The survey of 500 parents by the Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement paints a dismal portrait, finding that nearly half of the parents gave the system a C or worse in helping students reach their academic potential.

Parents of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District say the Board of Education puts politics ahead of students and the bureaucracy devours money that would be better spent in classrooms, according to a survey to be released today by a new reform group. The survey of 500 parents by the Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement paints a dismal portrait, finding that nearly half of the parents gave the system a C or worse in helping students reach their academic potential.

Mona Castillo wants to cleanse Boyle Heights of the things that keep her 5-year-old daughter and other children from learning. She wants to rid the neighborhood of violence, drugs and, especially, the bad image that she says haunts the place where she was born and raised. Castillo took the first step Saturday with hundreds of other parents, teachers and community members who fanned out from a morning rally at Breed Street Elementary School to talk to neighbors about problems they share.

Last week, Gov. Gray Davis, local officials and three developers paved the way for the Los Angeles Board of Education to solve its biggest political problem, the Belmont Learning Complex fiasco. The long-stalled project, just west of the Harbor Freeway, stands like a shameful sentry between downtown's wealth and the poverty of the Temple-Beaudry district's crowded immigrant neighborhoods. The school board should act on these new developments and finish the new Belmont High School.

Next week's election between Los Angeles Unified school board incumbent Caprice Young and opponent Jon Lauritzen for a San Fernando Valley constituency could be decided over seven toilets. At least that's what Lauritzen hopes as his campaign keeps accusing Young of spending $100,000 for construction of private bathrooms for school board members at their downtown Los Angeles offices.

A grass-roots group with strong, longtime ties in organizing Los Angeles' urban neighborhoods is turning its attention to raising student achievement by launching a 25-campus initiative that won support Saturday from top city leaders. Mayor James K. Hahn, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt.

The Belmont Learning Complex, once the pariah of the Los Angeles school district, is attracting intense interest from developers who want to finish the campus and open it within two years. One plan envisions a charter school for 3,600 students, a health clinic and a city park at the site west of downtown. Two other plans call separately for a mega-campus of 4,000 to 5,000 students. All would be protected from dangerous underground gases by extensive ventilation systems.

Mark Satterlee spent this academic year shutting down a charter school that had never opened. Satterlee -- a former third-grade teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District -- and a couple of colleagues from 95th Street Elementary had dreamed of opening their own elementary school in a poor part of L.A. The school would focus on core subjects, with one instructor in math and one in English assigned to each grade. It would have its own health clinic.