Social Justice Shorts

HOMEBOY POETS TODAY!

At 3 p.m. today, the UCLA School of Public Affairs’ Department of Social Welfare will present a poetry reading by three of the best poets of from the ongoing writing program at Homeboy Industries—Agustin Lizama, Robert Juarez and Hector Verdugo—whose work is published in the Homeboy Review. The reading will be at UCLA’s Moore Hall, room 100, 457 Portola Plaza and will be moderated by my fantastically talented novelist pal (and the founder of Homeboy Press) Leslie Schwartz.

If you’re anywhere around, just go. I’m stuck in front of the computer finishing a manuscript or I would assuredly be there. (I will, however, have a report on it later.)

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A PORTRAIT OF THE BRITTLE CLASS IN AMERICA

A truly wonderful—and harrowing—Marketplace and American Radioworks series called Hard Times in Middletown, was broadcast on KPCC last night. The series visits ordinary Americans in Muncie, Indiana, and takes a look at how very hard things have become for decent people who are falling through the economic floorboards. Stephen Smith and Laurie Stern have done it right. They have spent nearly a year checking in on five different families. The result is an hour-long program that is an example of fine reporting and fine storytelling that paints an entirely human portrait of what is going on with many of our fellow Americans.

Here’s the opening of Smith and Stern’s rundown on their program: “For almost a century, Muncie, Indiana has been known as “Middletown,” the quintessential American community. But now, as the rust-belt city grapples with deepening recession, many residents are losing their hold on the middle class. Think of them as the brittle class, just one fragile rung above poverty on the economic ladder….”

The podcast may be accessed here.

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GROUP OF LAUSD TEACHERS ON DAY 6 OF HUNGER STRIKE

Santee High School teacher Jose Del Barrio is one of those on Day 6 of the hunger strike that is being staged by dozens of dedicated LAUSD teachers in order to draw attention to what they believe is a budget mis-allocation as Ray Cortines and other district honchos try to figure out how to spend the drastically thinning district dollars.

I met DelBarrio when I was covering the actions of Santee’s dreadful then principal a year or two ago and was struck by his intelligence and dedication.

Yesterday on Twitter he wrote first:

Soooooo Hungry!

Then three hours later:

Hunger has gone away now, but headaches are back. I will try and teach tomorrow, but I am not sure if I can.

Today Jose is sipping water by the half-gallon and has posted an open letter from the fasting group that LAist has printed in its entirety. Here is one of the ‘graphs:

We urge you to spend whatever stimulus money is needed to stop any classsize increases and rescind all layoff notices to teachers. Beyond that,we urge you to abandon the impossible task of saving our schools by cutting our classrooms and we urge you to lead us in the struggle to findnew sources of funds so that our children are among the last to suffer under this economic crisis and not among the first.

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THE VISUAL IRONIES OF LAUSD CENTRAL AREA HIGH SCHOOL #9

In Sunday’s LA times, Christopher Hawthorne, the Times’ architecture critic, wrote a very complete, very thoughtful, very smart and ultimately rather devastating review/contemplation/analytical essay about the design of the district’s controversial design monster, the eventual performing arts school that is now still known as Central Los Angeles Area High School #9. Just to remind you in case you’ve forgotten, the school, originally budgeted at $87 million to build, has come in with a final price tag of $232 million.

Here are the story’s last three ‘graphs. But, I promise, the whole thing is worth the read.

…For the most part, the district treated architecture not as a means of helping carve out humane classroom spaces under severe budget pressure but instead as a kind of extra or frill.

That led directly to the process that created the arts high school. Having failed to infuse most of its new campuses with innovative design of any sort, the LAUSD and its patrons moved to add capital-A architecture to the one on Grand Avenue. Cost overruns and other missteps then ratcheted up the price of the school to levels that have become politically embarrassing for district leadership.

But many of these conflicts and controversies were fated from the start — or at least from the moment that the district, having skimped on serious architecture in its other new schools, decided in this case to gorge on it.

(And in yet another life-is-strange moment, the architect who designed the building that we see looming above the 101 Freeway is, in all serious, named Wolf D. Prix. Yes, the Viennese architect is very gifted, and no it isn’t his fault that his name calls to mind the fact that he and his design wolfed down a gargantuan amount of money that our district couldn’t afford to have…um…wolfed. Also, at the risk of sounding protectionist, explain to me again why the district hired a Viennese firm to design this school—even if they do have an LA office?)

QUESTION: And while we’re on the subject of over-the-top school construction: If the state is busily stealing borrowing money from every dedicated education fund it can find, why in the world can’t LAUSD similarly borrow from the construction bond money fund it is using to build schools that simply won’t matter if we don’t have an adequate number of teachers assigned to the damned things? Just curious?

Just remember, District Monstrosity #9 was originally budgeted at $87 million to build, and came in, instead, at $232 million. Meanwhile the district just canceled all of its summer school and is slashing and burning other crucial programs with reckless abandon—all in order to deal with its $273-million deficit next year.

I leave you to contemplate those numbers, all in a row, for a minute… …and then tell me what you think can and should be done.