Hillary LeDesma

04-14-14

By Thomas Himes, LA Daily News

POSTED: 04/07/14, 6:28 PM PDT | UPDATED: 5 DAYS AGO
6 COMMENTS

Protesters place 375 school desks on the street in front of the

LAUSD offices downtown on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, to
represent the 375 LAUSD students who drop out of school each
month. Students for Education Reform has organized a sleep-in
and demonstration to make their voices heard in the upcoming
budget. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News.)

Several hundred students protested Los Angeles Unifieds proposed

budget Monday, claiming poor pupils and schools will receive too
little funding.
Protest organizer Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the
Community Coalition, said the districts spending plan is too vague
and does too little for kids who need help the most.
We think voters deserve an accounting that says, Here are our
highest-need students and heres what were doing to fund them,
Harris-Dawson said.
Superintendent John Deasy on Friday unveiled his three year
proposal to spend $332 million on kids who are English language
learners, poor or living in foster homes. The plan would allocate more
dollars to schools based on how many students fall into those
categories.
The school board will receive Deasys proposal at Tuesday mornings
board meeting, but wont vote on it until a budget is passed in June.
Another organization, Students for Education Reform-California,
planned to hold a sleep-in Monday night. Protestors will break camp
to attend Tuesdays meeting in hopes of securing more community
input, before a spending plan is adopted.
LAUSD declined to comment for this article.
Community Coalition spokesman Josh Busch said the district needs
to use a different system to determine which schools receive funding.
The coalition prefers a method that measures community violence
and other factors.
Theyre using data that may have worked fine for the state, but

Hillary LeDesma
04-14-14

doesnt work for LAUSD, Busch said. This is the time to be

thoughtful and bold in terms of targeting our highest needs students.
Students from some the least privileged high schools in south and
east Los Angeles boarded coalition buses for Mondays protest at
LAUSD headquarters.
The organization passed out signs that read, fair share in school
funding and led protestors in chants that demanded equality.
Crenshaw High School Student Timothy Walker was among those
who participated.
We dont want to take from other schools, Walker said. We just
want to get our fair share.
1. How should schools handle student protests? Should they
promote obedience within the school day, or protests against
unjust issues.
2. How included should the voice of the students be in making the
budget?
3. Should district budgets be based on need, when we consider the
students being affected?