They’ve gotten nowhere with school vouchers but have a strong record with charters — albeit a record that requires a constant struggle to defend against the hostility of teacher unions. The U.S. Education Department graphic below shows California to be among the better states in the nation when it comes to percentages of students in charters.

Some 519,000 California students are in charters — and support for the idea of charters hasn’t been frayed in CA despite years of ad hominem CTA attacks. California saw plenty of new charters open last school year.

A school choice option the establishment shies from

But there is another front for choice in the education wars. Thanks to a state law that took effect in 1993, California has allowed school districts to declare that they are open to enrollment from students outside their boundaries. It was time-limited to end in 2009, but a new version of the law was adopted that year thanks to support like this L.A. Times editorial for the “District of Choice” option.

The Education Next’s summer 2014 journal points out two school “Districts of Choice” in the L.A. region — Riverside and Walnut Valley — that are drawing significant numbers of students from weaker neighboring school districts. The parents who take advantage of this option sure seem to like it.

But as former Wall Street Journal reporter June Kronholz notes in Education Next, very few parents even have the chance. The state doesn’t track “Districts of Choice” — and the numbers of them are small.

The District of Choice law was meant to encourage districts to compete for students by offering innovative programs and this-school-fits-my-child options that parents want. The law “could open a new era of entrepreneurship in education in which schools improve their programs in order to retain and attract students,” the Los Angeles Times editorialized.

So how many of California’s 1,000-plus school districts have declared themselves Districts of Choice?

Perhaps 31.

Why would that be?

As Kronholz’s essay notes, the logistical headache of constantly having to take a kid from within one school district to another and then back isn’t as acute in many parts of California, where there are so many small districts in densely populated areas.

Sweet inertia, and it feels so good

So if that’s not the main reason, what would be?

How about satisfaction with the status quo?

When it comes being Districts of Choice, Kronholz matter-of-factly notes that “few districts see any advantage in promoting it and threatening their monopolies.”

The CTA, Tom Torlakson and all the other forces that make up the state education establishment might as well have an anthem.

I nominate a 2014 version of the 1978 “Peaches & Herb” hit “Reunited.”

Sweet inertia, and it feels so good.

By Chris Reed

The CTA’s L.A. branch, the United Teachers Los Angeles, is almost cartoonish in its villainy. UTLA members are the only suspects in a pathetic 2009 incident in which Latino parents of students attending a horrible elementary school in south L.A. were given anonymous flyers that said they risked being deported if they supported efforts to convert the school to charter status.

In 2008, the L.A. Times reported that a teacher and former UTLA official had escaped punishment for a hateful classrom incident in which he cruelly taunted a middle school student over his failed suicide attempt. Why? The UTLA vigorously defended the teacher, using district rules designed to protect members from almost every consequence of their professional behavior.

Yunno, the same protections that forced a payoff for the guy who fed semen to his students, instead of immediate firing.

Follow state law? How dare you!

So it was gratifying and funny to see the stories about how horrified UTLA was that L.A. Unified Superintendent John Deasy actually intended to follow a state law and a court ruling and make teachers’ classroom performance a significant part of teacher evaluations. This is by EdSource’s John Fensterwald:

“A high-profile teacher evaluation agreement was but days old Friday when Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy and the district’s teachers’ union expressed sharp disagreement over a contentious provision.

“United Teachers Los Angeles accused Deasy of breaking a binding agreement by requiring that ‘data-driven’ measures of student achievement be given a ‘weight limited to 30 percent’ of a teacher’s final evaluation. Deasy referred to the figure in guidelines he issued to principals on how to conduct evaluations. In a statement, he said that classroom observations and other similar factors ‘will remain the primary and controlling factors.’

“Deasy ‘is free to express his opinions, but any attempt to require principals to assign a specific weight to student test data in a teacher’s evaluation is a violation of the protections in an agreement between UTLA and the District,’ UTLA responded in a statement.

“The dispute came three days after LAUSD’s school board ratified the evaluation agreement that the district and UTLA reached in November. Under a court-ordered deadline, both sides agreed to include measures of student academic progress, including the use of state standardized test scores. UTLA members ratified the agreement last month. …

“A maximum 30 percent weight for gauging student performance would appear a reasonable reading of the agreement, but UTLA argues that’s for principals, working with teachers, to determine on a site by site basis, not for Deasy to dictate.”

Yeah, you see, it should be principals, not superintendents, deciding how to evaluate teachers. Why should the superintendent get to make all the decisions?

Sheesh.

New board may force Deasy out

Good for John Deasy. Unfortunately, he could be in the final month or months of his job. On March 5, three open board seats will be filled in a LAUSD election. Surprise, surprise: Three UTLA-backed candidates are strongly against Deasy for his decision to follow state law and a court ruling and actually try to measure the classroom performance of his teachers.

What nerve? Can you imagine?

And Jerry Brown wants more power at the local level, where UTLA-style power plays are the absolute norm and usually successful. Brilliant, Jer, just brilliant.