Huntington Park City Council Discriminates Against Charter Schools--Supporters File Lawsuit

In a previous post, I identified a number of instances where the Huntington Park City Council discriminated against people who do not look like them, or who do not share their corrupt, perverse views

Group sues Huntington Park over moratorium on charter schools

A group representing charter schools has sued the city of Huntington Park over its decision to impose a yearlong moratorium on new charters.

It's about time! That's all I can say.

This discrimination against students and parents who want charters schools, who want school choice, cannot go unchallenged.

This abuse of city power is just awful.

The suit, which was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks to invalidate the restrictions that the Huntington Park City Council approved last month by a 4-1 vote.

There was only one city councilmember who had the courage and foresight to vote against this unreasonable, arbitrary moratorium:

Valentin Amezquita

The other four Corruptitos signed on for this unjust ordinance, in large part because the teachers unions are paying for their campaigns.

This is the ugliest, stupidest move yet by the Huntington Park City Council Majority, aside from their abusive, immoral, and illegal decision to appoint two illegal aliens to city commissions.

Charters are independently operated  and exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. Controversy has accompanied their rapid growth, even though they have proved popular with parents. The L.A. Unified School District, which serves Huntington Park, has more charters than any other school system nationwide.

"They have proved popular with parents."

Parents want was is best for their kids. The corrupt kids on the Huntington Park City Council do not have children.

No wonder they treat parents like trash, and the needs of their kids as unimportant.

“The city’s politically motivated and discriminatory prohibition of public charter schools, but no other educational institutions, for a full educational year conflicts with California’s policy of expanded educational choices,” states the complaint filed by the California Charter Schools Assn. “The moratorium therefore is void and unenforceable as a matter of law.”

YES! YES! YES!

The suit also contends that the city failed to conduct a mandatory environmental review or to provide legally required evidence to justify halting charter growth.

The only reviews which Karina Macias and Co. engage in ... all flow through the files of Efren "Puppet Master" Martinez.

City leaders approved the moratorium during a contentious meeting last month. Charter supporters pointed out local charters’ comparatively high test scores, cited individual success stories and criticized city leaders for standing in the way of a top-flight education for other families.

Charter schools are freed from the red tape, and held accountable for their results.

Traditional schools need to operate more like charter schools.

Charter critics argued that charters undermine traditional schools by attracting students who are easier and less expensive to educate.

And your point is ...?

The truth is, most traditional schools struggle with cost control because of the lack of competition and accountability. Traditional schools also have a perverse incentive to label students with "special needs" or "English as a Second Language," since they district will get more money.

The council expressed different concerns. City officials spoke of a “high number of inquiries and requests” for new charters and said the municipal code was “inadequate” for assessing and dealing with their effects.

BALONEY!

A city report cited “vehicle circulation, parking and noise” in areas where charter schools had opened, and said they could potentially affect “public health, safety, and welfare.”

It's called "community outreach" and "teamwork."

The moratorium also applies to existing charter schools that want to move and expand in new locations, according to City Manager Edgar Cisneros.

Unbelievable!

That is just criminal.

The charter association requested records of complaints, but the city has provided no documentation to date, said the association’s general counsel, Ricardo Soto.

Well, that is interesting, isn't it?

Association staffers have suggested political motivations. United Teachers Los Angeles, the local (and anti-charter) teachers union, donated $500 to the 2015 campaign of Councilman Jhonny Pineda, and the same union represents Mayor Graciela Ortiz in her day job as a school counselor.

WHAT?!

Conflict of interest: that's what we have here!

City officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Both pro-charter groups and teachers unions are major political donors in California.

An influx of students could be an issue because, unlike most traditional public schools, charters can readily accept students from anywhere, a potential problem in the densely packed southeast L.A. County city.

Oh, sure it's a problem (NOT!)

A Times analysis, however, shows that the number of students in schools with a Huntington Park address has decreased by about 1,800, to about 18,000, since L.A. Unified’s peak enrollment in the 2003-04 school year. Over that same period, the number of schools tripled, from 9 to 27, including six new L.A. Unified campuses and 11 charters.

The number of students has gone down, so there is no reason to worry about overcrowding. Why is th city council not coming clean about their true interests?

The impact on school-related traffic has been to disperse it across the city rather than concentrate it in a few places, which could raise objections in some areas, said Benjamin Feinberg, a math teacher at L.A. Unified’s Burbank Middle School in Highland Park. Feinberg, who used to teach at a charter in Huntington Park, analyzes local education-related data on his School Data Nerd blog.

Gary Painter, a professor in the Price School of Public Policy at USC, said it’s unusual for a city to adopt an emergency moratorium “for whatever reasons” against one type of land use, rather than relying on its regular process for managing development. He said he was not surprised by the lawsuit.

FINAL REFLECTION

The Huntington Park Corruptitos are learning the hard way that the power with the people is greater than the people in power.

Parents do not like elected officials trifling or limiting their kids' opportunities to learn.

They will not submit or cave to bullying tactics which prevent the future success of their families.

First they overcharge residents for civic engagements.

They cut staff and public services. Instead of fixing bits and pieces of the street system in Huntington Park, they decided to cut up and ruin every aspect of Pacific Boulevard.

They appointed two illegal aliens to city commissions.

They hand out lavish contracts to friends and political cronies.

They expand pot shops, even though the majority of residents in the city don't want marijuana sales in their city.

They celebrated a heretic homosexual claiming to be a priest, and the city was thinking about turning a house down the street into a shrine where the first "gay marriage" ceremony took place.

Now they want to block the construction and expansion of charter schools.

The Huntington Park Corruptitos have no idea what trouble they have stirred up now!