Alberto Carvalho emerges — but LAUSD kids are still stuck

LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho has finally been spotted after months in hiding, following raids in February on his homes and offices as part of a federal corruption probe.

Yes, it’s been that long.

Somehow, he hasn’t resigned yet. And why should he? 

There’s no accountability in LAUSD — not for mismanagement, not for bad policy, not for poor results, and not even for sexual misconduct.

The LAUSD is currently the subject of a federal investigation into lax disciplinary procedures regarding teachers accused of sexual misconduct, including inappropriate behavior toward students.

No doubt everyone has the right to a presumption of innocence, but the fact that teachers accused of frightening things still manage to stay within the system is less an outcome of due process and more the result of union pressure.

One would think the LAUSD would be extra careful about sexual misconduct cases. After all, it has already borrowed $750 million to pay compensation to alleged victims of prior sexual offenders, going back decades.

That is thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom‘s ill considered decision in 2019 to sign SB 218, which relaxed the statute of limitations and allowed reported victims of alleged sexual misconduct to sue almost indefinitely.

Unlike other states that have allowed past victims to win compensation for wrongs that were covered up at the time, California put no caps on damages. The trial lawyers who run the Democratic Party saw to that.

There is no accountability in LAUSD at all. The district is complacent — we’re great! everything is wonderful! we’re improving! — and its teachers unions are radicalized. Only the persistence of exceptional individuals within the giant bureaucracy allows a few successful children to emerge with a brighter future.

There has yet to be a reckoning for the insane policy of shutting down the schools during the coronavirus pandemic. In Europe, where governments took much more draconian actions than even here in California, the kids still went to school.

The teachers unions kept our schools closed, our children at home, and our parents in the dark.

As a result, an entire generation is moving through the LAUSD school system that is missing at least a year — a year there may never be time, or opportunity, to make up.

And those are the kids who stayed in the system. Many students simply stopped showing up.

It’s worth remembering what Carvalho is allegedly being investigated for — an artificial intelligence contract that failed to produce a usable product.

Set aside the allegations of conflicts of interest, or kickbacks. Why is a school district that can barely teach kids to read, write and count investing in high-end technology?

Yes, students should learn how to write AI prompts and integrate new technology into what they are doing. But only once they have the basics down. There are no shortcuts for that.

The Carvalho case ought to be an opportunity to make a clean break with the past. The district should let him go and find a new superintendent — one who will undertake the radical reforms that are necessary to save the next generation of LA kids from mediocrity, or failure.

Instead, while Carvalho sits at home — like an LAUSD teacher accused of sexual misconduct — the entire district, and the city, must await the outcome of a federal criminal process that we cannot control at all, even to hurry it along.

If he manages to clear his name — great. He can find work at another school district. He could try New York, whose mayor has a passion for math: he keeps subtracting residents, and dividing the remainder.

But this has gone on far too long already.

Joel Pollak is opinion editor of the California Post.

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