\n<\/p>\n
Inglewood, California \u2013 a few miles east of Los Angeles international airport \u2013 is known as the city of champions. The NBA champion Lakers once called Inglewood\u2019s Forum \u2013 famously dubbed \u201cthe fabulous Forum\u201d by announcer Chick Hearn \u2013 home.<\/p>\n
By the mid-2000s, with the Lakers gone and another local landmark \u2013 nearby Hollywood Park racetrack \u2013 closed, the city was close to bankruptcy. Then came a series of deals \u2013 often attributed to the leadership of the mayor James Butts \u2013 that reinvigorated the city, as a new epicenter of sports and entertainment such as the new spaceship-like SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome. When the 2028 Olympics roll around, Inglewood is slated to host many of the events as the world watches.<\/p>\n
Some longtime residents say the glitz masks a grimmer reality: a public school system in freefall.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Inglewood unified school district (IUSD) became one of about 130 US school districts taken over by a state since the 1980s. Of the 10,000 US districts, many struggle academically, financially or both. Takeover happens to the few. In March, citing low enrollment and financial necessity, IUSD announced the closure of five schools, bringing the total up to eight shuttered schools since the district was taken over.<\/p>\n
As challenges mount nationwide to US public school funding and California experiences significant declines in student enrollment overall, activists warn more people should pay closer attention to what\u2019s happened in Inglewood, a school district where more than 80% of the students are considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. Receivership is just one more tool \u2013 along with curriculum censorship, funding cuts and threats to equity and inclusion \u2013 to weaken ailing public schools.<\/p>\n
In 2019, lifelong Inglewood resident Victoria Preciado faced the daunting task of selecting a school for her eldest child. The mother of three and AP Spanish and English history teacher tapped into her network for advice. \u201cAs a teacher for so long, I had built really beautiful relationships in the community,\u201d says Preciado, \u201cand when I asked around, people kept recommending Worthington.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worthington elementary was a public school in Inglewood\u2019s Lockhaven neighborhood, where 80% of the residents primarily speak Spanish. \u201cI understood that by this time, Inglewood had some of the lowest-performing schools in the state,\u201d Preciado says. \u201cBut I also knew there were good schools, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>A busy intersection in Inglewood, down the street from a high school that\u2019s being reconstructed.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Worthington, Preciado says, was a dream. She enrolled her daughter and watched her thrive in the Spanish-English dual-immersion program. \u201cThe teachers were excellent. My daughter was receiving a quality education, comparable to the schools on the west side [of Los Angeles] that have these dual-immersion programs,\u201d she says. Meanwhile, Preciado \u2013 by then a single mom \u2013 found kindred spirits among the other parents: \u201cIt was also a tight-knit community. If a mom is late for pickup, there would be another five moms who would hold your child until you got there. It was just that type of neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n But the dream only lasted a few years. Just days before winter break in 2022 came a notice of a school board meeting to discuss closures. A couple of schools in the district had already closed, although a coalition of parents at one school had managed to stave off closure for several years. But IUSD said those schools had been closed because of low enrollment. Preciado couldn\u2019t believe Worthington elementary, one of the schools in the district with the highest enrollment and an engaged community, was now on the chopping block. She went to Worthington\u2019s newly appointed principal, Monica Cole-Jackson, whom she says told her she also had been blindsided by the turn of events.<\/p>\n Preciado rallied parents and teachers, most of them also unaware, and quickly united other concerned citizens. Somewhere along the way, the coalition, which has grown, became known as Stop IUSD School Closures. The group started packing every school board meeting, and when they learned of an advisory committee in charge of offering recommendations about school closures, they packed those meetings, too. Kids and adults spoke passionately during public comment sessions about what Worthington meant to them, why they were getting a great education and how desperately they wanted to keep it open. Preciado\u2019s daughter, also named Victoria, recited Tupac Shukar\u2019s poem \u201cThe rose that grew from concrete\u201d and pleaded with the committee to remove the concrete \u2013 the obstacles \u2013 so that the roses \u2013 the children \u2013 could grow. The advisory committee, made up entirely of Inglewood residents and businesspeople, sided with the advocates. They voted to recommend keeping Worthington open. \u201cWe cheered,\u201d says Preciadio. \u201cWe\u2019d thought we won.\u201d<\/p>\n But by the next school board meeting, a new county administrator, James Morris, had been installed. He alone would make the ultimate decision. Community members held signs and chanted: \u201cEsc\u00fachanos! Estamos en la lucha!\u201d \u2013 Listen to us! We are in the fight!<\/em> \u201cThat meeting was packed and demonstrators begged for the school board members to take a stand,\u201d says Preciado. Instead, Morris and the school board members vacated the room. Saying that the demonstrators were too disruptive, they conducted their meeting in a private area and streamed it to the packed room of parents, educators and kids. Through a crackly TV monitor, Preciado heard Morris announce he would ignore the recommendation of the committee and close Worthington. The activists were crushed, but also galvanized, especially as they learned more about takeovers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we look at takeovers, the pattern is pretty clear that this is a policy specifically targeted at communities of color,\u201d says Domingo Morel, a political scientist at New York University and an expert on school takeovers. Morel\u2019s research also suggests that in most locales, the laws enabling takeover have been pushed by Republican-led state governments. In Inglewood\u2019s case, it\u2019s more complicated.<\/p>\n In January 2004, newly elected Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger struck a deal with the California Teachers Association to balance the state\u2019s budget by borrowing $2bn from Proposition 98, the education funding guarantee. Consequently, IUSD, like many schools, had a significant chunk of its funding suspended. Some schools made up for shortfalls by appealing to wealthy donors or parents. IUSD didn\u2019t have those resources to tap. Instead, teachers and programs were cut, extracurriculars axed and maintenance on buildings delayed. Charter schools flourished under Schwarzenegger\u2019s push \u2013 in Inglewood, a community of just 9 sq miles, a dozen sprang up almost overnight, according to Inglewood Teachers Association president John Hughes, a resident since 1971 and teacher since 1992.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Los Angeles Unified and nearby wealthier districts like Redondo Beach, Torrance and Manhattan Beach opened enrollment and happily took students who didn\u2019t have extensive special education needs and whose parents could navigate the process.<\/p>\n <\/span>Preciado organizes parents to protest the closure of schools in the Inglewood unified school district.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n By 2012, the perfect storm of funding cuts, charter competition and political turmoil pushed IUSD to the financial brink \u2013 setting the stage for drastic intervention. Some blame the teachers\u2019 union; others point to the school board for appealing to the senator Rod Wright. Wright, a Democrat who represented Inglewood, would soon be convicted of mail fraud for lying about his residence. First, however, he wrote SB 533, legislation that provided an emergency loan of up to $55m to keep the district afloat \u2013 and mandated takeover.<\/p>\n Democratic then-governor Jerry Brown signed SB 533 into law on 14 September 2012, making IUSD the ninth California school district placed in receivership. Teachers, parents and the community at the time largely supported the takeover, believing the district would repay the loan and exit quickly.<\/p>\n But few understood the ramifications. A district in receivership is subjected to oversight by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). This means that expensive audits and consultants scrutinize the district across five areas: community relations, personnel, student achievement, financial management and facilities. The district must score high enough to be freed from receivership, all while repaying loans with interest. For Inglewood, that means spending about $2.3m every year just on FCMAT reviews and loan payments \u2013 costs that weigh heavily on an already strained budget. IUSD, with a total budget is $190.6m, is already deficit spending to the tune of $16m this school year.<\/p>\n <\/span>Many of the windows of Worthington elementary remain boarded up since the school was closed in December 2023.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As Preciado\u2019s crew learned more, they were horrified. \u201cIUSD has been in receivership since 2012,\u201d Preciado said. \u201cBut it was still scoring only 1\u2019s, 2\u2019s and 3\u2019s out of 10 on FCMAT\u2019s measures \u2013 including fiscal management, the very reason the district was placed under state control.\u201d<\/p>\n Morel, whose research spans three decades of national data, is blunt: \u201cTakeovers overwhelmingly fail to improve the outcomes they promise.\u201d<\/p>\n Under receivership, the state superintendent of public instruction \u2013 and later, the Los Angeles county office of education \u2013 appointed administrators who replaced the superintendent and assumed decision-making authority. Inglewood\u2019s elected school board was stripped of power, sidelining local voices.<\/p>\n The official narrative was simple: Inglewood had mismanaged finances and needed rescue. But the reality, critics say, is that SB 533 was a political overreach imposed on a district that wasn\u2019t nearly as dire as portrayed. In the end, IUSD borrowed $29m.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because a district needs a loan from the state does not mean it should be \u2013 or always is \u2013 put into receivership,\u201d said Rene Espinoza Kissell, an assistant professor of education at UC Santa Cruz who studies school funding. Where wealthier districts may get supervision, lower-income districts with majority students of color are far more likely to be taken over, added Espinoza Kissell.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been death by a thousand cuts: slashed budgets, crumbling facilities, bad press from the takeover and surrounding schools actively recruiting its students. IUSD\u2019s enrollment has plummeted from 18,000 students in the early 2000s to fewer than 7,000 today. Test scores, graduation rates, attendance \u2013 nearly every metric \u2013 have followed the same spiral.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Kali Hotel and Rooftop, a new 13-story, 300-room hotel being constructed across from SoFi Stadium. Despite the boom from new developments across the city, IUSD continues to struggle with school closures.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n On his very first day in January 2023, James Morris faced a crisis: a natural gas leak at Morningside high forced an emergency shutdown and sent students back to remote learning for a month. Morris, the latest county-appointed administrator for Inglewood unified, now keeps a piece of that corroded pipe in his office \u2013 a daily reminder of how much work there is to do.<\/p>\n A veteran educator and former Fremont unified superintendent, Morris came out of retirement to try to turn Inglewood around \u2013 a job he sees as part facilities overhaul, part instructional reset and part political minefield.<\/p>\n He wants to revive what he calls the \u201cInglewood formula\u201d \u2013 an emphasis on strong foundational literacy, particularly early reading instruction rooted in phonics \u2013 and get IUSD out of receivership, which he says at this rate will take several more years.<\/p>\n For fall, the Morningside high building \u2013 now repaired \u2013 was renamed Inglewood high school united. When school commenced in August, students from Inglewood high, located across town, merged with students from the former Morningside high in the renamed building, which is Inglewood\u2019s only remaining comprehensive high school.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a brand-new $240m high school \u2013 funded by bond measures, developer fees and monies Inglewood receives for being in the LAX flight path \u2013 is being constructed in the city\u2019s more affluent northern section. After construction completes, all students will move over to the new school.<\/p>\n The new high school will be part of a larger civic investment in the area: a bridge will connect the school to a newly renovated public library, a new YMCA is going up on the site of the current IUSD admin offices and music legends Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine have partnered with the district to launch a program called the Iovine and Young Center for Integrated Design, Technology and Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n <\/span>A $240m reconstruction of Inglewood high school is under way in the city\u2019s more affluent northern section.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cThere are amazing things we\u2019re doing to make it better for students,\u201d said Morris, who acknowledges the sting of closures but urges the community to focus on what students stand to gain.<\/p>\n But longtime residents like Fredrisha Dixon, an attorney and organizer with the Inglewood Coalition for Educational Equity \u2013 the advocacy group that has come out of the Stop IUSD School Closure folks \u2013 aren\u2019t buying it. \u201cThis is about developing Inglewood to look a certain way \u2013 to invite certain people in and push certain people out,\u201d she said. Decisions, she argues, have been made with little community input and no respect for the city\u2019s history or longtime residents. The coalition worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to develop a report about what they contend has been mismanagement of their district. And the Inglewood teachers\u2019 union and the ACLU submitted a formal complaint asking the state attorney general, Rob Bonta, to investigate what they say are Inglewood\u2019s sweeping school closures and its state receivership status.<\/p>\n But state assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Democrat who represents Inglewood, has called Morris \u201ca godsend\u201d for his steady leadership and recent progress on the FCMAT standards. Indeed, a recent FCMAT progress report shows the district exited review in one category and is scoring in the 5-to-7 range on others. But Dixon, Preciado and other advocates say that what\u2019s being framed as a comeback is really the dismantling of a community institution.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve watched 13 years of destruction of our school district,\u201d said Dixon. \u201cAnd there\u2019s still no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n The activists point out that schools in the wealthier areas of Inglewood, bordering places like upscale Ladera Heights, remain open while schools in areas with higher numbers of immigrants and more poverty are being shuttered. Advocates charge the district is creating school deserts in the poorest parts of Inglewood.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to be forced into glory,\u201d Hughes told Morris recently. The longtime educator and Inglewood Teachers Association president has a cordial working relationship with Morris. Hughes says he believes Morris hasn\u2019t been fully transparent with him on a number of issues but that they are \u201cworking\u201d on their trust.<\/p>\n <\/span>The reconstruction at Inglewood high school.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Hughes says Morris thinks he doesn\u2019t understand his vision \u2013 that is, a mission to \u201cright-size\u201d the district, improve test scores and the bottom line and attract more customers with better facilities \u2013 but Hughes disagrees: \u201cIt\u2019s Morris who doesn\u2019t understand mine,\u201d he says. Schools aren\u2019t Cheesecake Factories or Starbucks franchises, Hughes says: \u201cThey\u2019re not businesses. They\u2019re people\u2019s anchors. They\u2019re the centerpieces of communities.\u201d<\/p>\n And for activists and educators like Hughes, school closures aren\u2019t just numbers on a spreadsheet \u2013 they\u2019re deep disruptions to a community\u2019s fabric. Sometimes, they\u2019re outright dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cLACOE [the Los Angeles county office of education] is running Inglewood school district and they weren\u2019t thinking about the potential problems that could happen when you merge students from the different high schools into one campus,\u201d said Reina Carrillo, a school gang interventionist. Some residents and activists fear more people will leave the district because of the merger.<\/p>\n Research backs them up. Studies show school closures frequently accelerate enrollment decline and deepen districts\u2019 financial woes.<\/p>\n The activists drafted the California Public School Sovereignty act to take back local control of IUSD and asked McKinnor to carry the bill. She declined.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re doing what they\u2019re supposed to do, which is raise questions,\u201d said McKinnor, a self-described progressive. \u201cBut they think they need to educate us, and they don\u2019t. There\u2019s nothing they can do right now. We must close the schools.\u201d<\/p>\n Activists also blame Mayor Butts, whom they say traded the community\u2019s stability for outside investment. His administration handed out generous tax abatements to lure the NBA\u2019s Clippers and NFL\u2019s Rams \u2013 deals that, critics say, cost Inglewood families dearly.<\/p>\n Butts declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n Of course, cities and school districts are entirely separate entities. But what happens in the city affects parents and their school-age children. For example, when the Intuit Dome broke ground, families in nearby rent-stabilized apartments were displaced. Redevelopment followed. Today, the smallest apartments start at $3,000 a month. Property values have soared \u2013 a win for some longtime homeowners, perhaps, but a crushing blow for families trying to buy or rent in the city.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Intuit Dome in Inglewood, alongside houses and apartments.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Even daily life has changed, in no small way affected by development and even school closures. Fewer campuses means more driving to school instead of walking. \u201cTraffic is so bad now, you can barely get across town,\u201d said one resident.<\/p>\n Morris sees it differently. While no sports team can save a district, he says, Inglewood schools have seen some modest benefit from the boom. Developer fees have generated a $6m fund for school facilities, and both the Rams and Clippers have contributed to improvement projects.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not enough, Morris says: \u201cNobody\u2019s going to come in and save the school district until we start doing what we need to do to get our own house in order.\u201d<\/p>\n That means \u201cright-sizing\u201d \u2013 closing underused campuses to consolidate resources and fund meaningful upgrades. The goal is to exit receivership. But, he says, it\u2019ll take time, and patience.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have somewhere around 3,500 to 4,000 students who live in Inglewood but go out of district,\u201d Morris said. \u201cWe know our potential population is about 11,000.\u201d<\/p>\n A renaissance is possible, he believes. Maybe not next year. Maybe not in five. But someday, he says, IUSD classrooms will be full again.<\/p>\n <\/span>Students from Kelso elementary were transferred to this site, formerly Warren Lane elementary, which the district recently reopened.<\/span> Photograph: Damon Casarez\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Victoria Preciado doesn\u2019t have that kind of time. She pulled her daughter from IUSD and continues to organize with Stop IUSD School Closures, hoping to build a more informed and empowered community.<\/p>\n Recently, McKinnor introduced AB 51, a bill that would eliminate the interest on IUSD\u2019s long-standing loan. So far, it hasn\u2019t made it out of committee. Meanwhile, IUSD made a surprise announcement: Warren Lane elementary, closed in 2022, reopened this fall as Kelso Elementary, a K-8 campus in the Lockhaven neighborhood. But across town, near the Kia Forum, the former Kelso campus closed instead.<\/p>\n Activists see the campus\u2019s reopening as a small concession, though not necessarily a victory.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re only doing it because closing Kelso and selling that land will bring in more money,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n Parents Melissa and Nicholas Deloach recently attended a Stop IUSD School Closures informational session. Their daughter entered the new Kelso campus in the fall. If all goes well, their twins will follow in a few years.<\/p>\n After learning more about the district\u2019s complicated history, Melissa says they were \u201cdeeply apprehensive\u201d, but willing to try.<\/p>\n \u201cI have family advising me to stay involved and be very, very vocal as a parent,\u201d she said. \u201cParents really can make a difference at these schools.\u201d<\/p>\n If anyone is going to champion schoolchildren in the city of champions, Preciado believes, it will indeed be people like the Deloaches.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nobody who is going to come to save us. And I think that\u2019s the reality,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a politician, it\u2019s not a community org. It is just going to be the regular folks from Inglewood. And we\u2019re going to have to save ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was co-published with and supported by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project<\/em> and <\/em>the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inglewood, California \u2013 a few miles east of Los Angeles international airport \u2013 is known as the city of champions. The NBA champion Lakers once called Inglewood\u2019s Forum \u2013 famously dubbed \u201cthe fabulous Forum\u201d by announcer Chick Hearn \u2013 home. By the mid-2000s, with the Lakers gone and another local landmark \u2013 nearby Hollywood Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[667,8614,10123,9933,21367,17781,3818,334],"class_list":{"0":"post-39383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-closures","10":"tag-destroying","11":"tag-district","12":"tag-laarea","13":"tag-rocked","14":"tag-saving","15":"tag-school"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Takeovers fail to improve the outcomes they promise\u2019<\/h2>\n
Competing visions<\/h2>\n