Style
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 54 AUGUST 14, 2019
EducationCLEVELAN
D:^ COU
RTESY^
OF^
SUBJECT.^ S
TRIKE:^FREDERIC^ J.^ BR
OW
N/AFP/
GETTY^
IMAGES.^ HA
STI
NG
S:^ C
AR
LOSAL
VAREZ/GETTY^
IMAGES. ST
UR
MA
N:^ K
ATYWINN/INVIS
IONFOR^ T
HE^
BUZZ^ G
IRL
S/A
P^ IMAGES.are 29 percent white, 32 percent
Latinx, 21 percent black and
17 percent Asian. “It reflects
everything that’s good about pub-
lic education,” says Tr a c y A b b o t t,
a former TV writer and producer.
She and her husband, producer
Charlie Cook, have a son attend-
ing. “My kid is in his first year
at an Ivy, and he said LACES was
harder,” says one industry par-
ent. The school (which Leonardo
DiCaprio briefly attended) sees
about 2,600 applicants for 240
sixth-grade slots.
LARCHMONT CHARTER
2801 W. 6th St., Westlake
“Not every kid has the same
approach to learning, and at
Larchmont, they let them do
whatever their approach is,” says
Paddy Cullen, vp production at
Warner Bros. Television (her
daughter attends). Adds acting
teacher Marcia Tillman, wife of
The Hate U Give director George
Tillman Jr.: “Our son really ben-
efits from a hands-on approach,
rather than just being lectured
to.” The high school — which had
acceptances at Brown and Yale in
2019 and offers 11 AP classes — is
beloved for the constructivist
learning approach and its inti-
mate feeling (just 433 kids). The
students are 25 percent white,
31 percent Latinx, 5 percent black
and 28 percent Asian. One of the
city’s most selective (out of 2,050
kids who applied this year, 241
won spots), the high school is said
to lack robust athletics (“They do
P.E. at the park,” says Cullen).
L.A.’s Public and Charter
Schools Face Off
It’s Hollywood creatives vs. Reed Hastings as bills restricting new options are up for vote:
‘The people backing charters [are] really problematic’ By Peter KieferW
hen LAUSD board member and char-
ter school advocate Ref Rodriguez
pleaded guilty in July 2018 to a felony
count of conspiracy, it seemed that Los Angeles’
charter school movement had hit a critical low.
Rodriguez’s unraveling over campaign finance
violations tipped the balance of power on the
seven-member board that oversees the nation’s
second-largest school district, weakening its
charter school block.
Tensions between proponents of public schools
and of charter schools — which are started
by parents, teachers or community groups
and receive government funding but operate
independently of state school systems — were
already high. The January teachers’ strike won
concessions for LAUSD public schools ranging
from smaller class sizes to hiring full-time nurses
but was marked by heated anti-charter rhetoric.
Critics of charters say they continue to drain
much-needed resources from public schools. “If
LAUSD were properly funded, then I think the
choice that a charter school gives would be a
nice one,” says writer Audrey Wauchope (Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend). “Unfortunately, it often seems that
going charter is now just another way for parents
to leave behind their neighborhood school.”
Public-school proponents contend that char-
ters operate without sufficient oversight (proof
of which came in May when California authorities
arrested two men for allegedly stealing more than
$50 million in state funds via a network of online
charter schools). For their part, charter school
operators argue that they provide parents with
other, better options than LAUSD, which they say
is failing many of the city’s underprivileged kids.
And as they furiously lobby in Sacramento and
in Washington, D.C., both sides see bogeymen
at work. The charter schools say the teacher
unions are trying to crush them out of existence:California Teachers Association (CTA) spent
$4.3 million on lobbying this year, much of it on
anti-charter-school legislation. On the other side,
CTA and the other major union, United Teachers
Los Angeles (UTLA), contend that charter
schools are a front for libertarian, union-busting
billionaires. The deep pockets of Amazon’s Jeff
Bezos and Netflix’s Reed Hastings — who has
poured tens of millions of dollars into California
charter school initiatives — have helped the
movement grow from 250,000 to about 630,000
students over the past decade. “Aside from the
people who are backing charters, which is really
problematic, any time we as a society say, ‘We’re
not going to deal with this problem, so let’s start
this exclusive thing over here’ — that worries me,”
says producer Justin Halpern (Harley Quinn).
Hastings in particular has emerged as one of
UTLA’s favorite betes noires. “It’s really bad right
now,” says screenwriter Lindsay Sturman (Te e n
Wolf, Rizzoli & Isles) of the in-fighting and lobby-
ing. Sturman, who founded Larchmont Charter
school in 2004 and has helped launch several
others across the city, says she has never seen
the debate between charter and public-school
advocates as vindictive as it is now.The Grover Cleveland Charter campus
will undergo a $138 million update, adding
classrooms and a performing arts center.
Thousands of teachers from LAUSD and their supporters
strike outside Los Angeles City Hall in January.MALIBU HIGH SCHOOL
30215 Morning View Dr., Malibu
After the Woolsey Fire last
fall, Malibu High lost 23 days
of school, but 100 percent of
the senior class of 117 gradu-
ated, with two kids accepted
to Dartmouth and Princeton.
Located a block from the Pacific
Ocean, the school, where students
are 84 percent white, offers 14
AP classes and fields teams in
21 sports (including equestrianand surfing, neither sponsored
by Santa Monica-Malibu Unified
School District). WME’s Gaby
Morgerman, who saw two kids
graduate, says that, contrary to
perception, “the school is very
grounded.” The campus is adding
classrooms, a new library, science
labs and two computer labs.NEW WEST CHARTER
1905 Armacost Ave., Sawtelle
The building feels “like you are ina creative advertising agency in
Santa Monica,” says Lifetime vp
movies Sebastian Dungan, who
has a daughter there. He praises
it as “academically demand-
ing,” with small grade sizes. The
6th-to-12th-grade school (with
around 1,015) has an honors pro-
gram, but no AP courses. “They
don’t believe in teaching to the
test,” says a parent. Athletics are
limited, with some teams practic-
ing at nearby Stoner Park. The