If we are serious about literacy, equity, accountability and the future of this city then we must do what once seemed politically impossible
Los Angeles Unified School District board members from left, Karla Griego, Kelly Gonez, and Tanya Ortiz Franklin listen to public comments during a meeting at LAUSD headquarters before a special closed session with LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Thursday, Feb.
26, 2026, in Los Angeles. When F.B.I. agents arrived with search warrants at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District — and later at the home of its superintendent — it was more than another scandal in a city accustomed to institutional drama. It was a warning that the nation’s second-largest school system has grown too large, too insulated and too bureaucratic to serve the children it is tasked with educating. The Los Angeles Unified School District spans roughly 710 square miles and spends nearly $20 billion annually. Few public institutions in America attempt to govern such a vast and diverse population of students under a single centralized bureaucracy. Yet for all that scale and spending, the results remain painfully mediocre — especially for low-income and historically marginalized students who rely most heavily on public schools. In fact, Latino students make up nearly three-fourths of the district’s student population.Too many LAUSD students are not reading at grade level, one of the clearest predictors of long-term academic and economic success. In assessment after assessment, most Latino and Black third graders fall short of proficiency. In Boyle Heights, where many students are English learners, reading outcomes lag district and state averages. Teachers want stronger intervention and structured literacy programs. Parents demand urgency. Yet equity is a mirage. Drive 25 miles northwest to the San Fernando Valley, in the very same sprawling school district, and the priorities shift: Advanced Placement access, college counseling, STEM opportunities and pathways to competitive universities. These are not marginal differences. They reflect fundamentally different educational priorities shaped by local communities.A district this large cannot effectively respond to such different realities. Governance must move closer to the communities our schools are meant to serve. The financial case for change is just as compelling. LAUSD has lost more than 100,000 students since the mid-2010s, with further declines expected as birth rates fall and families seek more promising alternatives. Because funding follows enrollment, the district is trying to sustain a vast administrative apparatus while serving fewer children. Fewer students should mean leaner systems. Instead, LAUSD is already a shrinking district with the overhead of a much larger one, an imbalance that will only intensify. The strain is visible where it matters most: in classrooms. Teachers struggle to afford housing. Many pay out of pocket for basic supplies. Meanwhile, layers of administrators draw six-figure salaries with little accountability to gains in literacy or graduation rates. This is not an indictment of individuals but of incentives built into a system structured to protect bureaucracy while classrooms absorb the pressure.Three years ago, I approached LAUSD with an offer through Gordon Philanthropies to fund a literacy initiative that would provide a vast number of free books to students. The goal was simple: help more children build home libraries and strengthen early reading. But the district required our foundation to apply as a vendor before any books could be donated. At the height of the pandemic — when learning loss was accelerating and reading gaps were widening — the approval process was estimated to take six months to a year. Students in a literacy crisis cannot wait a year. Bureaucratic timelines rarely match the urgency of a child struggling to read. So, we took a different approach. Rather than navigate months of paperwork, we worked directly with community groups, educators and schools willing to move quickly on behalf of students. Gordon Philanthropies has now distributed more thanbooks across Los Angeles County, including to many LAUSD students whose teachers and principals eagerly participated. Imagine what more could have been accomplished had LAUSD bureaucrats not intervened. The experience exposed a critical flaw within LAUSD: the barrier was not a lack of willing educators, engaged families or community support. The barrier was a system so centralized, bureaucrats and procedural that even a straightforward literacy effort became tangled in red tape. The problem is not that Los Angeles cares too little about education; the problem is the unmanageable and underperforming bureaucracy to which delivering education has been entrusted. When institutions become this centralized, accountability fades. Decisions move farther from classrooms, reforms take longer to implement and urgent problems become administrative processes. Over time, the system begins to serve itself rather than the students it was designed to help.Smaller, locally governed districts would bring decision-making closer to parents, hold superintendents accountable to distinct communities, give teachers a stronger voice in curriculum and other priorities. Budgets would be easier to understand, waste easier to spot. And leadership compensation could be tied more directly to measurable student outcomes.Literacy is not merely an educational issue; it is an economic one. Students who are not reading proficiently by third grade are far less likely to graduate from high school, and more likely to wind up incarcerated. These long-term consequences for earnings, workforce participation and economic mobility pose an existential crisis to all of us.The social media trial won’t save your kids. The backyard might.Ugo Troiano: When employers hide the value of your ideasPrimarily those whose authority depends on preserving a centralized bureaucracy.The city’s behemoth school district does not lack money. It does not lack talent. It does not lack committed educators. What it lacks is a governance structure small enough to care — and close enough to listen. If we are serious about literacy, equity, accountability and the future of this city then we must do what once seemed politically impossible:Daniel L. Gordon is a Los Angeles businessman and the founder of GLD Partners. He established Gordon Philanthropies to advance literacy, accountability, and community-based solutions throughout Southern California.Dodger Stadium debuts new food items and selfie spots this seasonSwinging gates installed on 101 Freeway ahead of Saturday’s ‘No Kings’ protestThings to do in the San Fernando Valley, LA area, March 26-April 3Philippe the Original ends a tradition while another century-old restaurant closes
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