2022 LAUSD Elections

María Brenes: Maintaining The Status Quo For Special Education

Monica Garcia’s hand-picked successor refuses to answer questions about special education. Her website shows she won’t bring needed changes.

“When we say $1.4 billion for special ed and we only have $700 million from the federal government and the other $700 million are coming from every child in this district, I’m not about defunding special ed. I just know that we have a serious issue to [sic] how can we serve our own kids?”

- LAUSD Board Member Monica Garcia

This is the seventh article in a series on serving students with severe special education needs. Please read the first part for an introduction to the issue.

For parents in Board District 2 who have children with special education needs, the November board election brings a chance to change the way these students are viewed by the district. The current board member, Monica Garcia, has said that those receiving special education services drain funding from “our kids”. Will her replacement share this view?

The two finalists in the November runoff election for this seat were sent…