Kevin Reed is chief legal counsel for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

He was dispatched to Academia Semillas del Pueblo–a taxpayer funded charter school in Los Angeles– after the district received numerous complaints about their discriminatory admissions policy and racist or separatist curriculum.

(Here and here for background.)

According to an AP story in the San Jose Mercury News, District clears charter school catering to Mexican students by Oskar Garcia Associated Press 6/05/06

“Responding to allegations of discrimination, the school district has concluded that an elementary school catering to students of Mexican descent is following its charter, officials said Monday.”

In the same article, LAUSD lawyer Kevin Reed was quoted as saying,

“They have followed the charter that they wrote originally,” said Kevin Reed, chief legal counsel for the district. “What we care about is that the curriculum is inclusive and not exclusive.”

As to the first half of his statement, following their original charter is precisely the problem–maybe he missed that part. As to the second half, if the school district requires inclusive curriculum then why is this MeCha, separatist school still open???

Meanwhile back at the Hall of Doom…

Guest columnist Jennifer Solis (graduate of Belmont High School 2004) wrote a love letter for the LA Daily News about Academia Semillas.

School regenerates immigrants’ pride by Jennifer Solis La Daily News 6/6/06

From the sappy title to the derisory by-line, this article is a perfect example of an undeserved sense of entitlement run amok–a perfect example of why so many people are fed-up with the wide-array of immigrant coddling policies that seem to have taken America hostage.

Here are a few nauseating excerpts:

Referring to a group of parents who gathered at the school last Saturday, she said they wanted the schoold district to “renew the charter later this year and keep the unique program aimed at instilling pride in children of Mexican and American Indian background.”

Aside from the fact that instill Mexican pride in school children falls just below domesticate a clan of hyenas on my personal List Of Things To Do Before I’m 35, this heritage preservation garbage is not a should not be a tax obligation for anyone.

And by the way, last Saturday was enrollment day for Academia Semillas–those people were probably just there to enroll their children in school.

Her explanation for the assault on a KABC reporter last week was interesting…

“The 253-pupil academy became a cause celebre recently when a local talk-radio station criticized the school’s principal and sent a reporter to interview him, the parents and students. One of the parents, believing the reporter was taking pictures of the kids, chased him and confiscated his tape, which turned out to be audio, not video.”

She also said that Principal Marcos Aguilar apologized and the school “is continually on the alert for child predators, and the incident was an over-reaction to the presence of a stranger with recording equipment.”

Right…

1. Academia Semallias del Pueblo charter school did not become a “cause celebre” until the principal–Marcos Aguilar (email him)–decided to make racist remarks about white people and that prompted the McIntyre in the Morning Show to take a closer look at the school.

2. It was a “parent” who tried to run over KABC reporter Sandy Wells not a black t-shirt wearing Aztlan thug?

3. Reporter Sandy Wells might have been a child predator and that is why he was tackled and robbed? Did they miss the part where he checked in with the front desk? Or the part where he was leaving the school grounds (without a child in tow) when the attack occured?

Jennifer Soliz must know Aguilar personally because she included information about his work history which has so far been hazy.

For example, Aguilar was a teacher at Garfield High School and according to Soliz, he left the school over frustration with the drop-out rate.

“He attributes the lack of motivation to succeed to the denial of culturally relevant programs and to an inflexible desire to Americanize first-generation students in the elementary grades.”

Perhaps the explanation for the disproportionately high drop-out rate among Hispanic students is the fact that people like Aguilar so eager to blame anything but the students themselves. In this case, California public schools have apparently failed to customize the coursework to suit the indivual culture.

How about this: If the academic success of a Mexican student is predicated on culture-oriented curriculum then why don’t they go to school in Mexico?

Finally, the author explains how (legally) this school is allowed to exist:

“The district requires charters to follow LAUSD policy “except in those areas they specifically describe in their charters, such as curriculum, pedagogy, philosophy, personnel and governance.”"

A charter school has to follow the same rules as non-charter schools except when it comes to curriculum, philosophy etc…

So basically, charter schools can do anything they want.

Hmm…how about an all-White charter school enmeshed in Nazi philosophy for the purpose of promoting the Aryan culture–all on your nickel?

By all means, reject the idea but first tell me why one is acceptable and the other is not.

On Saturday the New York Times carried an Op-ed piece on the impact of flooding the country with low-skilled immigrant labor [The Worker Next Door, By Barry R. Chiswick,June 3, 2006]

The essay essentially says that this labor supply is not necessary, that without it other ways of handing the work would be found, and that the effect of having the supply is to redistribute income from low-skilled to high-income families.

Put simply, there are no low-skilled jobs that American workers would not and do not do…Over the past two decades the number of low-skilled workers in the United States has increased because of immigration…This increase in low-skilled workers has contributed to the stagnation of wages for all such workers. The proposed “earned legalization” (amnesty) and guest worker programs would allow still more low-skilled workers into the country, further lowering their collective wages…In short, the continued increase in the flow of unskilled workers into the United States is the economic and moral equivalent of a regressive tax.

The news here, of course is not the content of the column. As VDARE.com readers well know, it has been said before , notably in April in a fine column in the Fort Collins, Co. newspaper and again in a piece by Portland’s KATU station, featuring a local economist:

“You have to recognize the flexibility of the economy based on relative wages. Producers change the way they produce things. If there’s a large amount of low skilled labor available, then they tend to change the production process to make use of that.”

The news is that the national newspaper of record finally feels this is a concept it cannot keep from its readers any longer. Even if they have to use an academic from a University none of the editorial page would want their own children to attend (notwithstanding the fact the education there would probably be better than at the fashionable East Coast destinations).

Steve Sailer wrote yesterday of the determination shown by the elite MSM to manage the immigration discussion to the conclusion they want. Given the craven PC character of the colleges these people favor, it is not surprising they had to look elsewhere for a writer.

But they had better beware. The boondocks are ahead of them – and they are angry.

Here�s a very important argument for our side that is not made frequently enough, if ever.

Today�s Boston Herald featured a typical sob story about 19-year-old Mario Rodas who is scheduled for a deportation hearing on June 27th. [Chelsea High Grad Aided in Fight to Stay in USA, Casey Ross, Boston Herald, June 6, 2006]

According to the story, Rodas could be returned to Guatemala without his parents or four-year-old brother.

Senator John Kerry said this: “It breaks your heart to think the government would be breaking up this family.”

Wrong!

The government is not breaking up the Rodas family. Mario’s parents and brother are free to return to Guatemala with him and thus keep the family intact.

If Mario’s parents and sibling decide to remain in Massachusetts, then it was their decision to “break up the family.”

The U.S. government and its immigration laws have nothing to do with it.

And you know what else? I have sisters, nieces and nephews who live in Guatemala. There are worse places�like maybe Massachusetts between November and May.