Mielke: Unfair Edges for Charter Schools

Eighth in a series. 

Re: “Three Reasons for Leaving Teaching” 

As a committed public school educator for 37 years, David Mielke is strongly vexed by what he calls
the whole privatization thing,” the ebbing and flowing of national momentum for charter schools, a permanent burr in the saddles of public school teachers.

As president of the Teachers Union in Culver City, Mr. Mielke is a proud labor advocate talking about a system that hires non-union teachers.

Mr. Mielke mentioned an embarrassing late-summer incident at a charter school in the Valley. “I read a story recently about El Camino Real where the principal (David Fehte) is suspected of charging ($100,000 in) private expenses to the school,” Mr. Mielke said. “Did you see his salary? He is a principal. A principal in a public school might make $125,000, maybe $159,000. But at El Camino Real, the principal’s salary was in the $280,000 range. For what? Why?

“Because,” Mr. Mielke said, “he is at a publically funded charter school. They don’t answer to the L.A. School Board. They have their own charter school board.”

His fury expanding fast, Mr. Mielke said, mockingly, that the finger El Camino Real school board decided the official “is so important he should earn $280,000 a year. By the way, here is a credit card – and it’s all public money.”

(To be continued)