Teachers’ Union Protests Eli Broad’s Support Of Charter Schools

Hundreds of parents, teachers and students clad in red T-shirts held up signs and chanted outside the new contemporary art museum, which opened its doors to the public Sunday morning.

The protesters said they are not against the museum but are against Eli Broad’s reported plan to try to expand charter schools throughout the city of Los Angeles.

Broad reportedly plans to put between half a billion and a billion dollars into unregulated, non-union charter schools, that could draw half of the district’s students.

The teachers’ union fears these schools would not be accountable to the public, would cherry-pick their students, and keep parents from being able to interact with teachers.

“We’re very concerned that Eli Broad is part of a network of foundations and billionaires who are actually behind a plan to undermine public education by opening unregulated schools, unregulated charter schools that don’t serve civil rights and that don’t serve kids,” said Alex Caputo-Pearl, UTLA president.

UTLA also pointed out Broad’s recent political contributions to help defeat Proposition 30, which raised taxes to fund public schools.

A spokesperson from The Broad recognized the protests and said, ironically, there is a lot of protest art inside the museum.

The Broad houses 2,000 works of art by 200 artists. More than 250 of the pieces are a part of the inaugural display.