Improving education in spite of the school bureacracy

This L.A. Times article written by Mr. Mitchell Landsberg detailed how the Wiseburn School District decided to use the chart school process to establish two high schools.

The twist is Wiseburn is an elementary school district. It's schools are known for higher academic standards. Students from this district are supposed to go to Hawthorne High School, which is part of the troubled Centinela Valley Union High School District. Many parents instead send their high schooler's to neighboring districts or private schools.

Wiseburn wanted to set up a "unified" school district, with elementary, middle and high schools. But the Centinela Valley district sued to stop Wiseburn. The argument was Wiseburn lacked an environmental impact statement. So Wiseburn decided to use the charter system to establish charter high schools. According to the article, Centinela Valley is opposing this change, because they claim it would "rob" the district of nearly half its potential revenue from school bonds.

Do you keep sending the funds to organizations that fail or do you fund the organizations that are successful? Why should Centinela keep getting the funding if they suck?

According to the article the Wiseburn charter schools are successful. Successful enough that the schools have received donations from nearby corporations, including Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Chevron, Boeing and Belkin.

Students at the schools learn by producing elaborate projects. Students praise the school for making learning fun. Students in the Engineering Class built roller coasters as the final exams for the course. Engineering is one of the core classes that all students take, combining math and physics.