Public Schools as a Safety Net of Last Resort

Public Schools as a Safety Net of Last Resort

12pm PST

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The Los Angeles Unified School District has an enrollment of 650,000, more than the population of the state of Vermont. Even before the pandemic, around 80% of the LAUSD student population was impoverished. LAUSD serves approximately 18,000 homeless students. In contrast, 99.9% of our nation’s school districts serve less than 15,000 students total.

Since the pandemic, the school district has taken on new roles, including serving more than 100 million meals. In addition, the district has had to deal with many other controversies, including when to restart in-person classes, the proposed ethnic studies curriculum, and its role as a service provider after the pandemic.

Join AJU President, Dr. Jeffrey Herbst, in discussion with LAUSD Board Member Nick Melvoin. Nick started his career as an English teacher in Watts. Nick has recently served on the boards of the Brentwood Community Council, Teach For America Associates, University Synagogue's Social Justice Committee, United in Harmony, The Jewish Center for Justice, and the Los Angeles County Young Democrats—where he also received their Young Democrat of the Year Award in 2018.

Nick Melvoin is proud to serve the dynamic communities of District 4 as the Vice President of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. Nick’s work is focused on increasing parent and community engagement, transparency and accountability; directing more resources to schools; protecting our most vulnerable students; and bringing a new spirit of partnership and collaboration to LA’s public schools. He chairs the district's “Committee of the Whole,” bringing a transparent conversation about LA Unified’s budgetary process and priorities to the public. He also chairs the "Continuous Improvement Data Committee," as well as serving on committees related to legislative advocacy, early education, affiliated charter schools, and school safety. Prior to his election, Nick worked as a teacher, public interest attorney, nonprofit director, and an active board member of a number of community and political organizations. Nick has also worked in the Obama White House and the US Attorney’s office. Nick is a graduate of Harvard College, NYU School of Law (Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar), and Loyola Marymount University’s School of Education. He was a recent recipient of the Los Angeles Young Democrat of the Year Award.

Dr. Jeffrey Herbst is the fourth president of American Jewish University. Prior to joining AJU, Dr. Herbst was president and CEO of the Newseum and the Newseum Institute in Washington, DC. From 2010 to 2015, he was president of Colgate University, where among other accomplishments he is credited with helping the university complete its nearly half billion-dollar fundraising campaign, leading the development and initial implementation of a university-wide strategic plan, and increasing the diversity and academic caliber of its educational programming.

Additionally, Dr. Herbst was a Senior Fellow at the Brenthurst Foundation, was a two-time Fulbright Scholar, and is currently a trustee of Freedom House. He has also served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and as professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio, and taught at Princeton University for almost two decades.

Dr. Herbst earned his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, and a master’s degree and doctorate in political science from Yale University. He is the author of the award-winning “States and Power in Africa” and, with several co-authors, the just-published “Making Africa Work.” In addition to many books and articles, he has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other digital and print publications around the world.