The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is the next school district to be examined in this multi-part series. Unfortunately, it bears a striking resemblance to all the other big-city districts in terms of lagging graduation rates, a large achievement gap, marginal grade-level competency and entrenched Democratic Party control. The one exception: it is Latino, rather than black American students, who comprise 73.4 percent of the student population. Black American students are the next largest group at 10 percent. Both groups are lagging behind their white and Asian counterparts at every turn.
