Endorsement: Dan Chang for LAUSD board in District 3

Not everyone lives within the Los Angeles Unified School District. Fewer still live within the LAUSD Board of Education District 3, in the West San Fernando Valley.

But all of us in L.A. County are affected by what goes on — the successes and failures — in the sprawling district’s schools. It’s the second-biggest district in the nation. Where goes the LAUSD, so goes public education in the nation.

So all of us have a stake in the district’s future. And that’s why all of us — especially, obviously, those registered to vote in the district that spreads from Lake Balboa up to Chatsworth, from Granada Hills down to famed El Camino Real High — should be invested in the election of challenger Dan Chang to the LAUSD school board.

Not only is he an agent of change, which the district sorely needs — he’s a district insider, as a math teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood. So he’s not basing his reformist campaign from the position of some kind of knight errant crankily critiquing low test scores or cheeky teacher union arrogance — he’s in the classroom, every day. And so he knows what needs to happen there for success to return to the district.

As we noted in January, rarely have voters had a chance to elect a school board candidate as qualified and potentially impactful as Chang, and we heartily endorse his candidacy for Seat 3 in November. A graduate of UC Berkeley and possessor of an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Chang began his career in education at its innovative cutting edge, the Green Dot charter schools. He helped to open 17 charter high schools in poorer communities throughout L.A., and oversaw the revitalization of LAUSD’s traditionally most troubled high school, Locke High in Watts. In 2011 he co-founded the L.A. Fund for Public Education with former Superintendent John Deasy.

In the face of declining enrollment and budget woes, Chang has an excellent top three priorities to focus on if elected: “1. Raise academic performance by scaling success within LAUSD. 2. Reduce the bureaucracy to return more funding and autonomy to school sites. 3. Prioritize student safety and well-being by strengthening restorative justice practices.” Elect Mr. Chang to the school board.