The 1% really really really wants to beat Steve Zimmer.
Zimmer is a member of the Los Angeles school board who is up for re-election.
He is a former teacher (and TFA) in Los Angeles.
He is the target of a heavily funded campaign to oust him.
The LA Fund for Public Education (controlled by Superintendent Deasey) has paid for billboards featuring a picture of Zimmer’s opponent, in his district.
The anti-Zimmer forces have so far raised over $1.5 million to knock him out.
Among the contributors to the anti-Zimmer fund: billionaire Eli Broad and Rupert Murdoch employee Joel Klein.
$1.5 million is a huge amount of money for a local school board race.
This one will determine whether LA schools are controlled by supporters of public education or corporate elites.
That is why all friends of public education must support Steve Zimmer.
Tell the elites they can’t buy the schools or the children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s so sad that money for some is no object. Even sadder is the wasting of money that could be better spent elsewhere. What a corrupt and unconscionable system.
I so agree with you, Mark.
Here in Indiana the new Governor is proposing a meager 1% increase in education funding…this after draconian cuts the last few years.
But there’s more.
The General Assembly is preparing to pass a massive expansion of vouchers. If HB 1003 passes, the cost of the voucher program will increase to $47 million dollars.
Do the math. $70 million increase in education funding minus $47 million to private schools.
That leaves only $23 million for public schools.
Our state is actually proposing to fund private schools more adequately than its public schools!
We are waiting in Louisiana to see if the state Supreme Court will maintan the ruling by the lower courts that giving public money to private schools is unconstitutional. If your privates are religious you may also be able to attack the funding based on the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.
This mess has got to go. All it really boils down to is an attack on real teachers so the right wingers can pay them less and teachers’ unions
Dianne, Are there ANY states now that are not voucherizing and privatizing, doing high stakes standardized testing, institutiting abusive evaluations, refusing to use Teach for America and generally giving the schools over to the amateurs? I am thinking about on a state level. I am sure there are some schools and even systems that are hanging tough. Where are teachers respected in America? If there are any could you make a post that tells us where. Of course it might create a mass immigration to those states, but that might also shock the idiots out of their collective comas. A few years ago the other southeastern states were losing teachers to Georgia because Zell Miller raised the pay by 15%. The rest groused loudly, but had to raise their pay to compete. So apparently this kind of thing works.
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:55:37 +0000 To: pigbestdog@hotmail.com
Steve Zimmer is one of the most dedicated educators we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. He’s also a savvy grassroots organizer and campaigner. If there is any justice, big money against public interest will achieve the same outcome as in the 2012 election.
Perhaps you or your readers would be interested in this letter I posted in support of Zimmer pointing out some of the reality about his opponent and what she stands for: http://venice.patch.com/articles/letter-to-the-editor-lausd-school-board-election
A vey powerful letter. Whoa! I hope that Zimmer wins. I’m rooting for him on the east coast. Too bad I can’t vote.
I may have a slightly different take. I happened to click on the linked LATimes article. I t appears to me that the blog post is significantly misleading. There are three seats up this election cycle. The Coalition for School Reform has raised $1.5 million, not all to knock out Zimmer. According to the article, $268,000 has been spent on Zimmer’s opponent. Zimmer is supported by the unions. The Coalition and the unions have spent money and both support the same two candidates in the other two races. I can’t tell from the article the basis of why the Coalition supports Anderson over Zimmer. That might be helpful information. Interesting that Ravitch considers the LA mayor to be part of the corporate elite. And what does corporate elite really mean anyway?
Went to a fundraiser on Saturday for Steve. The thing is, if our unions back him, and to door-to-door and phone banking, he can win. We elected Bennett Kayser who had the 1% arrayed against him. It is possible to defeat the billionaire boys. Thanks for writing this Diane!
If you knock on enough doors, Steve Zimmer will win. Wake the town and tell the people.
To anyone who is in doubt, watch this video:
She spouts nothing but right-wing, union-busting,
privatizing cliches.
It’s interesting that, at 4:44, she slags off UTLA teacher
union President Warren Fletcher, but she has
to couch it with the qualifier, “(Fletcher) is a man
whom I respect in a lot of ways, but… (SLAM).”
Now, Ms. Anderson’s corporate masters want to annihilate
teachers unions—the main obstacle to privatizing and
profiting off the destruction of public education—and they’ve
pumped in money to her towards that eventual goal.
So why walk the tightrope with fake praise of Fletcher?
Well, she’s running in a very, progressive
union-friendly district… so she has to be very
careful to put on this Davis Guggenheim-like
fake pro-union facade… “I support unions, but
right now they’re just so misguided.. blah-blah-blah.”
It’s phony, manipulative, Machiavellian bullshit.
On the specific topic she’s to which she’s
referring—SB1530. The right-wing, anti-union
folks in Sacramento were trying to exploit
the situation at Miramonte—a teacher guilty
of molestation—and then ram through a bill
which would have essentially made all teachers
at-will. They were trying to go “shock doctrine”
on LAUSD, using Miramonte the way the
folks in New Orleans exploited Katrina.
Currently, if a teacher is fired by the District, the
state has an independent panel that can
reverse the firing—which happens about
50% of the time.
Had SB1530 passed, the independent panel’s
finding would have been downgraded to
“advisory”. Think about that. That’s like
telling police and prosecutors that they
ultimately render the verdict of GUILTY
or NOT GUILTY…. jury trials and due
process be damned. You wouldn’t
have to even produce evidence to
support firing a teacher. Teachers
wrongfully accused would be dead,
no matter how much evidence supports
their innocence.
“Sure, we’ll give you a jury trial, but we
can just ignore whatever it says if
we feel like it… oh, and no, we don’t
have to present evidence of your guilt.”
That would have made the principal
or other administrator the sole and final
arbitrator of a teacher’s termination.
He or she could make up an accusation
out of thin air, then have the board
fire that teacher. If pressed for evidence
on the accusation, the administrator could
refuse to produce any evidence, up
to and including the name of the accusing
child.
The goal would be to fire the high-paid
veteran teachers—in spite of their high
quality—just to spend less money on
education. The LAUSD teacher jails
are filled with teachers with 20-plus
years as teacher… at the high end of
the salary scale, put their by administrators
following Superintenday Deasy’s order.
Yes, Deasy… whom Anderson gushes about.