According to the results posted in the Los Angeles Times, with 100% of the vote counted but not certified, Steve Zimmer won by 52-48%!
Assuming that no one discovers a precinct with thousands of uncounted votes, this is a stunning upset!
Zimmer faced the combined opposition of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire Eli Broad, billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Michelle Rhee’s teacher-bashing StudentsFirst, the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, and an assortment of Hollywood elite executives.
Millions of dollars were amassed to knock Zimmer off the school board.
Score: Zimmer beats billionaires!
Friends, there is a huge lesson here for all of us in the Los Angeles race.
We still live in a democracy. An informed public will not be bought.
Those of us who support public education are many. Those who want to privatize it are few.
Steve Zimmer’s victory is a victory for all who care about the future of our public schools and the well-being of our society. His victory is a vote against privatization of a basic public responsibility.
They can’t buy us and they can’t intimidate us.
We won!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All it proves is that the gadshillionaires will spend more money next time …
Jon, I disagree. They spent nearly$5 million this time. Next time, the public will be wise to them, as they were in LA. People are sick of the 1% buying up their public institutions and turning them into profit centers.
Agree with Diane above: it’s called “leverage”. Quite the contrary, this is going to be a strong warning to the corporate reformers that they cannot buy elections.
What do I mean by “leverage”? In this election they spent what, 10 times more than the opposition? Perhaps $100 per vote?
This shows that if our side (community reformers) spend just 1/10th what they spend, we’ll win every single time. It tells them that if we even get a little organized, and raise a little (relatively speaking) amount of money, we easily could send the price of the election beyond their reach.
It might also show them that there’s a finite amount of money you can spend on an election before its a waste.
BTW, we had the same exact thing happen here in Santa Clara county: our local “billionaire charter school” and the charter industry ponied up about $10 per vote in a tiny county school board election here–and they lost. The winner of that election spent something like $6,000 against a warchest of $250k, They can’t win with these kinds of odds…
If all the public school teachers in the country were to go out on strike today it might just make a difference. Next year it will be too late — by then then the corporate raiders will have all the pawns in place to carry out the PATCO maneuver.
I’m a teacher in Los Angeles Unified and am thrilled that Steve won re-election. However, I’m disappointed that our efforts weren’t enough to force board president Monica Garcia into a run off.
Yes, they will spend more next time, but in the mean time, Zimmer has a seat on the Board.
His opinions will get covered by the mainstream media. His political opponents will watch to see how much support he gets from constituents.
And his opinions will hearten the thousands of parents who voted him in, and the others who hoped for the best from a distance
Well put, Carrie!
Incredible! To face all that big money and pressure and still prevail.
‘Restores my faith on so many levels. Congratulations to Steve Zimmerman and all those who helped to educate the electorate, especially, Dr. Ravitch.
Oops … ZIMMER …
Or to be even more cynical: ed-reform elites will stop using their money to influence the democratic process and instead attempt to subvert or circumvent it.
Then it is up to the people to challenge them if they do. I don’t assume that this fight will be easy. It is not. But I am in for the long haul.
Meanwhile, I will celebrate with LA, and with my “LA” (Louisiana) at our having two ALEC-modeled educational reform bills declared unconstitutional. Yes, there will be appeals, but I know that Jindal is having fits right now. His oversized ego does not easily bear being told no.
Congratulations to Zimmer and Los Angeles for this victory.
Owen, when they can’t influence the democratic process, they just buy it.
Voters in LA said it is “not for sale.”
So true, Dr. Ravitch. Money is their weapon and a sick one at that.
This is excellent news for other districts, including the Denver, Colorado Board of Education elections this November. I am a candidate for the at-large director position and the incumbent will have massive financial support from a select group of out-of-state interests that have an extreme agenda for our public schools. Our campaign goals are rather mainstream: 1. Authentic partnership between DPS and the community; 2. Renewed commitment to quality schools in every neighborhood; and 3. Effective oversight over the DPS Administration and its finances.
Wonderful, Michael. I will help to get the word out when the Denver school board election gets closer.
“Renewed commitment to quality schools in every neighborhood”
I’m on board with that. As a proud DPS grad who lives out of state, I plan to take a personal interest in this election. I wonder how much money team crazy will throw at this one. All I can say is, defenders of public schools, form megazord.
Get the foot soldiers out. That ‘s what makes the difference; door to door contact.
I hope the CA State legislature doesn’t pass a law putting the schools under control of the Mayor’s office.
It won’t. The defeat of Bloomberg, Rhee, et al was also a defeat for lame duck Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, who tried but didn’t entirely succeed, to get mayoral control of LAUSD. Villaraigosa of course was on the corporate reform side.
The other side of this coin is that if Eric Garcetti is the new mayor of Los Angeles, then we’re in a much better place and we can focus on cleaning up the LAUSD School Board.
Really, in CA we’re lucky: we have a governor who is against standardized testing, we have a legislature with former teachers in key positions in the Assembly and State Senate, and we have a sane Democratic majority+ with whom we can work. (I won’t go so far as to say we have a supermajority, and our major headwind is Prop 13, but regardless there’s much we can and will do to put our K-16 public education system on the right track.)
BTW, at K-12 News Network we offer advocacy tools and platforms for grassroots public education advocates to run low-cost but powerful full-on campaigns. It’s the same platform Garcetti used to run for mayor.
Wow. A lot of states would love to have what you guys have.
This should be a time for celebration and gratitude. Enjoy it folks and use the energy to keep fighting.
Indeed!
The Billionaires will hire the Wisconsin election board to come in and recount. Thus assuring that the election will go their way.
Congrats on winning! Victories right now need to start coming more frequently.
This is great news. He does have a window of opportunity here were his view on everything will be publicized. Makes my day. Best of luck to the LA teachers and parents. Continue the fight. This is one battle in a much larger war on Public Education.
I am so pleased that Steve Zimmer won, but big money did triumph in the District 2 race where incumbent Monica Garcia, with the help of $1million dollars from Bloomberg and $250K from Rhee will be able to continue with 4 more years of bullying, manipulating, corrupting and selling of LA schools. Robert Skeels would have helped the students and teachers of LA with his ability and integrity. La lucha sigue.
Agreed. But consider that Garcia had the benefit of more than $1 million in funding and faced four opponents with almost no money. If Skeels had been the only opposition, with unified support and some funding, she could have been beaten too.
I could use some good news today. maybe democracy is not FOR SALE.
Thanks for your insight Diane. As someone who lives in LAUSD 2 and has a high school child in LAUSD, Zimmer’s victory is good, but the proportion of Skeels’ loss is heartbreaking. Skeels ran an honorable and amazing grassroots campaign. Honestly, I hold the UTLA at fault for not clearly taking a stance in LAUSD 2. That’s what allowed the monied interests to prevail.
It is very difficult if no impossible to beat an incumbent who has $1 million, when she has four opponents, none of them with any money. Skeels is indeed informed and honorable, but he had less than $20,000 to combat Garcia’s $1 million. And the Wall Street hedge fund guys are crowing about the “victory” they purchased.
I give some credit here to Diane for putting the spotlight on LA and continuing to inspire us to do what is needed to preserve sanity and demoncracy.
We had a media victory in Sacramento last night (link below)FOX news alert but here’s another great idea. Get the Democrats out of it. Let’s make it a bipartisan issue that we can all come together and oppose Mr. Obama on it.
Please share this message.
We have to implement a multi-layered approach, parents and taxpayers who understand that a free education is THE cornerstone to our democracy.
1. Institute civil rights litigation with the help of your lawyer friends. Do not allow Arne Duncan to step aside the justice issues.
2. BUDGETARY ANALYSIS (happening in Sacramento despite having to straddle a very fine line with intimidation) brave citizens are finding out their code numbers and following the money. It is not easy to do but much of this is supposed to be public information.
3. Don’t give up labor without a fight.
4. Hold your school boards accountable and DON’T GIVE UP THE SCHOOL BOARDS RECALL people who don’t understand this. http://goo.gl/wSzsS
PS at the end of the reporter’s story (sorry about the BP ad you have to wait through ) SHE repeats the myth that enrollment is down. For the last three years, enrollment has remained steady. White flight took a lot of kids OUT OF OUR DISTRICT into surrounding suburbs. Lots of driving going on around here in the middle to upper classes. They are trampling over CEQA rules — the lawyers have a hard time with the CEQA rules but beware that then the Broad Sups use your taxpayer money for litigation. RECALL people who don’t understand this. http://goo.gl/wSzsS
Oh, and sorry one more thing…
5. In California we have environmental rules. You have them in your state also. These rules should be vetted and challenged under environmental concerns. I personally have two kids in separate high schools at opposite ends of my city. It’s maddening.
Best news I’ve read in a long time!
awesome! mazel tov!! wow!!1 onward! peace and love, mimi
Looks like the corporate reformers made some bad investments by betting that the voters were as uninformed and uninterested as they’d like us to believe. It’s a big victory for public education – congrats to the students and parents of LAU.
This is a great example of how a knowledgeable and voting populous can win against a massive corporate-backed campaign. We must be careful, however, not to overgeneralize this victory as proof that unrestrained campaign financing can be overcome by merely informing the people. We must determine what the differences are between this race and others where the candidate with the largest coffers won.
For starters, this is an off-season election, meaning that the candidates were competing with few others for recognition in the public eye. That decreases the cost of advertising and can help the less-funded candidate get their name out there. If this were last November, voters would have been so overloaded with presidential ads that they wouldn’t likely pay attention to Zimmer.
Next, we have to consider the fact that this is one race. While Zimmer had dramatically less financial support, he received a ton of support from Mrs. Ravitch and other public education advocates. Having people to canvass neighborhoods is incredibly valuable, and rarely can a massive influx of cash suddenly endow a candidate with the true believers necessary to successfully cover a district. This goes back to the “When the people are informed, crony capitalists fail” idea. The problem is that we are essentially playing whack-a-mole, with a new race being funded by the education reformers all over the nation. It is difficult and time consuming to keep track of.
The role that money plays in politics extends further than buying advertising. In peak elections, when the majority of our so-called news focuses primarily on the presidential election, money serves to crowd out potential candidates. It limits their exposure to what they can accomplish via their supporters on the ground. The problem with this is that people still have to work and feed their families. During peak elections, volunteer time for candidates running for local and state positions is scarce because many choose to help with the federal-level races.
Public education advocates must start working with campaign finance regulation groups if we are to ever minimize the effect money has on our education system. I suggest reading up on Senator Bernie Sanders and groups like Move to Amend, which call for a constitutional amendment specifically stating that money is not speech and corporations are not people. All of our races will be subject to corporate funding until we properly regulate the campaigns.
Keep up the good work, Mrs. Ravitch!!!
The 1% will continue to spend big to buy elections and they will also continue to modify their tactics. With the Zimmer win and other defeats of some chosen candidates and policies of the 1%, the new effort will be massive disinformation campaigns far in advance in addition to big campaign spending. That is where the spending will ramp up, on dis and misinformation. They already own enough politicians. Remember that we do not have the same access to the media that the 1% does, due to both money and influence. We must continue to build grass roots networks in advance of the 1% attacks and pre-empt the lies. The biggest thing in our favor is that it’s relatively easy to show that the 1% is trying to steal our education tax dollars and use it to harm our children. The numerous examples of this having already been done by the same folks who are still at it is an advantage we must exploit, and we must rip back the curtain when they try to hide behind proxy front groups. We already have the skills to do that as well.
And, as Michael said above, “We must be careful, however, not to overgeneralize this victory as proof that unrestrained campaign financing can be overcome by merely informing the people. We must determine what the differences are between this race and others where the candidate with the largest coffers won.”
So who are these Hollywood executives that supported the “reform” candidates, so that we can boycott their movies?
I read recently that many of the 1% make their bucks today without any need of consumers they would need to satisfy, such as the hedge fund guys, so we should really be boycotting the elites whose wealth IS dependent on consumers, like Hollywood moguls.
And BTW, Obama’s slap in the face to the Working Poor by choosing Walmart’s Burwell for his cabinet is even more reason to boycott Walmart (which I’ve been doing myself for over a decade). Let Obama know what an overt betrayal to labor this selection is, too..
Check here for list of donors.
Thank you!
Here is another list of those who poured millions into LA race:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/los-angeles-public-education_b_2798894.html
Great, Thanks!
Thank you!
This is really detailed. So we have to add to the boycott list:
Sony Pictures and DreamWorks.
The latter would include Steven Spielberg??? I’m very surprised, When did Hollywood liberals start drinking the corporate sponsored education “reform,” anti-union Kool-Aid?
Honestly, if anyone could see through the propaganda promoting the privatization of public education, I would have thought it would be someone like Spielberg. So very disappointing.
The DCTA mtg starts at 5, I will your mtg. an go on to DCTA
As Obama’s re-election, as well as LA results show, huge campaign expenditures don’t always win. Same true here with the late Paul Wellstone, who ran wonderful progressive campaigns for US Senate and won, despite being heavily outspent. LA Times says coalition to elect Garcia, Anderson and others spent $3 million +, coalition to elect Zimmer and others spent about $1 million. That includes funds from the LA Teachers union and from the American Federation of Teachers ($150K according to LA Times)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/school-board.html
There is money to be made at all levels, but first the district takes services that are provided by people — social workers, nurses, guidance counselors, or teachers — away from the student and replaces it with a longer day, excessive testing, a shiny tablet, and a much larger class size.
I guess that Sony, Dreamworks, Spielberg and others in entertainment see that the delivery of online curriculum will be reinvented as animation shorts and video games for a global market they can exploit.
The dismantling of a school district’s central office means that the traditional public schools — as well as the charter schools — must pay a third-party charter management operator for basic support services.
Hedge fund managers can use the New Markets Tax Credit to double their investments in 7 years. There is a lot of money to be made in the sale and leaseback of school buildings to charter operators.
Amplify has built the infrastructure of the InBloom database on millions of students K-12 — test scores, names, sometimes social security numbers — and Amplify’s tablets were introduced yesterday. The tablets deliver curriculum and tests will capture everything about the user, I expect.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/03/05/news-corp-puts-its-thumb-on-the-scale-of-la-ele/192915