Howard Blume has a terrific article
explaining how Monica Ratliff beat Antonio Sanchez and his multi-million $$$ campaign fund.
Sanchez had millions of dollars, a large staff, the endorsement of the LA Democratic Party (thanks, Mayor Villarigosa), and major labor unions.
Monica raised $52,000, had no paid staff, and taught her class every day. She never told her students that she was running for office.
Howard neglected to mention the contributions that came to Monica from teachers across America–in denominations of $10, $25, $50, and the endorsement by the Network for Public Education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She is a class act.
The juxtaposition of your call for an elected school board in Chicago and Ms. Ratliff’s election seems so fortunate. Elected school boards are no panacea. They can exhibit all the limitations of democracy. But Ms. Ratliff seems the paragon of what can go right. I probably don’t agree with her on all issues but I trust she will be a positive force in LA. I love it that she didn’t tell her students she was running. That alone tells me all I need to know about her modesty, an important characteristic a good leader.
Still amazing for a classroom tchr with tiny budget to beat billionaires financing her opponent while treacherous unions and Dem Party run against her too. Monica Ratliff is an extraordinary political asset to public education, as is Karen Turner. Billionaires will regroup and hire costly analysts to teach them how to win next time. Let’s stop them again. Remember what “worked”–NPE endorsement and just-enough-funds raised through this blog, as Diane mentioned; good use of resources like kitchen magnets and envelopes with accent on “o” in Monica who has Hispanic background; emphatic focus on her dedicated work as a classroom teacher; unpaid services of a campaign manager; high turnout in her key support areas.
We are holding our breath here in L.A, although i have to tell you that behind the scenes, movement is happening. We have to push back. There is no guarantee that Ms. Ratliff will join a growing voice against Deasy, but I can only imagine she has felt the shift since he took the job. Talent is leaving the district in droves. I have seen world class educators either pushed out or leave. At some point LAUSD will become a garage band if we don’t do something soon.
The great linguist George Lakoff, teaches about the use of political language. This follows not only with use of misnomers such as using entitlements instead of benefits to describe Social Security and Medicare, but also with the use of photos in political columns. Too often in this amazing election, various sites on education which most of us read, the blogger would use a photo of Sanchez looking professional and portrayed in glowing terms, then juxtaposed below to Monica, for instance, looking downtrodden in a film portrayal. When asked why they chose to do this, there is never a reply. This has made me very wary. And no one answers who of our legislators put the screws to UTLA (as alluded to by Howard Blume weeks ago) for their endorsement of Sanchez…a vital bit of info for us all in the next election process.
And still he lost, she won. So there are voters who could see past the schemes.
All students must be educated to the psychological falsehoods peppering the populace during elections. As educators, this is a teaching moment. The 30 second sound bite mentality of voters and all the subliminal messages on TV and other media can be shown objectively to students in early years to make them better careful voters.
I spent time on this yesterday with my university students, some very sophisticated, but others still rather unaware how they are influenced by media. If all students started learning about group dynamics and political exaggeration/mendacity early in their school years, they would be far better at critically choosing their legislators.
As to Ratliff and Deasy, I agree with Ann that we must keep the pressure on the Board and on Deasy…and definitely on our new Mayor Garcetti. It is our job to educate him as well as the general community. As to a “garage band” it is so apt.
Alexander Russo has a couple of good links up on this. He’s been reporting and criticizing “constructively”, about how to overcome the massive failures of the whole hired reform advocacy industry in LA. He employs a perspective as though he’s on board with Coalition for School Reform, but I don’t know…
Anyway, you’ll enjoy “Lessons From LA: Sentimental Selections, Bad Polling, Unintended Results.”
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2013/05/lessons-from-la-sentimental-selections-bad-polling-unintended-results.html
Russo quotes from Hillel Aron’s fascinating account in LA School Report. The argument is that the dual UTLA endorsement left nothing for the reformers to use against Monica in attack ads, but didn’t help Sanchez because union members chose Monica, and worked for her through their social networks.
http://laschoolreport.com/campaign-2013-how-ratliff-won-reformers-lost/
Comment moderation is too slow for my nervous system. I’ll break it up and post again? Sorry.
Alexander Russo has a couple of good links up on this. He’s been reporting and criticizing “constructively”, about how to overcome the massive failures of the whole hired reform advocacy industry in LA. He employs a perspective as though he’s on board with Coalition for School Reform, but I don’t know…
Anyway, you’ll enjoy “Lessons From LA: Sentimental Selections, Bad Polling, Unintended Results.”
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2013/05/lessons-from-la-sentimental-selections-bad-polling-unintended-results.html
Russo quotes from Hillel Aron’s fascinating account in LA School Report. The argument is that the dual UTLA endorsement left nothing for the reformers to use against Monica in attack ads, but didn’t help Sanchez because union members chose Monica, and worked for her through their social networks.
http://laschoolreport.com/campaign-2013-how-ratliff-won-reformers-lost/