Dear Board Members,
As you are well aware, friends of Superintendent Deasy in the business community and the charter corporate community plan a massive rally to show you how badly L.A. needs Superintendent Deasy.
Please do not forget that you were elected by the people of Los Angeles to use your own judgment, not to be swayed by billionaires and their minions.
Superintendent Deasy let it be known that he probably would resign. This in retrospect appears to have been a clever ploy to mobilize the corporate leadership that backs him.
I don’t know Superintendent Deasy, so I don’t now judge him as a person.
What I do know about him is that he does not have the support and confidence of those who do the daily work of educating the district’s children.
You cannot be a leader if the troops don’t trust you.
A leader must be able to inspire, encourage, and support those he leads. Superintendent Deasy has not been able to do this.
If he wants to go, let him go.
Do not allow yourselves to be pressured into capitulating.
If you capitulate, you make yourselves puppets; you place him in charge of the district, and the board becomes an afterthought.
If you allow yourselves to be browbeaten, you will find that John Deasy has become your boss.
This corrupts democracy. The billionaires who tried and failed to buy the elections last spring will have won, even though they lost at the polls.
Time to defend those who elected you.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you Diane.
Thank you Diane for speaking up for those of us in the trenches. Our teachers fight the good fight every day. Our principals live in fear and dread. We parents hear every day, please, say what I cannot! So thank you for helping us speak truth to power.
Karen,
It’s Julie. I was just forwarded
an email with an account of a
conference call coordinating the
various astroturf groups
who will be protesting against
us tomorrow.
Yep, that’s right. Some mole
within their ranks leaked this
to me.
Did you ever want to eavesdrop
on a planning session of a
bunch of ed reform astroturf
groups as they are trying to
create a demonstration that
has the appearance of an
actual community grass
roots protest— when it’s
actually a manufactured
farce concocted by well-paid
corporate shills?
Now’s your chance!
Enjoy:
(Folks, this is real.
Gabe, Ryan, and the rest
pull out all the stops to
earn their respective
$200,000-plus salaries)
———–
“Date: Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: conference call
“GABE (Rose, from Parent Rev.):
“#4 wear your organization’s
T-shirt to show broad support.
“We will be sending an email with
talking points. Any other questions?
“Commenters are looking for talking
points and one page info sheet
to send to supporters.’
“RYAN (Smith, from United Way, Julie)”
‘Create as many signs as possible.
Utilize chants.’
“GABE (Rose, from Parent Rev.):
” ‘Are we trying to pack the
boardroom?
“RYAN: ‘Yes, I’ll talk to you offline
about that. Regarding media
outreach, we will utilize
our guy here: Charles/Mary Lou
(Endowment),
” ‘Can I connect you to Jason
Mandel?’
GABE: “Sandy will email Ryan a
tag line. Let’s see… we’ll call it…
” ‘Communities for John Deasy’
“… or …
” ‘Communities for Educational
Justice’! ”
RYAN: “Good, but let’s not make
this ad hominem against certain
Board Members or UTLA union
leaders. Also, we are not trying
to change John Deasy’s mind.”
GABE: “Right. This is much
broader than Deasy.
Although we are very
supportive of his courage, this is
really about telling the board that
the community… we want our
initiatives to continue and we
want to hold them responsible for
making sure they stay the course.
We’ve been working on this for
decades. We’ve seen
superintendents come and go.
The progress over the last 4-5
years needs to continue.”
END OF CALL
———————————-
Then there’s a summary of
another conference call:
————————————
“BETH (???): “Can anyone on
the call confirm that Deasy
contacted anyone in educ.
reform community that he
spoke to board members
about resigning?”
RYAN: “Hey. Let’s not go down
that road. A lot of it’s conjecture
rather than truly substantiated.
I’m hoping we can talk a little
more off line.
ELLEN ( Pais President &
CEO – Los Angeles Education
Partnership): “People in
Sacramento are talking about
this, wondering, ‘What-the-heck
is going on?”
LINDA (???): “Has any email went
out? We want to send to our staff
and parents.
RYAN: “We will send it out after
this call finishes.”
RENE (Rodman, from Parent
Partnership): “Is everyone aware
that there is a petition up to support
the superintendent? Let’s not
duplicate efforts.
RYAN: “I’ll send out both and
people should sign both. We can’t
get enough signatures.”
“We have a total 150-160 who will
show up for tomorrow. This is a
testament to the work that’s
happening. If you are willing to
speak, email Elmer.”
erolean@unitedway.org:
“Yolie Flores and Caprice Young
will join the rally to speak in support
of the issues and the leadership
of the district. We also want
parents, teachers and if possible
students although they should be
in school.”
——————————————
The students “should be in school?”
Really, now… ya think?
There’s more:
—————————————–
“There is a theory that it was
possibly leaked as a way to push
out the superintendent, but that’s
not confirmed. There is a school
board meeting tomorrow. Been
turned mostly into a closed session.
“At 12:30, two items, and then
immediately afterwards, they’ll
go into closed session. This will
be a shorter meeting. Changes
our plans regarding press
conference and rally. CLASS
believes that students and
communities are most in need of
support. We have been supportive
of many of Deasy’s initiatives.
“This is beign made about John, but
—Support of Prop 30,
—protecting teachers from budget
based layoffs for first time in ,
—saving 200 counselors jobs,
—his support of 193K students
breakfast in classroom,
—efforts against policies that push
students out, end of defiance.
“A lot of policies that put students first.
Important for progress of lauds.
We will rally around continuation
of these policies no matter what,
and Deasy.
“CLASS hosting press conference
and rally about these issues which
have been supported by Deasy.
“10:30am Rally arrivals,
“start at 11am.
“Press conference immediately after.
“Thought about one after board
meeting too, so students and
teachers will be in the shot.
“Many of the organizations have
asked to speak and participate.
“We need to tell school board
members that we support Deasy
and visionary leadership. We are
asking each of you organizations
to tap your constituencies to make
phone calls and emails to board
members. Important that all board
members are communicated to, but
most important Vladovic and two
considered swing votes—Monica
Ratliff and Steve Zimmer.
“We support these policies and
visionary leadership.
————————————————
Karen, here’s a list of everyone
included at the end of this email.
It’s sort of
“THE L.E.A.: THE LEAGUE OF
EXTRAORDINARY ASTROTURF” :
——————————————————-
“Ryan Smith – United Way Greater Los Angeles
“CLASS –
“California Endowment
“Educators for Excellence
“Community coalition
“Inner city struggle
“Parent revolution
“Alliance for a better community
“campaign for college opportunity
“advancement project
“children now
“communities in schools
“students first
“laup
“students matter
“teach plus
“good will of southern California
“seiu local 99
“Green Dot
“LA music center
“Sing together
“New Teacher Center
“Herb Alpert Foundation
“Families in Schools
“Mind Research Institute
“Partnership for LA Schools
“ACLU of Southern Calif
“Kids LA
“Ed Voice
“LA Gay & Lesbian Center
“Arts
“Teach for America
“Educare Foundation
“CCSA
“Education Pioneers
“LA Voice
“Parent Partnership
“Educate Our State
“LA Urban League
“Pique
“RFK Center
“UCLA Center for Ed
“LA Small School Center
“YPI
“Lacer After School Program
“Asian Americans for Education Justice
CFY
“Goal: update you on info we know re:
John Deasy incident. Much more
than you probably already know.
“School board meeting tomorrow.
“Impending rally and press conference.”
——————————————–
Karen, that’s quite a formidable
assembly of astroturfers.
I mean, really. With “The Mind
Research Institute” on their side,
they’re going to be hard to beat.
Also, what-the-hell is “The Herb
Alpert Foundation” doing here
on this list?
Does this mean that
“The Tijuana Brass” reunite
tomorrow so they can
serenade the astroturfers’
“Save Deasy” rally with
“A TASTE OF HONEY”?
That alone should bring ‘em
all down to Beaudry!
See you at the rally.
Ta for now,
Julie
There’s a lot of speculation on the subject. The LA Times just published an article in which Steve Zimmer states that the majority of the board wants to keep Deasy. However, this too may be a ploy. With the iPad fiasco about to shed even more light on the incompetence of Deasy’s hand-picked team and his efforts to push it through with little to no proper preparation, he may find that he will have no choice anyway but to resign in short order.
The board members know what their constituents want, but they may also have the inside knowledge that they too must play a political game and attempt to reduce the kind of opposition that might hurt, not help the future of the district. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if superintendents and school board members could share the same goals and work together to make them happen.
Thank you Diane for speaking up for those of us in the trenches. Our teachers fight the good fight every day, teaching our children with less and less. Our principals live in fear and dread. We parents hear every day, “please, say what I cannot!” So thank you for helping us speak truth to power.
I don’t know much about the situation on the ground there but I was struck by this part of the letter:
“As you are well aware, friends of Superintendent Deasy in the business community and the charter corporate community plan a massive rally tomorrow to show you how badly L.A. needs Superintendent Deasy.
Please do not forget that you were elected by the people of Los Angeles to use your own judgment, not to be swayed by billionaires and their minions.”
I would be impressed indeed if there were enough billionaires around to form a rally that could be described as “massive”. I’m assuming, then, most of the people at the rally will be the “minions”.
So the basic idea is that anyone who is agains the resignation is either a billionaire, someone getting paid by a billionaire, or some stupid rube being manipulated by the billionaire. Anyone who is in favor of this guy’s resignation is a concerned educator or parent who is fighting the good fight. Thus, you encourage the board to ignore the evil and/or stupid people at the rally and use their own judgment.
Yet, when it comes to John King, the issue is that he is evil and/or being manipulated by the billionaires because he is using his own judgment on CC and not responding to the crowd. Thus, he should listen to the crowd and stop using his own judgment.
Interesting.
Looks like united way ushered in homeless and others to fill the void and they are passing out daisies!
yet this jewel still made the the media glut.
http://www.lamag.com/citythink/citythinkblog/2013/10/29/the-lausd-needs-an-operating-system-upgrade-not-ipads#
“So the basic idea is that anyone who is against the resignation is either a billionaire, someone getting paid by a billionaire, or some stupid rube being manipulated by the billionaire.”
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Here’s the definition of astroturf:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=astroturf
astroturf: “Creating the impression of public support by paying people
in the public to pretend to be supportive.”
Here’s the definition of astroturf as a verb at:
“to pretend to be an independent member of the community. In reality, the ‘astroturfer’ is a a surrogate for some stakeholder – company, political faction, individual, etc. – who has something to gain or lose.”
Here’s wiki’s definition:
“the practice of masking the sponsors of a message (e.g. political, advertising, or public relations) to give the appearance of it coming from a disinterested, grassroots participant. Astroturfing is intended to give the statements the credibility of an independent entity by withholding information about the source’s financial connection. The term astroturfing is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.”
Got all that?
Now go to Julie’s forwarded email where six-figured corporate whores—who have no children in LAUSD schools, and whose job it is to push for privatization and busting of the teachers union—are frantically trying to organize a bogus rally that has the appearance of a genuine grass roots rally.
They have the time to do this because that’s what their corporate masters are paying them for.
Teachers aren’t able to do this because they’re busy grading papers, planning lessons, or—during the school hours—teaching their students… and oh yeah, they aren’t being paid.
Similarly, parents aren’t able to do this because they are busy working at their own jobs, or taking care of their children.
Only paid corporate whores like the ones in Julie’s email can do this.
:
if a “coalition” of 501(c)(3)’s and/or 501(c)(4)’s is behind this political rally, can’t their non-profit status be revoked? It’s my understanding that non-profits can’t lobby for a specific candidate. I believe this technically qualifies as lobbying… Someone should look into this.
Thank you Professor Ravitch.
Thank you, Dr Ravitch.
Yes…it probably will be the ” paid whores”…the minions of the rich pimps who will bein the street tomorrow for the photo op. They will mouth the words taught them in the last few days. and the mdeia will love it. They will be on the evening news while they had an early Halloween and got paid for this vacation day.
Meanwhile, teachers will be working in their classrooms. Today was difficalut as we all gearred up to protest that our elected officals must not sell out to big business even tough we sense that they already have.
Media will love this plutocratic photo op…please everyone, come early so we are near, or at, at the head of the line to enter. I am bringing a chair so I can sit for the hours of so of waiting in line, and suggest you do too. Guess we will play it as it lays.
It occurs to me that they may pay some homeless people to save their places in line as they do when a new iPad is lauched.
I think they definitely have a plan to get to the front of the line, just like the Parent Revolution folks did last spring. I thwarted them then; we shall see tomorrow! In fact, Gabe from Parent Revolution asked on this morning’s call “Do we have a plan for packing the board room?” Ryan from United Way said “Yes, I’ll talk to you offline.”
Don’t forget also, that this is a great opportunity to talk to journalists covering the press conference.
Yes–you should have someone who can (say, get some retired LAUSD teachers to help) ask the rally minions where they came from.They will most likely tell you, & you can get the media to pick up on this. This happened in Chicago–busloads of men were paid & sent to disrupt school closing meetings, at which REAL parents were attempting to speak their opposition. When asked, the men freely admitted that they had been paid & put on buses (and some of them even had no idea why they were there–they were just told what to say!) This was covered by the media (it actually happens sometimes!)–both the two daily papers and on the local affiliates’
news! It also became a topic for discussion on our local, 1-hour. nightly PBS news/talk program.
They did. I see photos of them passing out daisies. They used to be my favorite flower.
Amen.
Yes, the choice is that clear, will the corporatist under deasy run the board of education or will the taxpayers and educators. If the board sells out, the district will pay dearly and If the board listens to those who elected them, we get a new start.
It’s just weird to float a resignation right after the tablet debacle. Does he intend on resigning or not, and if not, what was the point of announcing he was resigning?
For people who supposedly focus exclusively on children and not adults, reformers spend an enormous amount of time and energy defending these embattled adults.
As far as the tablet disaster, if this was a political ploy by Deasy it won’t work anyway. The moment this latest political campaign is over, he’s still stuck with a billion dollars in now rapidly-depreciating assets he financed with a bond, which is just plain poor stewardship of public money.
Reckless. Is there a single adult within school reform who knows how to say “no”? Not every idea is transformative, and not every idea should be immediately launched. These hugely expensive experiments with taxpayer money don’t seem to be vetted at all, which isn’t surprising, because they’re a lockstep group of true believers with no dissenters.
I think school districts are getting a bad deal on the devices. The device should be free, because they’re (we’re!) going to provide a huge after-market once they sign on and commit to this method of delivery. This relationship between buyer and vendor is all screwed up. They’re potentially a huge buyer. They shouldn’t be begging for Apple to provide this product. Apple should be begging for them allowing them entry into what will be a hugely profitable market.
It all goes back to the insane “now, now now!” manufactured urgency of ed reformers. No one is telling them “no” and no one is thinking this through.
Just a gentle reminder. With corporate reform comes corporate corruption. ‘Nuff said.
my voice from under the bus.” If there not enough budget where do we cut ?
Lets lose all the parasites and get the money available for teachers to actually teach
lets stop wasting money building things we don’t need. offices, schools, and ADMIN positions land deals equipment and research that we do not need.
Chiara said: “It’s just weird to float a resignation right after the tablet debacle. Does he intend on resigning or not, and if not, what was the point of announcing he was resigning? ”
I think the purpose must have been to smoke out this growth spurt among the astroturfers, no? I think it’s going to play well, unfortunately…. I’m feeling pretty cloudy about it.
He derailed questions about iPads, worked up common core investors with fear of losing their dough, shifted the attention to his martyrdom and bullied the board while creating reams of press that paint him as a hero. Now he has rendered elected oversight impotent, dominated facts and imposed public opinion on the public while they were at their jobs. He thinks he has us beaten but he will overplay his hand, and the rest of us need to be at the ready when he does. We cannot call in minions or tell the Times what to write but we can comment on what is written, we can write and we can rise. We cannot end the foul year of our lord 2013 without taking ourselves full force to confront this travesty. We should begin by seeking avenues of the media outside LA, though we have our blogs. We want to know who is who. Some must be recalled. If Vlad folds, we can start with him. He is already covered in filth. Zimmer, and Deasy’s pep squad next. 30 day notice is all his contract requires, but we cannot settle for dismissals now. The board will see things our way, you watch. Deasy plans to resign soon no matter what. That is what Broadies do. The cut and run before they get caught. Deasy must need a few more things to close the deal with Apple, a little time to divert some funds. We know he is greedy and arrogant. We can assume he will press his luck. This individual must be audited, investigated if audit warrants that, and it will. He must be indicted, prosecuted and put in prison if he has committed crimes, and so should his accomplices. Enough of this nonsense. He wants to talk civil rights? He best be ready for equality and justice then . Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see him model his orange jump suit, ladies!?
Right on the money, Diane. Thank you so much for standing up for students and teachers against the greedy plutocrats and the corrupt politicians who use Deasy as their catspaw against quality public education in Los Angeles.
Unlike Steve Zimmer, you truly know how to have a courageous conversation.
Thank you Diane.
I believe that if the majority of LAUSD students and families were asked if Deasy should remain as Superintendent the majority would say “NO”. We the majority of educators have said Deasy needs to GO. The sooner the better.
Parents need to stand up for their children. Teachers and parents voices should be the ones that are heard. We know our kids the best. Anyone who disregards the concerns of parents and teachers needs to go.
I attended today’s LAUSD School board meeting. The thrust of the meeting was to deal with Deasy’s role in the District. Will he stay or go? What type of review would he receive from the board?
The session took about 90 minutes, and was predictably boring and non-eventful. Lots of media were present, however, The crowd (maybe 100+) were 95% Deasy flacks, wearing tee shirts with a name of a charter school or non-profit organization that has charters. Devotees were passing out little orange flowers (?mums?) to have a symbol of support for Deasy. I thought I was at a Hari Krishna gathering…but I’ve much too much regard for the Hindu deities to use that analogy.
The stream of public commenters were Deasy fans, praising him to the hilt and kvelling how he has restored peace and beauty to the universe. Virtually all speakers were Latino. From charter schools or the local school that used the new Parent Trigger law.
On the other side, there was UTLA President Warren Fletcher. He came with a teacher who told her own story of an interaction with Deasy that took place in her classroom – he was surely disrespectful, but the narrative wasn’t particularly strong or cogent (IMHO). I think only one, maybe two speakers were anti-Deasy out of the whole.
At that point, the meeting adjourned to Closed Session. Where one Board members (Tamar Galatzan) will introduce a motion of censure against another board member (Richard Vladovic) for 10 year old sexual harassment charges. At that point, they will evaluate Deasy.
This District is a mess.
I was there from about 9 AM to close to 3 PM…it was very lonely since the only faces I recognized from this blog were Kim Kaufman and George Buzzetti. Where were all the anti Deasy locals?
I am writing a full report on the meeting and will post is soon.
Julie..thank you too for showing us who the players were today…and their dastardly movex.
Such a shame the board didn’t listen to what you said in your post – now Deasy will be stronger and more relentless than ever while the board will cower behind him – its sickening
I urge all of you to write letters of support to Monica Ratliff. I believe she held out and stood strong. We need her to keep doing that. We need to be the real grass roots movement that empowers her. Deasy pulled out all the stops to thwart her and the truth. It looks like we are losing, but he is cheating. And we have the advantage. We are right!
Rene Diedrich,
We don’t know that Moniica Ratliff held out and stood strong. I certainly hope she did though. (Or do you have some actual information that she did?) I hope we find out, as well as about Bennett Kayser and Marguerite LaMotte, whether we should still support those three. (It could have passed over the objections of all three, as the other four make a majority, the new pro-Deasy majority, which includes Zimmer.)
But I have no idea how K L and R stood in that meeting, and I think it is important that we teachers find out.
Anyone here know any of those three personally, and might be able to get such info?