As readers of this blog know, Steve Zimmer is a former TFA who became a career teacher in the Los Angeles public schools. He has served one term on the L.A. school board.
He had the temerity to suggest that the school districts, which now has hundreds of charters, develop an accountability and oversight plan for the charters.
That made the charter lobby very angry.
They decided he had to be defeated.
So now, in a race where candidates typically spend $50,000 or so, seldom as much as $100,000, the billionaires have raised large sums to kick Steve out.
Eli Broad put up $250,000. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, tossed in $1,000,000. Other charter allies have ponied up another million.
Once again, as in other school board races over the past two years, the question arises: Can people power defeat big money?
This is the response from the Zimmer camp:
Yesterday we learned that Former Republican turned Independent New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote a $1 million dollar check to defeat Steve Zimmer. We need your help more than ever to make sure we reach every voter in District 4. This District should not be sold to the highest bidder but it should be won by winning the hearts and minds of voters.
Will you commit to Phone Banking and/or Precinct Walking this weekend?
Instead of money, it requires people willing to donate time and energy. All over the country people have proven billionaires that people can beat money.One example: Governor Jerry Brown defeated Billionaire Meg Whitman, Meg Outspent Brown By Over $140 Million!
Please sign up for a precinct walk and/or a phone bank shift. We have three locations where we are meeting:Woodland Hills/Valley: Saturday and Sunday at 10am
– 6206 Jumilla Avenue Woodland HIlls 91367West Hollywood/West LA: Saturday and Sunday at 10am
– 9028 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, 90069Mar Vista: Sunday at 10am
3300 Mountain Ave, Mar Vista, 90066I hope to see you in one of the locations. We need you.
Ari Ruiz
P.S. Please be sure to check out our videos on our YouTube page and share them with your friends.
http://stevezimmer2013.nationbuilder.com/
Zimmer for School Board 2013 · 3700 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1050-B, Los Angeles, CA 90038, United States
This email was sent to Asobaji@aol.com. To stop receiving emails,click here.You can also keep up with Zimmer for School Board 2013 onTwitter orFacebook.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not sure why or if it’s my server, but formatting is wonky on this post!
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It’s the multiple blockquote tags in the source.
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Fixed
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Fixed the formatting
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Hey, why are you coming down so hard on Bloomberg and Broad? It’s jus’ bidness!
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One million to defeat a school board member! Not demeaning school board members, but will we see one million to defeat animal control agents next?
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Our children are not profit centers for these investors. Also, until we find an adequate way to measure student achievement that goes beyond recall and A,B,C,or D, we will never know if a school is doing what it needs to do to equip our children with skills that will actually make a difference in their lives. One would think Mayor Bloomberg has enough challenges within his own city’s education system to not try to manipulate ours in LA…
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He needs people to copy him so he can say he led a movement and apparently the only way he can do that is by buying people. I suppose otherwise he would be written off as a wealthy, pompous, egotistical, little control freak.
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Bloomberg is spending $1 million to get rid of an anti-charter school board member…out in Los Angeles.
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I don’t live in LA but just donated to Mr. Zimmer. Sadly, my donation was far less than the Mayor’s. Please donate! You can get to his website from Diane’s post.
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Diane, do you remember the amount of money and support for DiNapoli’s Democratic opponent in the primaries–all because DiNapoli found inconsistencies with KIPP and other charters? Not only did it come from Bloomberg, but newspapers and the Dems themselves, but DiNapoli still won!!
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I don’t think DiNapoli had an opponent in the primaries. He ran against GOP candidate billionaire financier Harry Wilson.who of course was supported by Bloomberg. DiNapoli won by only 4.5%.
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