Dear UTLA Members:
I am writing to urge you to throw your full support behind the candidacy of Monica Ratliff for the Los Angeles school board race.
Monica deserves and needs your help.
I know you endorsed both her and her opponent. I am calling on you to help your colleague.
Her opponent has collected over $2 million from the the same wealthy elites, the billionaires and millionaires who tried to unseat Steve Zimmer.
Monica has no wealthy backers. What she has to offer is her deep knowledge and understanding of the children and schools of Los Angeles. For eleven years, she has taught in a high-poverty elementary school. Before that, she worked as a public interest lawyer on behalf of people who are poor.
Steve Zimmer won because he had your support. Monica needs you now.
Monica is a teacher, a member of the UTLA, and was elected by her school colleagues to serve as their delegate to your house of representatives.
Although Monica was endorsed by all the major newspapers in Los Angeles, which recognized her superior qualifications, she needs the help of her fellow teachers to win.
And that is why I am writing this appeal to you to withdraw your endorsement of her opponent and put your full support behind her. She needs you. And the children of Los Angeles need her to speak for them.
An upset victory by Monica would send hope to teachers and parents across the nation.
Please send a message to the nation:
Public education is not for sale.
Support Monica Ratliff.
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If UTLA does not wake up they will find themselves without a union or teachers. One of my friends, Richard Arthur, is one of the founders of UTLA and the founder of the first full time police dept LAUSDPD. He is disgusted with what UTLA has morphed into. This has nothing to do with what they were founded for. They need to get behind Monica Ratliff and go back to their roots which is protecting teachers from false charges and giving students a great education. They can start by helping Ratliff to be elected and change the dynamics of the Board of Education by creating a 4-3 for the good guys for once. Now the privatizer corporatists have bought up the board and superintendents positions along with many others. You have all seen this in Diane Ravich’s blog on these issues. What does it take for them to wake up? After all, it is in their best interests.
Thank you Diane and George. It is shocking and so discouraging to see what is happening in this phony Los Angeles election. The titular candidate, Sanchez, is saying anything he is told and garnering so much money that it is obscene. He has NO background in education. Monica is so clearly the correct candidate for the job, but the oligarchs are trying to throw yet another election. The disgusting last minute ads by the mayoral candidates has also turned off so many people, but most do not even know who the school board candidates are…and couldn’t care less.
The Latino community is being played and seems to only pay attention to the Latino surname. Having worked for decades to broaden the voting base I am disheartened at how it can be turned by the lies bought with big bucks.
I don’t think you can make the generalization that it’s only about a surname. Sanchez grew up in the district, attended local schools, and has known many of the voters there since childhood. According to his FB page, he regularly walks the precincts in the district.
Where is UTLA and why aren’t they helping Ratliff?
Lots of people are being manipulated in this school reform/Common Core disaster.
I’ve emailed this to UTLA Officers with a message of my own. I have never understood why UTLA doesn’t back it’s teachers – starting with Duffy. It would seem the officers are more enamored with their positions rather than helping teachers. I am friends with a few rank and file in the union, the lessor officers that basically have a gag order on them. If anyone criticizes or questions, there’s hell to pay. Teachers are becoming disaffected by leadership and are getting less involved. Sigh.
Perhaps UTLA officers could explain to high school civics students how the officers promote the “compelling governmental interest in educating all of our children to function effectively in a multiracial, democratic society and realize their full intellectual and academic potential.” (From the union amicus in Parents Involved)
The officers could include a discussion of Reed and the Koh memos:
Click to access Teacher_Turnerover_Amerikaner.pdf
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/hr/treaties/index.htm
Better yet, both board candidates could explain their positions on those issues to high school civics classes. Perhaps via youtube.
When the United Nations and the legal counsel for the US State Department give guidance on preventing human rights abuses in public education–and the expectation that students be briefed appropriately–why aren’t union-endorsed candidates trumpeting their credentials/records/plans?
Monica Ratliff appears to have the background to address this issue–but does she have an interested audience? Do the UTLA officers share the concerns of Koh and the UN? Were the teachers who elected the officers briefed as desired by the UN?
Presumably there’s a rubric (or multiple rubrics) for assessing school board candidate qualifications. Does the UTLA rubric differ with the responsible voting rubric from high school civics? How are both rubrics informed by equal protection guarantees and human rights safeguards? Do high school civics teachers participate as candidate screeners? In what capacity–public school civics teacher or union member? Do high school seniors in mayoral-controlled schools learn to apply an appropriate rubric to mayoral elections?
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I wrote to the UTLA Board of Directors about this last weekend, a similar urgent plea to fully support Monica Ratliff. (I posted that letter to them on another page of this blog.)
I received a reply from one member of the board, writing on behalf of the president, saying that they could not change the endorsement due to UTLA rules–that only the UTLA House of Representatives could change it, that they do not have a meeting until the 22nd, The HOR had a meeting back in March, right after the primary, to discuss changing the endorsement. However, not enough HOR members attended, there was no quorum, so they could not vote on the change.
He in no way defended the dual endorsement, in fact seemed perhaps rather embarrassed by it, but just gave me reasons why it could not be changed.
I replied that in an emergency situation, one has to find a way to act. I now just sent them the link to this appeal to them from Diane.
I’ve tweeted @UTLANow several times asking them to explain their bizarre decision to endorse Sanchez as well as Ratliff. I’ve had no more luck getting a response out of UTLA leadership than I would have if I tried to get a Coke date with Monica Garcia.
I found Warren Fletcher’s robocall today disgusting, exhorting us to go out and vote for UTLA-endorsed candidates, bragged about the Steve Zimmer win, and said that in District 6 “we are endorsing two fine candidates”. He described Sanchez as a “community organizer”. (I have not seen him described that way anywhere else but from UTLA, including not on Sanchez’s own campaign materials.)
So, in order to vote for UTLA-endorsed candidates, are we supposed to vote for both Sanchez and Ratliff? Impossible! You can only vote for one of them.
What really disturbs me is the sheer dishonesty of it all. Fletcher must know that there is a major difference between the two candidates, and that one is heavily backed by the forces of darkness, and has made a major point of support for Deasy..
Yet he baldfacedly lies to the full UTLA membership, pretending that both candidates are the same, “Two fine candidates”? That certainly would not lead UTLA members living in district 6 to “get out and vote” for school board, if they think that both are the same, no difference.
The dishonesty of it really sickens me,
If a vote comes along to impeach or recall Warren Fletcher and others, or even a vote of no confidence,.I would vote for that,
Anyone active in UTLA know if there are such motions?