I am holding my breath. In the early returns in the Los Angeles school board race, underdog Monica Ratliff is slightly ahead of Antonio Sanchez.
With only one-quarter of the precincts reporting, Monica had about 51% of the vote to Sanchez’ 49%. This could easily go the other way.
Monica is a teacher. Sanchez is launching his political career.
Monica raised about $42,000. Sanchez collected about $3 million from the usual gang of billionaires and millionaires who want more charter schools and test-based teacher evaluations.
UTLA endorsed both candidates, which means it stayed neutral (to their shame).
If Monica’s lead holds, it would be the biggest upset of the year.
I am holding my breath.
UPDATE: with 42% of the precincts counted, midnight in LA:
| LA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT | |||||
| District 6 | 23,046 | ||||
| Monica Ratliff | 11,859 | 51.46% | |||
| Antonio Sanchez | 11,187 | 48.54% |
UPDATE:
With 30,000 votes counted, Monica retains her slim lead with 51.58% of the vote.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, i agree that UTLA unfortunately stayed “neutral” to their shame (never again); however, many of us teachers here in LA donated, walked and called voters up until the last minute today – Election Day.
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Hi,
What’s the proper protocol to bring a situation to Ms. Ravich’aattention and seek her comments, Thoughts and or support on the blog? I’m a kindergarten teacher and proud union member too.
A comment from the “husband of a teacher” at the link below git me thinking. He pretty much lays out how his wife, a teacher in Inglewood California, is being forced to choose between feeding their own two children or the children of the district she works. I think it’s relevant and should be explored or at least shared because teachers and para professionals (whose salaries are already ranked at the bottom in the la county ) are being asked to take a 15-25% paycut to subsidize the cuts to schools by the legislature in California. It sets a horrible precedent for legislatures and districts to expect underpaid employees to pay or supplant budget shortfalls due to the misguided budget priorities and/or incompetencies of folks no where near the classroom. Isn’t this taking martyrdom a bit too far?! Please help bring attention and support to this issue. The teachers have a contract yet the state would like to ignore it. As a teacher I feel like I have to choose to either dissolve my family security with a 20percent cut or dissolve the district and possibly my job while the state sits back and watches for smoke to clear when they set the fire! Since they took over the district in september they have made NO structural changes nor cut consultant/attorney costs but want to reaLize savings off the backs of employees. Could this be just the beginning of a movement to drive down wages for middle class public sector workers even more? Or maybe im just paranoid?? See “married to a teacher commentary”. And I can provide more specific budget details if it would help.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. This must be stopped before it becomes expected of my colleagues in the next district and the next….and the next.
http://2urbangirls.com/2013/05/21/an-open-letter-to-the-inglewood-community/
Kind regards, Aisha Sent from ABY’s iPhone -Livestrong!
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It seems Monica won with 51.58% of the vote
Ironic that the vote for liminiting election contributions also won!
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FINAL BULLETIN: 3:16 am LA Time 100% votes reported
Monica Ratliff with 51,87% Woo Hoo!!
Another David slays a Goliath.
Diane, Is Monica Ratliff any relation to your high school teacher Mrs. Ratliff?
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Sounds like congratulations are in order for Monica Ratliff – woo hoo!
In the meantime, do any of my fellow Chicagoans know any more about this: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/ ?set=a.554638221242122.1073741829.326466604059286&type=1 Apparently the police shut down a *book fair* (of all things!!!) at an elementary school because of fears of a *sit in*??? All I have is this one Facebook link – if anyone has more, we need to flog this to the ends of the earth. I keep thinking I must have fallen through a hole in the time-space continuum and ended up in the former Soviet Union.
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Trumbull is one of the few schools on the north side that is slated for closure.
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Do you know anything more about this book fair? I mean, because a school is closing, they’re not allowed to have book fairs? Or because the school is closing, a book fair is obviously just a ploy to have a sit in? I’m really baffled about the “logic” behind this decision. And I’m baffled why we haven’t heard more about it – this should have been front page news.
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Ms. Ratliff won the election. See http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/election-2013/results-page/ for the full and complete results.
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Can someone please tell me why the SEIU supported Sanchez instead of Ratliff? Time and time again I see organizations like SEIU and AFT supporting people endorsed by the Gates, Broads, and Waltons. Why do some of these unions support people who are backed by billionaire boys club, a group that love to see the end of unions? Are the unions getting money from the billionaires!
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This details the relationship between Green Dot Charter schools and SEIU.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×8139874
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I would leave my opinion but have been told that my views could get me in trouble at work. 🙂
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