Network for Public Education endorses Tom Torlakson for California State Superintendent
Network for Public Education is proud to endorse public education champion Tom Torlakson for California State Superintendent. NPE Board president Diane Ravitch says, “I hope that the voters choose Tom Torlakson, a veteran educator who will truly fight for the kids, their teachers, and their public schools.” The race in California is a test of democracy and a referendum on public education. Can the voters be hoodwinked by Big Lies and Big Money?
The 2014 election receiving staggering contributions from Big Outside Money is the State Superintendent race between the incumbent, former teacher and legislator Tom Torlakson and the challenger, former Wall Street and charter school executive Marshall Tuck. It’s no surprise that corporate reform heav y weights have come out in droves in support of the candidate with ties to Wall Street and charters.
The race has been flooded with more than 25 million dollars, with Tuck raising approximately $3.5 million more than Torlakson at latest count. Much of the corporate reform money for Tuck is flowing through a PAC deceptively named “Parents and Teachers for Tuck for State Superintendent 2014.”
Familiar corporate-ed reform philanthropists top the list of donors, including Eli Broad ($1,375,000); Walton daughters and heirs, Alice ($450,000) and Carrie ($500,000); Julian Robertson of the Robertson Foundation ($1,000,000) and Doris Fisher of the Donald and Doris Fisher Fund ($950,000). Ex NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $250,000, as did Houston billionaire and DFER friend John Arnold and San Francisco venture capitalist and TFA Board member Arthur Rock.
Why so much money in this particular race?
Vergara.
Torlakson released a definitive statement within hours of the decision, and has appealed the ruling that could decimate tenure laws in California and beyond.
“All children deserve great teachers. Attracting, training, and nurturing talented and dedicated educators are among the most important tasks facing every school district, tasks that require the right mix of tools, resources, and expertise. Today’s ruling may inadvertently make this critical work even more challenging than it already is.
“While I have no direct jurisdiction over the statutes challenged in this case, I am always ready to assist the Legislature and Governor in their work to provide high-quality teachers for all of our students. Teachers are not the problem in our schools, they are the solution.”
Tuck not only supports the ruling, the plaintiffs in the case have endorsed his candidacy. Tuck offered his whole-hearted support for the decision at an event he recently attended with the Vergara plaintiffs.
“For too long, we have defended a broken system that fails to put the needs of our kids first. As State Superintendent, I will be an advocate for our students in Sacramento. I will immediately push to stop the defense of the onerous laws challenged by Vergara and will work with any and all stakeholders who are interested in building a better education future for our state. We owe it to our kids, and they deserve nothing less.”
Torlakson holds the slightest of leads among likely voters over Tuck, but with a third of the electorate still undecided, it’s anyone’s race. A field poll last week found an even tighter margin, with the candidates even at 28% and 44% of voters undecided!
Public education activist Robert Skeels says, “Tom Torlakson, AALA-endorsed candidate for California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, will fight to increase education funding, fight to restore funding for science, social studies, art, music, drama and sports and fight to reduce class size.”
This race is crucial. We simply cannot allow Big Outside Money to install a Wall Street and charter executive in the California State Superintendent’s seat. We simply cannot allow Big Outside Money to spread the Vergara verdict across the country.
Re-electing Tom Torlakson will send a powerful message to those that seek to privatize public education and undermine our nation’s teachers. It will send the message that our schools are not for sale.
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Over the past year, donations to The Network for Public Education helped us put on our first National Conference, and the first PUBLIC Education Nation. In the coming year, we will hold more events, webinars, and work on the issues that our members and donors care about the most!
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Whew…great…thanks for endorsing Torlakson.
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If you’re a Californian who wants to protect
and preserve public education and public
schools, get out the word to
*** Vote for for Tom Torlakson!!!!***
———-for———-
*** State Superintendent of ***
***** Public Instruction *****
This is urgent.
Contact everybody you know in your various circles of influence
— co-workers and/or former co-workers
— neighbors, and/or former neighbors
— friends,
— family,
— extended family…
— people with whom you went to grade school
— people with whom you went to high school
— people with whom you went to college
— people you were/are in a club with
— groomsman/bridesmaids in your wedding party… or a wedding party of which you were a part.
The list goes on and on…
CONTACT THEM—via phone, email, text, etc.—
AND TELL THEM THAT THEY MUST…
VOTE FOR TOM TORLAKSON
for
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION…
… ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4.
If you’re out state, and you know people in California whom you an influence, do likewise and call them, and urge them to
…vote for Tom Torlakson for State Superintendent for Public Instruction.
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This morning I got a “vote-for-Marshall-Tuck” robo-call with the voice of pop singer John Legend (who was paid a huge salary for writing the theme song for WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, and has since made statements and appearances for corporate reform.
In this call, Legend claimed that he was calling on behalf of…
“PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”.
Legend waxed orgasmically about how Tuck will fight for the parents and teachers of California, blah-blah-blah….
Hmmm…..
Sure, I’m a teacher who’ll happily vote for a the guy who wants to wipe out the California teachers unions the way Scott Walker wiped out the Wisconsin teacher unions?
Yeah, sounds good. I’m a teacher who’ll vote for a guy that opposed funding for the classroom—Tuck opposed Prop 30 which, because it passed in 2012, restored desperately needed funding to the classroom.
Tuck also is against extending Prop 30.
Sure, I won’t mind untold thousands of layoffs of fellow teachers—possibly myself—when, per Tuck and his corporate masters, Prop 30 ceases to be in effect.
I’ll vote for a guy who wants to wipe out the organization that is trying to offer my fellow teachers and myself a live-able wage.
I’ll back a guy who even wants to cut my salary and benefits further.
I’ll vote for a guy that wants to wipe out an organization that provides decent working conditions for my fellow teachers and myself.
“PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”?
That’s gotta be a STUDENTS FIRST-like front group.
I’m sure that, like teachers, California parents want all of the above things to happen as well.
Say, let’s find out a little about “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”:
http://edsource.org/2014/app-details-state-superintendent-race-spending/69030#.VFVyAYesPxw
—————–
ED SOURCE:
“There are no limits on donors to outside groups, identified on campaign disclosure reports as ‘independent expenditure committees.’ These committees have intensified their efforts in the past few weeks.
“A new committee supporting Tuck, ‘PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK for State Superintendent 2014,’ formed in early October and has spent about $7.5 million on ads. It is the outside group that has spent the most of any of the committees supporting Tuck. The committee is financed by 30 donors who gave on average $267,000 each, including real estate developer William Bloomfield, Jr., Broad Foundation founder Eli Broad, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Emerson Collective Chair Laurene Powell Jobs.”
——————
Say, you notice that THERE ARE NO TEACHERS ON THAT LIST. And that there are also NO PARENTS, NO PEOPLE WHO SEND THEIR KIDS TO THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS that Tuck seeks to be in charge of. Instead, it’s folks like Michael Bloomberg and the other usual suspects.
So then why do they care so much whether Tuck wins or not?
And how can they claim this group to be “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK” when they are neither??
Back when it was “formed in early October”, I’m sure there were plenty of California teachers and public school parents present at that meeting… NOT!!!!
Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Rich people—particularly out-of-state rich people—care more about the education of middle and working class children than their own parents and the teachers who are with students 7 hours a day, 200 days a year…. and that’s why total, they’ve pumped $50 million into Tuck’s campaign.
This is such a freakin’ scam!!!
Oh, and Ed Source has more about Tuck’s backers:
————
ED SOURCE:
“Another committee, ‘Great Public Schools Los Angeles PAC’ – largely formed to support Los Angeles school board candidate Alex Johnson – gave $117,450 to the Tuck committee. The Los Angeles PAC is financed by many of the same individuals funding the Tuck committee.”
————
So, again, EXACLTLY WHO is behind “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”?
Tom Torlakson’s campaign out out this statement about exactly WHO is funding the pro-Tuck super-pac cynically mislabeled “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”, campaign and WHY they are funding it.
http://www.tomtorlakson.com/pension_school_privateers_invest_in_tuck_for_schools_chief
———————————–
PAUL HEFFNER (Torlakson’s spokesman):
“A handful of ultra-wealthy donors who support school privatization and cutting public pension systems are behind a flood of spending supporting former Wall Street Banker Marshall Tuck’s campaign for state schools superintendent, campaign disclosure records show.
“Far from ‘PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK,’ the $4.7 million collected so far comes instead from sources that support school vouchers, privatization of public pension systems, and using disruptive business tactics to overhaul public schools.
“Major funders include:
“$500,000 from Carrie Walton Penner, whose family made its fortune running anti-union, low-wage paying Wal-Mart. The Walmart 1% website reports that Penner’s biography includes serving on the board of the Alliance for School Choice – a school voucher advocacy group.
“$300,000 from John D. Arnold, a former Enron trader and funder of efforts to persuade governments to cut public employee pensions. In February, the New York Times reported that a public television station returned $3.5 million Arnold’s foundation had paid to underwrite a series examining the economic sustainability of public pensions.
“$1 million from corporate CEO Eli Broad. He drew statewide attention when it was revealed he had donated $500,000 to a group with ties to the Koch Brothers to defeat Proposition 30 and pass Proposition 32.
“Here’s how Parents Across America, a public school advocacy group, described Broad’s approach:
P.A.A.: “Broad and his foundation believe that public schools should be run like a business. One of the tenets of his philosophy is to produce system change by ‘investing in disruptive force.’ Continual reorganizations, firings of staff, and experimentation to create chaos or ‘churn’ is believed to be productive and beneficial, as it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.”
While you’re at it, check out the Facebook page for “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”:
https://www.facebook.com/parentsfortuck
There’s nothing but happy smiling children, parents, and teachers all singing the praises of Tuck… and platitudes about putting students first… blah-blah-blah…
There’s not an out-of-state billionaire, or in-state billionaire in sight.
If you’re a Californian, get out the word to
*** Vote for for Tom Torlakson!!!!***
———-for———-
*** State Superintendent of ***
***** Public Instruction *****
This is urgent.
Contact everybody you know in your various circles of influence
— co-workers and/or former co-workers
— neighbors, and/or former neighbors
— friends,
— family,
— extended family…
— people with whom you went to grade school
— people with whom you went to high school
— people with whom you went to college
— people you were/are in a club with
— groomsman/bridesmaids in your wedding party… or a wedding party of which you were a part.
The list goes on and on…
CONTACT THEM—via phone, email, text, etc.—
AND TELL THEM THAT THEY MUST…
VOTE FOR TOM TORLAKSON
for
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION…
… ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4.
If you’re out state, and you know people in California whom you an influence, do likewise and call them, and urge them to
…vote for Tom Torlakson for State Superintendent for Public Instruction.
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I got that John Legend call too…assume everyone in Ca. got it. The man has too much money and too much fame. I look at him now as I do Pitbull, the hip hop charter school owner whose schools are set up to teach hip hop…on the Florida taxpayers money. These men make more in a week that a teacher does in ten years, and what they give society and children is trash talk and false values. They have no respect for anything but cash.
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Here’s a great bit from Edushyster’s interview with Minnesota’s investigative reporter Sarah Lahm.
http://edushyster.com/?p=5929#more-5929
Lahm disclosed the fact—just prior to today’s elections—that privatizing billionaires are behind a huge dump of money to two candidates, and whose group has the innoccuous name…
“Minneapolis Progressive Education Fund”…
(Think “PARENTS AND TEACHERS FOR TUCK”.. which is anything but, and whose ranks contain no parents or teachers, but out-of-state billionaires and millionaires)
This group is dropping cash for “corporate reform” candidates out to privatize Minnesota’s public schools.
It’s exactly what happened with the Torlakson-Tuck race out here in California.
—————————————————–
SARAH LAHM:
“If you listen to the Minneapolis Progressive Education Fund, which seemed to sprout out of nowhere in order to support particular school board candidates, these well-heeled individuals are interested in *investing* in Minneapolis. The Fund, by the way, is going all out to support two candidates: Don Samuels and Iris Altamirano because of their commitment to *equity and excellence* and the *transparency of district leadership.*
“We’ll find out tomorrow if $200,000 is enough to seal the deal, and we may find out at some point if this billionaire-backed fund can survive the bit of hot water it’s gotten itself into. Seems there was a reporting discrepancy on their end…
http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/281082332.html
– – – – – – – – – – – –
STAR TRIBUNE: “Daniel Sellers, listed as chair of the Minneapolis Progressive Education Fund, admits that his group erred in not filing its campaign registration within the 14-day window required after raising or spending $100.
“Sellers said Friday that the failure to file on time was an honest mistake, and that as soon as he discovered the omission he was at the county election office with the required filing the following Monday.
“But the failure to file meant that campaign material was already appearing in mailboxes across Minneapolis from a group listed on the mailer but not on file with the county. It’s not as if the fund’s officers had no experience with campaigns and filing requirements; treasurer Seth Kirk chaired the campaign committee for the 2012 re-election campaign of board member Carla Bates.”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
SARAH LAHM: “… which means no one knew Bloomberg, Rock, and Sackler, aka The Billionaires with Big Hearts, were involved in the Minneapolis School Board race until the last possible moment. Whoops. Even Funds with lots of funds make mistakes, I guess.”
————————————
Here’s another good excerpt from Edushyster’s interview with Lahm that gives the overall picture or privatization and the public being taken unawares, or simply not wanting to know about school privatization: (CAPS on the quote from Sarah are mine, JACK)
—————–
SARAH LAHM: ” … there’s been such a tremendous lack of investigation and analysis of education in Minneapolis for so long. There are definitely some people who’ve been really upset and offended by what I’ve been writing about. Lots of assumptions and allegations have been thrown my way, which I can mostly laugh about. I was just linked to the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss, for example, because apparently we both go after people who *just want change.* ”
EDUSHYSTER: “Are there particular issues you’ve raised that people are unhappy about?”
SARAH LAHM: “I THINK PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME GRASPING THE CONCEPT THAT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE BEING PRIVATIZED. They don’t see it, they don’t want to see it, they call it a conspiracy. The notion that people who are investing money in our schools may not have completely altruistic motives, that they may actually have a business goal, that seems very offensive to some, especially people who’ve really hitched their wagons to charter schools as the solution to all of our problems.”
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Where I am quoted isn’t my prose, it is actually a reprint of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles’s (AALA) newsletter. All credit should go to them on the quoted passage. They have been wonderful in discussing this and many other issues. Dr. Judy Perez, President of AALA, is Los Angeles’ best kept public education secret.
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The race has been flooded with more than 25 million dollars, with Tuck raising approximately $3.5 million more than Torlakson at latest count. Much of the corporate reform money for Tuck is flowing through a PAC deceptively named “Parents and Teachers for Tuck for State Superintendent 2014.”
Familiar corporate-ed reform philanthropists top the list of donors, including Eli Broad ($1,375,000); Walton daughters and heirs, Alice ($450,000) and Carrie ($500,000); Julian Robertson of the Robertson Foundation ($1,000,000) and Doris Fisher of the Donald and Doris Fisher Fund ($950,000). Ex NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $250,000, as did Houston billionaire and DFER friend John Arnold and San Francisco venture capitalist and TFA Board member Arthur Rock.
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From her vantage point across the continent in Washington D.C., WASHINGTON POST columnist Valerie Strauss asks the right questions regarding Tuck and his backers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/11/04/wouldnt-spending-30-million-on-kids-be-better-than-this/
——————-
VALERIE STRAUSS:
“But why are Silicon Valley, hedge fund and real estate billionaires supplying Tuck with millions of dollars to make up the other half of the donations? Why, especially, would the fabulously wealthy who don’t live in California — including former Enron trader John Arnold, who lives in California, and Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, who lives in Arkansas, and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg — donate to Tuck? What is their agenda?
“I asked both campaigns, and here’s what Tuck’s campaign manager, Cynara Lilly, said:
” ‘One out of eight kids in public schools in America attends California public schools. There’s no denying that with California’s schools ranking 45th in the nation, (therefore) what happens here can have a huge effect on how prepared the next generation is to compete in an increasingly global economy. What’s good for kids anywhere, is good for all of us, everywhere.’
“(Her comment doesn’t note that California’s school rankings has been dropping like a stone as K-12 funding in the state has been plummeting. In Education Week’s 2013 Quality Counts survey, the state was 49th in per-pupil spending. But never mind.)
“Torlakson spokesman Paul Hefner said:
” ‘As for those supporting Tom’s opponent, they’ve made their education agenda very clear – supporting school privatization, ending pensions for public employees and treating schools like a business.’
“Tuck has won the endorsements of many newspapers in the state, including the Los Angeles Times whose editorial actually accused the teachers unions of being a ‘big-money special interest’ when they donate to a particular candidate, but made a point of saying that billionaire businessmen and women are not when they pour money into a campaign. Actors Kristen Bell, Dax Shepherd and Nathan McHale made what they consider an amusing video supporting him.
“Torlakson, on the other hand, has been endorsed by more than 100 education leaders statewide, including almost every county superintendent.
“What makes all of this in some ways unfathomable is that the California state school superintendent’s job has very little power. California’s Education Department doesn’t actually run the state’s public schools and has little involvement in policymaking. The governor-appointed state Board of Education does.
“Wouldn’t spending $30 million on kids be better than this?”
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