Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times reports on the vile tactics that the charter lobby is using in hopes of defeating school board incumbent Bennett Kayseri in the approaching election.
The issue of the moment is the unbridled proliferation of charter schools in LA. Kayser has been a charter critic. The California Charter School Association would like to defeat Kayser and replace him with a friend of charters.
CCSA and allies have been handing out a flyer smearing Kayser as an anti-Latino bigot.
Lopez writes:
“The flier essentially calls him a bigot.
“BENNETT KAYSER TRIED TO STOP LATINO CHILDREN FROM ATTENDING SCHOOLS IN WHITE NEIGHBORHOODS.”
“That’s the screaming headline on a vile, two-page missive in Spanish and English, and the flier includes a lovely photograph of five Latino children sitting forlornly on a curb, as if their world has been crushed by the cruel Caucasian board member.
“Kayser condemned the ad, calling it garbage.
“Character assassination and bullying have no place in our school district; these people should be ashamed of themselves,” he said in a statement his staff sent me Thursday evening.”
The charter supporters play rough. And dirty.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
California Charter School Association will stop at nothing, including both lying and forging others names to their hate flyers, to impose for their own profit, charter schools.
The new leader, Madam Young, of the LA Gulen Schools was their leader for some years. These folks have NO scruples and should be indicted for defamation and libel. They used the name of current BoE member George McKenna without his authorization to promulgate their lies, and he immediately disassociated himself from them…as all others should be doing.
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I’m surprised because they have some of the top charter school promoters in the country speaking at their next event:
Amanda Ripley, Joel Klein and Juan Williams.
Those are some heavy hitters in The Movement.
Have any of these celebrity ed reformers ever spoken at a conference promoting public schools?
http://www.charterconference.org/2015/
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No, but maybe Matt Danon has
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Let he among us in the blogosphere who has not used a headline that “essentially calls” someone a racist cast the first stone.
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FLERP, hope you are feeling better.
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I will continue to wonder why people don’t realize that board members represent the whole LAUSD district. They also represent all students. No board member should be a champion of any policy that creates inequity. LAUSD has the largest number of charters, and the general fund is more and more depleted as a result. Non-charters still serve the vast majority of students and their needs should never be eclipsed for the sake of the charters.
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No surprise here. The goals of corporate Charters is money and most corporations don’t care how the get it as long as they do. This is the dirty war of doing bushiness in the private sector. If you are a victim of this, then it helps when you have deep pockets and a load of lawyers on your side. Corporations count on their victims being without deep pockets, and then they roll right over them.
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This story comes as no surprise. It is also worth noting that a Seattle legislator is sponsoring a bill to appoint 2 members of Seattle’s 7 member board- or approximately 30%.
The very capable and highly respected Sue Peters ran for Seattle Public School Board, and the corporate backers of her opponent had a PAC. The PAC was used to distort Peter’s views. In the end, the voters elected Sue Peters.
Seattle has an active community and has worked hard to support grassroots candidates and have succeeded. Now, State Representative Eric Pettigrew introduces a bill to appoint school board members…to “try something different”.
http://www.kplu.org/post/lawmakers-discuss-giving-seattle-mayor-power-appoint-school-board-members
Pettigrew’s Bill HB 1497 was heard in committee and Democrats for Education Reform showed-up to testify in favor of this bill. No surprise.
It is worth noting that Eric Pettigrew had sponsored charter legislation in Washington, and he is supported by Stand for Children and alike.
The “reformers” want an appointed school board because it is difficult to find school board candidates. Yet, last year, Sue Peters faced stiff competition from a business developer and a former mayor.
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Utah has a bill to appoint the ENTIRE state school board. http://le.utah.gov/~2015/bills/static/SJR005.html
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It is worth noting that an independent group called Great Seattle Schools stepped into the race to oppose Peters:
http://seattletimes.com/html/education/2021552411_elexseattlepublicschoolsxml.html
When the “reformers” learned that a quarter of a million dollars, and Seattle’s political and elite class couldn’t control an election outcome–they stepped up the stakes and Pettigrew sponsored a bill to appoint 30% of the school board.
I am not confident Pettigrew’s bill will make it to the floor for a vote, but it is highly possible that Bill Gates will provide funding to hire signature collectors and get this measure on the ballot.
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