The Network for Public Education has endorsed Bennett Kayser for re-election to the Los Angeles school board. Kayser is a retired educator. He is a strong supporter of public education. He has fought for reduced class sizes. He opposes efforts to deny due process to teachers. He opposes privatization of public education.
He is enemy number one to the California Charter Schools Association Advocates, the political action arm of the wealthy charter industry.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the charter lobby has far outspent Kayser in its effort to defeat him with a pro-charter candidate.
The charter association has distributed malicious flyers falsely implying that Kayser is a racist and anti-Latino. The flyers feature a picture of Governor Jerry Brown, falsely implying that the popular governor endorsed their candidate (he did not). Their TV ads have ridiculed Kayser’s disability (he has Parkinson’s). The anti-Kayser campaign has been scurrilous and shameful.
The LA Times says:
“Through Wednesday’s campaign filings, the charter group had spent $699,688 to support [its candidate] Rodriguez. UTLA had spent $384,109 for Kayser. Those totals far surpass donations directly to the candidates as well as the spending totals for the other contested board races.
“Since September, the donors to the charter PAC include Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings ($1.5 million), former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ($450,000), Jim Walton of the Wal-Mart founding family ($250,000) and local philanthropist Eli Broad ($155,000). All are longtime charter school backers with a broad interest in education.”
These billionaires have a specific interest in education: they want to replace public schools with charter schools, and in the case of Walton, with vouchers. They also believe in disruption as a strategy for change. Disruption is not good for children or education.
Billionaire Reed Hastings told the charter association that he looks forward to the day when local school boards are gone and almost all schools are charters.
Bennett Kayser wants to improve the public schools, not replace or destroy them. Every high-performing nation in the world has a public school system, not a system of privately managed schools.
That is why the Network for Public Education endorses Bennett Kayser for re-election to the Los Angeles school board.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Their TV ads have ridiculed Kayser’s disability”
Seems a bit unfair to state this as if it were a fact, when the previous thread fairly well established that the ad was 100% an homage to a well-known movie, and that any connection to a disability was entirely in certain viewers’ imagination.
LikeLike
WT: let me repeat it. Their TV ads ridiculed Kayser’s disability. Believe what you want: there was no other reason to run a film clip of a shaky hand dropping and breaking a cup; its not-subtle message was a reminder of Kayser’s disability.
LikeLike
Karen Wolfe: yes!
In spite of the not-so-subtle message [stay away! stay away! nothing to see here!] conveyed by being “monitored” by the US Dept. of Ed., that “shrill” and “strident” Ravitch woman who is a [this courtesy of those wacky folks at the Fordham Institute] “kook”—
Apparently almost 18 million views in two years is keeping some folks up at night.
Comforting the afflicted. Afflicting the comfortable. “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discussion better education for all.”
Puts me in mind of something…
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” [Mark Twain]
Color me, and many others, gratified and astonished.
😎
P.S. The thread in question established beyond a “reasonable” [key modifier] doubt that an inside movie buff joke would escape the purview of the vast majority of those viewing the ad and instead paint a very vicious portrait of Mr. Kayser. And as one commenter put it, even if someone got the ‘movie jab joke’ then it makes Mr. Kayser look like a brilliant and murderous sociopath.
LikeLike
Beside being a sociopathic mastermind, isn’t the movie character Keyser Soze also _faking being disabled_ to appear pitiful and harmless?
LikeLike
He is faking a disability (cerebral palsy). However, it is a different character who drops the mug.
It would be tough to argue at the same time that the overall reference is too obscure for most people to recognize (a contention I disagree with) but that people would also link Keyser Soze’s fake disability with Bennett Kayser’s real condition.
LikeLike
We have entered a new phase in Corporate Ed Privatization when every post on this blog about Bennett Kayser contains comments defending the slimy tactics being used to destroy him and take back the Los Angeles school board from the people. I guess putting the moneyed interests on the defensive can be seen as progress.
LikeLike
Karen Wolfe, the posts on this blog condemn the slimy tactics used to smear Bennett Kayser. Comments vary, including some who are paid to endorse slimy tactics.
LikeLike
Yes, I’m just saying it’s interesting to see how ready the moneyed interests have been this time around to respond to your posts calling them out.
LikeLike
It’s well established that the profiteers at CCSA hired the vile John Shallman to do an ad that allowed them to mock Kayser’s disability in a way that provided them plausible (but not proximate) deniability. Given that Spacey’s character feigned a disability up until the closing moments that the CCSA’s ad depicts, only the most obtuse among us would not get what they were alluding to. Moreover, given the charter school industry’s open discrimination against Students with Disabilities (SWD), it’s somewhat sad that people try to defend their reprehensible actions (maybe that’s why you post anonymously?). Maybe you Rodriguez supporters can get him to make a statement on the following:
“SWD are disproportionately under-enrolled at charter schools” (Office of the Independent Monitor, 2009)
“low incidence disabilities enrolled at LAUSD charters are significantly under-represented” (Office of the Independent Monitor, 2009)
“…the distribution of disability types within independent Los Angeles charter schools is skewed; for students with disabilities requiring extensive special education services, the likelihood they will be enrolled in independent charter schools is one-fourth that of traditional public schools.” (Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, 2012)
“But a look at area special education programs provides insight into the types of students served by Aspire. ¶ El Dorado’s special ed program does not serve a single visual or hearing impaired student nor students with multiple disabilities, orthopedic or brain injuries, according to state reports. L.A. Unified’s program serves many of these disabilities, requiring highly-specialized, costly care.” (KPCC, 2014)
LikeLike
Thank you Diane and the Board of NPE for endorsing Bennett Kayser for reelection to the BoE of LAUSD. Kayser has mainly served the public schools and students of LAUSD very well. I agree with all the comments here by my friends and colleagues Robert Skeels and Karen Wolfe.
To all our fellow supporters of public education nationwide I suggest that you stop addressing the PR depictions of a small cult film to the actual life issues that Kayser and the students/teachers/administrators/parents/taxpayers in LA face every day in our huge battle against the Wall Street/charter school for profits that batter our State.
Fight instead against Eli Broad and the Waltons and others of their ilk who see all the rest of us only as chattel in their longing and goal to own and control everything.
These are the real enemies of democracy.
I really appreciate that Diane has this venue where we can express our views, but this long and ongoing diatribe by some few re this fairly worthless film only serves to deflect educating voters as to real and vital facts.
And for our local readers, please remember to vote for Schemelson against Tamar Galatzan. She remains the Deasy clone, and Schemelson is the only candidate with the valid education creds who can function to improve the BoE as we search for a permanent Supt. who is NOT a Broadie.
LikeLike
Thank you Diane and the Network for Public Education for endorsing hero of public education Bennett Kayser. I don’t have enough digits to count how many times Bennett Kayser and Marguerite LaMotte stood alone as a pair to fight the forces buying off the Los Angeles school board one seat, one charter, one contract at a time. We need Bennett Kayser to stay right where he is–on the board and in the community fighting for students, teachers and parents.
LikeLike
Good piece about rip-off cybercharters in CA:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/report-slams-virtual-charter#.xjOmP4xYg
Is anyone in government ever going to do anything about regulating this industry?
LikeLike
Chiara…it would seem that legislators just avert their eyes from the charter industry, mainly it seems since their lobbyists are very generous. However, I think this is the moment for the progressive activists in all our communities to find common cause with the Tea Party activists to support a joint effort for less domination of public education by government. If we see how Dems in the past two election cycles have been so detrimental to public ed, as with Obama/Duncan edicts and RttT, then what will happen even if a non Tea Party Repub is elected to the WH?
It is an amazing moment in time for political opposites to coalesce on the single issue of free universal public education. As a lifetime educator and trained mediator, I believe that this one issue could open the door to finding other commonalities that could lead to far more cooperation in DC.
LikeLike
I misspellled Schemerelson…sorry. Here is my assessment of why we in LA must vote for him on Tuesday.
It is imperative to remove Tamar Galatzan from the LAUSD BoE. She partners with Garcia and these two supported Deasy in every hugely costly and wasteful bad decision.
The LA Times endorsed Galatzan which alone is a huge black mark for her.
Scott is endorsed by various unions and associations, see below, and by Scott Folsom whom many know well, and his creds and experience are by far the best of all the candidates.
About
Scott SCHMERELSON FOR SCHOOL BOARD 2015 (his statement)
I have been a school site teacher, counselor and administrator for the past 35 years. I chose to always remain at the school site to work with students, parents and staff on a personal basis. I began my teaching career as a Spanish teacher with the School District of Philadelphia for 5 years and came to the Los Angeles Unified School District to continue as a Spanish teacher, English as a Second Language teacher, Secondary School Counselor, Assistant Principal of Secondary Counseling Services, Assistant Principal and Principal.
I began my LAUSD career with a 12 year stay at Virgil Middle School in the Mid City area as a teacher, school counselor and Assistant Principal of Secondary Counseling Services. I later became an Assistant Principal at Griffith Middle School in East Los Angeles for 5 years and then became Principal at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth for 5 years and retired as Principal of Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Middle School in South Los Angeles for 11 years.
I have been treasurer of the Middle Schools Principals’ Association and currently I am treasurer of the Cuban-American Teachers’ Association. I am a member of the Association of California School Administrators. I served a two year term as President of Region 16 and I currently am the Executive Director of Region 16. Region 16 encompasses the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.
I consider my most effective endeavor was in accepting the offer to transfer from Lawrence Middle School to Mount Vernon Middle School in order to try to prevent the school from a state take-over due to a history of poor test scores, low morale and a decaying physical plant. The school was successful in avoiding a state take-over. The test scores, the physical plant and teacher-student-parent morale continued to significantly improve.
I was also elected as Secondary Director of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. My goal was to assure all members that their rights would be protected. I believed that the strength of AALA is in all members participating in organization meetings. Our organizational meetings enabled fellow administrators from across the district to meet and share best practices. Some Local Districts do not thoroughly share operational issues at Principals’ meetings which are vital to the smooth functioning of our schools. Organizational meetings, on the other hand, present a balance of instructional and operational issues.
I consider myself to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I believe all students should receive the best education possible and that all school should have the necessary funding to make the students successful. The school is where all available funding should be directed. As employees of LAUSD we all work for the children of the District. Every employee from the Superintendent down should focus on the school site when making fiscal decisions; that is where every available dollar should be directed. As a board member, will absolutely only use bond funding for its intended purpose. The last bond issue was to repair and upgrade our schools. That was a sacred trust between the voters and the District. You may be assured that as Board member I would follow the will of the people and see that the money is used as it was intended
LikeLike