Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for the Los Angeles school board. The election will be held May 16.
““Billionaires should not make a profit off of public school children. That’s why I’m supporting Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for the Los Angeles School Board. They will fight against the Trump/DeVos agenda to destabilize and undermine public schools,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement.”
Zimmer’s opponent Nick Melvoin is supported by billionaires who hope to privatize public schools in Los Angeles.
Zimmer is committed to fighting the Trump-DeVos agenda of charters and vouchers. His opponent is not.
I recommend that citizens of Los Angeles vote for Zimmer and Padilla. They will fight for public schools and the common good.
The Network for Public Education has endorsed both Zimmer and Padilla.
Send a message to Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos! No privatization! No corporate control! No vouchers! The public schools belong to the people, not the billionaires!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Go Bernie!!!!
Thinking about what could have been …..
If only, if only ……… sigh
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Yuge news! Go Bernie.
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Nick Melvoin: Feel the Bern!
L.A. media: Feel the responsibility to report this news! I’m looking at you, KTLA and LA Times.
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LA Times this AM reports that over $7 Million has been donated to mainly Nick Melvoin, with some going to Gonez, the two charter school proponents who Broad and Co. intend to manipulate should they win the LAUSD BoE election. SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS for a school board election which only a dozen years ago cost about $15,000 for a candidate to run.
Can anyone not recognize the vast amount of profiteering anticipated by these profligate vulture investors who are willing to shell out such a huge amount for two minimal young untested candidates who they intend to OWN when their investment pays off? LAUSD will soon be forced to go into bankruptcy and billions will be made by these greed driven donors as they buy up the district for pennies….read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
And anyone who is annoyed that Senator Sanders would support Zimmer, is avoiding mentioning that our traitorous former Senator Boxer came out earlier for Melvoin (now that she is a consultant and is also seeking billionaires business with their endless cash flow).
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Wow, a US politician who actually supports our public schools! It’s a miracle. Thanks, Bernie and Dennis K.
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Thank you, Bernie, for being an authentic progressive that looks out for the working class.
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I would like to believe that Bernie and those who support him are actually truly and fully public school supporters. However, Bernie has made many comments about “good” charters in the past; has he changed his stance? Has he publicly acknowledged the public-education-money profiteering game?
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There is nothing worse than creating artificial and uninformed endorsements. It would be a huge loss for all of the children in Los Angeles if Zimmer is to take yet another term, this one 51/2 years. After 40 years in the city, 8 of them working in LAUSD, I have seen so much wasted money and such rigid compliance to anti-child politics.
This endorsement could not have come without a great deal of lobbying from uninformed groups like yours. I find this a very sad day for Los Angeles.
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Wendy Z,
Allowing uninformed billionaires to control the education of LA’s children is 1 million times worse than having informed educators in charge. Why should Eli Broad, Alice Walton (Ark), and Michael Bloomberg (NY) determine the leadership of LA public schools? You already have captured nearly 20% of the LA students for your unaccountable charter schools. Is that not enough?
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It’s a choice of bad vs. worse. Parents in LAUSD need to split up the district.
Or take drastic measures to make your point thru picketing, keeping kids home, refuse the CAASPP/SBAC tests, etc.
That’s the only way to get on the front page of the Times.
Since the time Villaraigosa wanted to take over a % of the schools it has been political havoc. When a presidential hopeful has to step into local school board politics it is really, really bad.
Zimmer is the better choice.
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Wendy,
Perhaps if a single one of Zimmer’s opponents had shown the least interest in understanding the complexities of the issues instead of allowing themselves to be tools of the same big money that owned Arne Duncan and — as a result — President Obama, that opponent might gain some traction.
As it were, you are simply giving the same old tired excuses we heard from Arne Duncan as he sought to systematically undermine public education and reward the big billionaires without demanding a whit of oversight.
It was a sad day for public education when Arne Duncan decided that the Obama administration should devote inordinate amount of money to “choice” and “privatization” because spending money to improve public schools that were educating an increasingly poor, ELL, and at-risk population wasn’t worth it anymore.
You may not like Zimmer, but at least he isn’t lying and offering the same kind of Trump/DeVos pablum and lies about how all we need to do is “raise standards” and let charter schools provide “choice” and then we can cut budgets of public schools and help more kids!
You are expecting Diane Ravitch to support the people who cannot be honest about what they are doing and what is really working. You are expecting Diane Ravitch to support the billionaires who just want results and they are determined to “see no evil” as long as their sycophants are telling them their money is producing miracles.
You are as dishonest as the other reformers. Zimmer is not perfect but he won’t allow charters to flourish without any oversight at all except for the kind of “oversight” that Eli Broad wants.
And given that Eli Broad’s foundation just announced they were recognizing Eva Moskowitz’ Success Academy Charters because they demonstrate the kind of “excellence” he wants for ALL Los Angeles schools,let’s just agree to disagree with your claim that Broad’s hand-picked candidates are not poised to do great damage. Eli Broad thinks charters that suspend up to 25% of their Kindergarten and First graders are examples of “excellence’ that he wants to reward financially.
You may prefer Eli Broad’s definition of what is “good” for at-risk children — having charters that will only teach the best of them! At least Zimmer doesn’t pretend the rest of the kids don’t exist. And saying it would be “a huge loss for children” if the billionaire who thinks Success Academy policies are signs of “excellence” doesn’t get to control public education shows that your definition of “children” — like Betsy DeVos, Eva Moskowitz, and Eli Broad — only includes the children you believe are worthy.
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Wendy…the other day I agreed with your comment and lauded you…today I am horrified at your rude and ill informed comment. Not too surprising to see that a dance major who is not required know advanced math, science, civics, foreign language, etc., has limited vision re public policy, and as a public policy person from the same university (from age 16 to recent retirement) you claim to have attended, it makes me both angry and sad to see you insult and demean the unions for donating to Zimmer and compounding your nastiness by also insulting Diane Ravitch and all the true educators who write here.
I wrote a private email at your simplistic blog where I read about your life in LA, and our mutual contacts from the 60s, but you did not have the courtesy nor interest to respond. Never mind, Wendy, replying to my note about hoots at Marcia Berman’s house over fifty years ago. You are probably also a Trump voter and want to see all unions demolished and all cash redistributed upwards.
I, like many of my academic colleagues, know Steve’s short comings, but we also recognize that an inexperienced young guy like Melvoin, who gets $4.3 million from the billionaires and the CCSA to win a local election so that he can be counted on to vote with the charter clods who are Broad puppets, Rodriguez and Garcia, so as to finish off LAUSD as a public schools district, sends up a huge RED flag of danger.
Steve Zimmer, Karin Klein, Howard Blume, Diane, et al, reiterating that not only have i personally endorsed Zimmer, but my group of retired educators, Joining Forces for Education, also endorses him. His heart and head represent our dedication to PUBLIC schools, not PRIVATE schools which call themselves public so as to rape the public purse of We the People, the taxpayers.
Get off your high horse. Wendy, and see the comments from REAL LAUSD teachers who are exemplars of what a public school teacher should be, Geronimo and Left Coast Teacher, who are both friends whom I admire and respect. And go to all the comments from Jack, some on the site today, who also is an LAUSD teacher who follows all this carefully and reports honestly to the benefit of readers who do not want your ‘fake’ news determination. Since you only recently showed up on the blog, I assume you are just one more Broad troll wannabe.
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Addendum…purchasing your degrees from the failed ersatz University of Phoenix does not make them valid nor does it make you qualified to make such distorted and biased pro charter school and anti public school/anti real trained teachers/anti union/ and anti Zimmer, statements. But then, upon research, we see that you and your husband are long time charter school proponents and earn your living therein. Also, you, in past few months, have designated yourself an “educational consultant” but show crafted but unidentified statements of support on your site…seems like phony puffery to most real educators.
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Sorry to sound like a broken record.
The Democratic Party is split big time over Education.
The Party needs to have the debate. It needs to be open, public and vociferous. It can no longer be swept aside as a mere distraction or side show.
Education Ideology is paramount to understanding who the party is and what it truly believes.
It is obvious that the Democrats who support Neo-liberal ECONOMIC policy (this includes, sadly, President Obama) also support the EDUCATION policy of the country (embraced by ALL Republicans).
This is the easiest and most obvious connection to make.
It is not about basic liberal social agendas on abortion, women’s and gay rights or,the disdain of Trump’s world view. The corporate Democrats still have their finger on the scale that favors a white (suburban and urban) power structure that favors THEIR OWN CHILDREN while maintaining their “support” of public schools.
That is the debate.
The Charter Industry is backed by Republicans and big money Democrats. In California where the Republican party is not a factor, it is Wealthy Democrats vs. Populist Democrats. This is the intra-party debate that will fuel every municipal Democratic race and state wide race.
The Corporate Democrats rely on liberally white voters to vote their own interest in terms of Education and Economics (which, again, often coincides with GOP interests).
The wealthy corporate Democrats in California have tremendous backings from the state’s billionaires who have made their fortunes through the fruits of Republican capitalism that they are in no hurry to undo.
Trace the moneyed lineage all the way from Capitol Hill and the White House all the way to the nation’s school board races.
Steve Zimmer is a flawed candidate. He is certainly not “Progressive” in education policy and pedagogy the way I would want my representatives to be. Sorry if that upsets people, but just look at his record. My Progressive candidate would have voted differently on many past issues that confronted LAUSD.
This is not to say that Zimmer should not be supported to beat the corporate forces that line up against him. I understand the world isn’t perfect and I would bring back Obama in a heartbeat to run the country despite his abysmal education record.
Bernie Sanders endorsement is an important milestone in this campaign. His imprimatur speaks to how national this school board race has become–and how Progressives need to hang tough in fighting for their Education/Economic beliefs that are truly egalitarian, benefiting ALL our children.
Should Steve Zimmer prevail in this race, I hope he appreciates the faith that other Progressives have placed in him in by rallying to his side. My hope is that he will embrace the tenets of education Progressivism and then implement those ideals within LAUSD.
Beyond Steve Zimmer, let’s have this debate within the Democratic Party. Let Eli Broad come forth from his Xanadu fortress and brag about his Progressive credentials and why he is the vanguard of contemporary Civil Rights in America.
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YES…
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Go Bernie! Go public schools! Go Los Angeles!
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To Wendy Zacuto:
SHAME ON YOU, Wendy Zacuto!
Thank you Ellen for the clear message about Wendy.
I am sorry that YOU MISLEAD readers in your expression: “… After 40 years in the city, 8 of them working in LAUSD, I have seen so much wasted money and such rigid compliance to anti-child politics.”
Because of people like you, today, 24 millions Americans are facing the loss of their healthcare insurance coverage.
I hope that you MUST INDICATE transparently your support cause IF YOU TRY TO MISLEAD readers by FABRICATE STORY and ANTI-our beloved host of this forum, Dr. Ravitch.
You, your spouse and your friends support PRIVATIZATION for your own selfish GAIN at the EXPENSE of American common good, like PUBLIC EDUCATION. Back2basic.
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