Blogger Red Queen in LA has created a graphic to depict the spending in the Los Angeles school board race between Steve Zimmer and Nick Melvoin. A shocking amount of Melvoin’s money has been spent on negative campaigning, ads that smear Zimmer and make false claims. This is an indication of character.
It’s Mother’s Day, and I’m reminded that my mother always told me that the one thing you must never lose is your good name.
Shame on those who think that winning an election for a school board seat can be done with smear tactics and mud-slinging. No good will come of it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
GREED and POWER …. REIGNS. Sickening. And our young and this country are being DUMBED DOWN.
“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ‘Tis something, nothing:
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.”
Iago (ironically) in Shakespeare’s Othello
I think about that line a lot as teachers get trashed by administrations for no reason, other than that the administrators can do it. That’s where the “reform” rubber meets the road–most administrators are “reformers” or at least buy the “reformer” line. And they destroy teachers in their quest to “reform.”
The “bad” teacher blame game is much like our country’s current pushing of immigrant fear. When citizens are asked if they worry about immigrants, many will say that they do not fear their own neighbors or those immigrants living in their local communities, but they KNOW that the “bad” guys are out there. The same holds true when teacher blame is brought into the conversation: most citizens argue that their own kids’ teachers are fine, and are even very hard-working and valuable, but they just KNOW that those many “bad” teachers are out there….
Updated at midday (Melvoin up to 76% greater spending overall, 7.3x as much that is negative campaiging.