There is an open seat on the Los Angeles school board, because convicted felon Ref Rodriguez stepped down. He was a darling of the charter billionaires, who spent lavishly to elect him. He founded a charter chain. The leading candidate for his seat is Jackie Goldberg, a dynamic and articulate voice for public schools, where she wasa teacher, then became a board member and a state legislator.
The charter lobby has decided not to endorse in the March primary, but will probably throw their weight and dollars into a runoff to beat Jackie, if there is one.
Jackie Goldberg needs to win a majority of the votes to avoid a runoff. She is uniquely qualified. Even with her vote, the billionaires will have a majority, but only by one vote, not two. And she has a powerful voice, which would change the tenor of the board and keep Austin Beutner on the hot seat.
Recent races for the Los Angeles Board of Education have been the most expensive school board contests in the nation’s history — and charter school supporters spent millions more than anyone else. But a key charter group announced Friday it will sit out a March special election to fill an empty and potentially pivotal seat.
The political arm of the California Charter Schools Assn. is not endorsing any of the 10 candidates for the seat left vacant in July, when Ref Rodriguez resigned after pleading guilty to one felony and three misdemeanors for campaign fundraising violations.
The hopefuls are vying to represent the oddly shaped District 5, which covers some neighborhoods north of downtown L.A. as well as the cities of southeast Los Angeles County. The Board of Education, currently with six members, is split on key issues, including how to interact with privately operated charter schools, which compete with district-operated schools for students.
A spokeswoman for the charter group spoke of the many strong options for the board seat.
“There are a number of highly qualified, inspiring candidates in this race,” said Brittany Chord Parmley of CCSA Advocates. “Given the diversity, strength and depth of the field, we have decided not to endorse. … This election is an opportunity for the entire community to engage in a dialogue about what it will take to provide an outstanding public education to all Los Angeles students.”
Close observers have described this race as especially tricky for the charter group. District 5’s boundaries were carved to elect a Latino. And in the previous election, charter backers had a strong Latino candidate in Rodriguez, the co-founder of a charter-school organization.
One obvious option, charter group executive Allison Greenwood Bajracharya, is not a Latina. Nor is Heather Repenning, a city commissioner backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, another power player. Nor is Jackie Goldberg, the pick of the teachers union, which has been the second-biggest spender in board races and has called for halting the growth of charter schools.
Backing a Latino in this district has mattered to United Teachers Los Angeles in the past, but after recent elections losses, union leaders think they have a winner in Goldberg, who has alliances within the Latino community. Goldberg previously served on the school board and the L.A. City Council as well as in the state Legislature. A wildcard for UTLA is the effect of a teachers strike planned for Jan. 10, which could work for or against the union’s endorsed candidate.
The ideal candidate in this race would be a Latina, according to some consultants.
Three Latinos in the race would be hard sells for charter supporters: School counselor Graciela Ortiz is active in UTLA. Cynthia Gonzalez works as a principal at a district-run school. Activist Rocio Rivas led protests calling for Rodriguez to resign.
The other Latino candidates are: Salvador “Chamba” Sanchez, a community college instructor; David Valdez, an L.A. County arts commissioner; Nestor Enrique Valencia, a Bell City Council member; and Ana Cubas, a community college instructor and former L.A. City Council aide who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2013.
For the charter group, no one stood out.
Four of the Latino candidates banded together to urge UTLA and the charter group to endorse one or more Latinos.
“As the ‘Charter School vs. Public School’ debate rages on and political heavyweights attempt to bully their way into installing their own,” Cubas, Sanchez, Valencia and Gonzalez said in a joint statement, “this is a familiar scenario for the Latino candidates in this race. The district has long left its Latino students behind in academic achievement and access to public education.”
Other candidates, including a couple who dropped out of the race, originally endorsed the one-and-a-half-page statement, but disagreements developed among the group.
The charter group’s neutral stance may not carry over to a likely May runoff between the top two primary finishers, regardless of their ethnicity.
“It is naive to think this is a retreat or respite on their part,” said Juan Flecha, president of the union that represents school administrators. His union, which lacks big-money resources, has endorsed both Goldberg and Gonzalez.
Even in the primary, a pro-charter mega-donor could step in to fund a campaign. That could work better for charter supporters because the official charter group has the baggage of past ties to Rodriguez, said one political consultant, who requested anonymity because of connections to more than one candidate.
Another consultant, Mike Trujillo, who has worked mostly against UTLA-backed candidates, agreed: “It only takes some limited paperwork and a check to become a player in the primary.”
But it might make sense, he said, for the charter group to bide its time while teachers union president Alex Caputo-Pearl spends a lot on the teachers strike and on Goldberg in the primary.
“I suspect CCSA is gonna just get out of Alex’s way and let him spend away,” Trujillo said.
Prediction:
Jackie Goldberg will win in the first election, garnering 50+%, and there will be no run-off.
Prediction:
A charter friendly entity will fill this role:
Another consultant, Mike Trujillo, who has worked mostly against UTLA-backed candidates, agreed: “It only takes some limited paperwork and a check to become a player in the primary.”
When I read that line, it made me think individual billionaires will, as quietly as possible, support multiple candidates to force a runoff. I am weary of that, and hope our side keeps an eye out to make sure any large donations are publicized. I never trust what the CCSA reports to the LA Times.
The CCSA goal is a runoff. Then they will jump in with Dark Money.
also ditto…some of the big cash vultures will jump in…hope UTLA does not bite and spend up teachers’ dues in a false fight.
I would have to see some polling and financial numbers to decide if I thought waiting to spend on a runoff were a good idea. Jackie needs 50%. She’s running against, what, nine other candidates? Ten? It seems to me at this point possible to get fifty percent, but if one or two opponents get into or near double digits and a bunch of them get one to three percent each, runoff. What’s the best strategy? I dunno. Got to see some numbers to know. Without the numbers, I’d say go for an outright win in March because…
There’s something else gnawing at me as well. Beutner is fast tracking his portfolio plan. The portfolio plan must be stopped. The sooner Jackie wins, the harder it will be for Beutner to execute his plan. A May runoff could be too late to stop the wheels already turning. My instincts are for a full frontal campaign ASAP. Just keep following the money.
And why did the CCSA make this announcement? My guess would be they don’t want Jackie to focus the March election. So, focus on the March election. Again, though, just follow the money.
With an opponent other than Jackie … and without the stench emanating from that crook Ref Rodriguez will attach itself irreversibly to whoever that charter candidate is …
… yeah, you might be right.
However, Ref’s crimes and Jackie’s entrance into the race are total game-changers.
ditto
Watch this, to get an idea of what I mean:
Hooray Jackie…right on…where are the regulators to stop secret meetings avoiding the law, the Brown Act? Every word Jackie speaks here so well and so forcefully have been voiced by many of us over the last few years.
Sickening!
LCT at 4:41–I think you are SO right. The Walton Klan (& Kochs as well) will probably creep in, putting up some deep, dark $$$$. Stay alert, Angelenos!
The Daily News:
Thanks for the link. These are telling:
“…Gates criticizes district estimates of the costs of lower class sizes and increasing the number of nurses and librarians as “vague round numbers with little or no detail as to methodology.” By contrast, he notes, “The data presented by UTLA is considerably more detailed and creditable.”
…”
“…Gates was surprised to find that LAUSD couldn’t even answer basic questions about its own tests, such as “the number, type, time spent, loss of instructional time, and cost of every test it requires students to take.”
…”
We are now at a point where those who run the LAUSD (school-level Admins, District-level admins and appointees, Board members and the Superintendent and his staff) are mostly incompetent. In today’s LAUSD classroom-level teachers have greater levels of expertise and knowledge in what regulations need to be met and how the District operates than the buffoons who are actually running it.
It’s sick. It’s truly sick.