Thomas Ultican, retired teacher of physics and advanced mathematics, has been researching the tentacles of the Destroy Public Education movement in various cities.
In this post, he reviews the plutocrats’ lavish spending in California. It’s tapered of since 2018, he writes, but it’s still enough to outspend and overwhelm citizens who want to have a role in choosing their local school board.
The biggest battle in the state this year is the competition to control the board of the Los Angeles Unified School district. Ultican gives a succinct overview of the candidates, then examines the spending of the plutocrats.
The issue in L.A., again, is whether the plutocrats will win control so they can expand the charter sector or whether advocates of public education will overcome the money spent by the plutocrats and limit privatization.
Using money as “free speech,” plutocrats are buying our democracy one community at a time. When faced with so much money and power, the only thing a community can do is organize a large noisy protest that gets the attention of the media. Otherwise, the wealthy will swallow the public schools, even the higher performing ones. It is sick society that allows the wealthy to pick out democratic public schools to consume as though they are shopping on Rodeo Drive . Tony Thurmond was supposed to be a game changer. He has the title of Superintendent of Public Instruction, but apparently, he has very little real power.
I have heard some very positive things from teachers about the things Tony Thurmond is doing. He has been a bit of a game changer but he cannot stop billionaires from using their money to a attack public education.
money sits so heavily on resistance
In the Los Angeles races, the “plutocrats” have provided funding for the most ugly, disgusting mailers that are rife with outright lies in order to smear opponents. They did this in their successful attempt to unseat incumbent Bennett Kayser. He was replaced by Ref Rodriguez, who committed felonies in his attempt to win the seat. Steve Zimmer, another respected educator and board member, also lost his seat to Nick Melvoin, who was supported by a new group called “Speak Up”, an organization started by moms in his district who wanted their favored charter schools protected.
In the Board District 3 primary, the mailers went to new heights and were even described as patently anti-semitic. Last week, voters started to receive mailers in advance of the Nov. 3 runoff. Incumbent, Scott Schmerelson, is again the subject of the same kinds of attacks by the funders of his opponent, charter school classified employee, Marilyn Koziatek. Here is a short video based on her attempt during the primary to distance herself from those mailers. Please note that she cleverly avoided calling out the funders of the mailers, nor did she request that they stop this lowest form of campaign tactics.
In Oakland, four seats are up for election. Michael Bloomberg predictably has entered the Oakland school board races by larding it up with $200K toward pro-charter candidates. More to follow, I’m sure…
Where did you find this information? I cannot find any record of Michael Bloomberg donating yet this year in California. I have seen his daughter Emma gave one donation in LA but not any from the Father.
Will plutocrats buy control of our schools? They will not. They are OUR schools. Will the pandemic make it impossible to have our democratic voices heard this election season, and allow big money to drown us out? It will not. We are PARENT and TEACHER strong. We will control our schools by electing Scott Schmerelson and Paty Castellanos to the LAUSD Board. We will approve Prop 15 and tax wealthy corporate property at fair, market value. We will control our destiny. We campaign. We fight. We vote. We win.
I wish more teachers had your fight and fire. Too many teachers are like lambs being led to the slaughter. Sometimes, teachers and parents have to stand up for what they believe, even if it involves some personal risk. The only way to fight against “big money” is through unity and numbers.
Every teacher has my fight and fire, every one. Many — some teachers are not like lambs being led to slaughter, but like lions being led to slaughter. It’s not right. It’s not that some teachers are lambs; it’s that they have the lamb’s wool over their eyes. The media are corporations and billionaires providing the wool. A pride of lions is powerful when they can see.
Related, I just want to say how glad I am about, with great sarcasm, with immeasurable sarcasm how thrilled I am about Corporate-Superintendent Austin Beutner’s Grab N Go program. He’s taking a huge chunk of money intended for public school students and giving it away to whomever shows up. Eli Broad, you want a salad? Grab from public schools and run. Awesome. It’s so great that he’s able to help bankrupt L.A. public schools paying for something the city, state, and federal governments are responsible for.