Once again, control of the Los Angeles Unified School Distict school board is up for grabs, and once again the billionaires hope to buy control so they can expand the number of charter schools. The latest financial disclosures show that Reed Hastings of Netflix has contributed $925,000 to try to defeat veteran educator Scott Schmerelson. Billionaire Jim Walton of the Walmart family added another $300,000. The charter lobby is flush with money to buy TV ads and flyers that smear Schmerelson and use vicious anti-Semitic tropes in their attack ads. The charter lobby is angry at Schmerelson for two reasons: 1. He fights fearlessly for the 80% of students in public schools. 2. He released the explosive fact that 80% of Los Angeles’ charter schools have vacancies, not waiting lists. His opponent Marilyn Koziatek has no experience in the public schools; she holds an administrative job in a charter school.
Download the .pdf here.
Note: Sara Roos of Los Angeles (blogger Red Queen in LA) prepared the graph of political expenditures based on public records.
And let us not forget how these billionaires helped finance Dump’s 2016 seizure of The White House.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html “The Families Funding The 2016 Presidential Election”
This is what happens when the charter candidate has a less than stellar resume. Yes, she has never stepped inside a classroom. Her title at Granada Hills Charter has “changed” over time. She has been identified as an event planner, community outreach and parent empowerment to name a few. Now she is identifying herself as a either a “school site professional” or an “education professional”. What does that mean? What degree does she have that qualifies her as a “professional”?
In fact, a recent mailer, sponsored by CCSA Advocates(California Charter School Association), describes her employer as Granada Hills High School. It surely was no accident that they left out the word “CHARTER”?
yes: manipulating as always
While the rest of us are focused on keeping students safe and making the best of a terrible pandemic-enhanced inequity and underfunding to enable students to learn, the deformers are laser-focused on their priorities: expand profit opportunities in the public sector; undermine the power and influence of unions; remove all regulations that inhibit their out-for-yourselism ethos.
“He released the explosive fact that 80% of Los Angeles’ charter schools have vacancies, not waiting lists.”
The waiting list claims are always hinky. I once read a summary of Chicago charters that started with the charter waiting lists and WAY DOWN at the end of the article mentioned that there were more students on waiting lists for certain public schools than there were for charters.
Ask for both numbers. They are omitting half the story.
Billionaires put their thumb on the scale of democracy, particularly now that money is considered “free speech.” When regular people see billionaires pushing an agenda, it is a good idea to question their motives. Why is the Netflix guy so interested in donating to a particular public school candidate? Motives are important, and they should be questioned. Generally, billionaires have different priorities from the rest of us.
Diane has featured Hastings and his goal to destroy public education in her blogs. His claim to fame is his desire to eliminate democratically elected school boards. I don’t think the Los Angeles community is ready to hand over public education to billionaires who are hell bent on destroying our most important pillar of democracy. Hastings obviously believes that Koziatek espouses those same values. Why else would he and the Walmart family be dumping tons of cash to get her elected?
She included the following article which spells out all the horrors of his agenda:
https://capitalandmain.com/reed-hastings-the-disrupter-1101
Yes, and Hastings is DIRECTLY and financially linked to the bastard Obama$ . . . .
$oo-Prise, $oo-Prise.
Only $925,000?
What a cheapskate.
You really understand why ed reformers don’t do anything for public schools or public school students when you realize their goal is to replace schools with contract service providers:
“It’s understandable to want to rewind the clock. But attempting to re-create the pre-COVID school system may not be possible. And it would miss a 100-year opportunity to foster a new ecosystem of diverse providers, services and spaces for learning eager to work with districts to support students and families.”
Oh, it’ll be super. You’ll take your low value voucher and purchase services from a whole array of providers because who needs an actual community? We’re all just consumers, buying stuff.
https://www.the74million.org/article/hodas-like-the-dinosaurs-public-education-as-we-know-it-is-facing-a-meteor-moment-we-must-adapt-to-a-new-model-beyond-what-we-know-as-school/
Incidentally? This ed reform plan the whole echo chamber will be lockstep lining up behind? It’s exactly the same as Betsy DeVos’ plan:
https://www.the74million.org/article/hodas-like-the-dinosaurs-public-education-as-we-know-it-is-facing-a-meteor-moment-we-must-adapt-to-a-new-model-beyond-what-we-know-as-school/
Not a dimes worth of difference between far Right politicians and the mainstream of ed reform. Same plan. 100% privatized contract service providers. That’s what they have in store for us. And for the 50 million kids currently attending public schools? Nothing. They offer nothing.
You have been documenting these donations in districts large, small, and in between for years. Yet conservatives and libertarians still tout the line that their favored candidates can’t compete against the dollars of the teachers unions. Lies lies lies.
Thank you for fighting for the truth.
I’ve been the recipient of many of those glossy flyers from the charter people, and it is infuriating how they are filled with lies and ridiculous assertions. All Scott Schmerelson has going for him is the small donations from his supporters, a small army of determined supporters, and a great record of trying to do right by the teachers and children of LAUSD. I sure hope it is enough. If anyone can, send him your support.