Archives for category: Los Angeles
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How Corporate Reformers Explain Big Loss in Los Angeles

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
15

While we were celebrating Steve Zimmer’s thrilling win over Kate Anderson in the Los Angeles school board race, the corporate reform crowd had to figure out how to spin this embarrassing defeat.

Here it is, fresh from Twitter: Deasey kept his school board majority! Monica Garcia was re-elected! Big money saves Deasey!

Inconvenient facts: The billionaires put together about $5 million to beat Steve Zimmer, who is a member of the school board in his first term. Steve is an independent thinker who dared to propose oversight for charters and a moratorium on new charters until the board had established some means of holding them accountable. Steve is also a TFA alum who remained as a public school teacher for 17 years. To the billionaires who own the charter movement, he had to be punished.

Monica Garcia, the board president, had about $1 million of the billionaire fund and four opponents. The man who came in second–Robert Skeels– raised about $20,000.

So now the corporate reformers are exulting that they helped Garcia beat back Skeels.

Really, they are pathetic.

Spare a little sympathy for those who just suffered a huge loss and are trying to salvage something from the wreckage.

Tears for Goliath.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Los Angeles

L.A. Upset!

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
48

According to the results posted in the Los Angeles Times, with 100% of the vote counted but not certified, Steve Zimmer won by 52-48%!

Assuming that no one discovers a precinct with thousands of uncounted votes, this is a stunning upset!

Zimmer faced the combined opposition of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire Eli Broad, billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Michelle Rhee’s teacher-bashing StudentsFirst, the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, and an assortment of Hollywood elite executives.

Millions of dollars were amassed to knock Zimmer off the school board.

Score: Zimmer beats billionaires!

Friends, there is a huge lesson here for all of us in the Los Angeles race.

We still live in a democracy. An informed public will not be bought.

Those of us who support public education are many. Those who want to privatize it are few.

Steve Zimmer’s victory is a victory for all who care about the future of our public schools and the well-being of our society. His victory is a vote against privatization of a basic public responsibility.

They can’t buy us and they can’t intimidate us.

We won!

Categories Los Angeles, Support for public schools

LA Election: Early Returns (Gasp!)

By dianeravitch
March 6, 2013 //
10

The latest bulletin from Los Angeles: Monica Garcia, with the billionaires’ bundle, easily beat four opponents who had no money, including the fearless Robert Skeels.

But–wow!–the main target of the billionaires, Steve Zimmer, was running ahead of his opponent.

What an upset that would be!

Nearly $5 million was raised by the mayor of Los Angeles and billionaire Eli Broad to knock Steve Zimmer off the school board. Mayor Michael Bloomberg added his $1 million to the anti-Zimmer fund. The maligned and vilified UTLA, which has had the nerve to defend teachers, put about $700,000 into Zimmer’s campaign.

Zimmer is no tool of the UTLA. He is independent, principled, and moderate. His only sin: he offended the powerful privatization movement. He dared to ask questions. He dared to think critically.

I will save the cheering until the results are final, or at least sure.

But I have to say that it would be incredibly exciting if Zimmer does defeat the millions of Bloomberg, Broad, Rhee, Murdoch & company.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles

Breaking News! More $$$$ into Los Angeles Race

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2013 //
7

The Los Angeles Times reports two late donations to the campaign to elect a board that supports privatization.

The California Charter Schools Association put up $300,000.

Rupert Murdoch’s News America Corporation added $250,000.

The charter association anticipates increased numbers of privately managed charters with no supervision.

The Murdoch corporation has financial involvement through its subsidiary run by Joel Klein, who previously gave $25,000.

Los Angeles already has more charters than any other city in the nation. School board member Steve Zimmer had the temerity to propose that the board develop a policy for oversight of charters before creating new ones. Zimmer enraged the charter lobby, which wants no oversight and no moratorium.

Zimmer, who started his career in Teach for America and remained in the public schools as a career teacher, is in his first term. He is known as a moderate who is independent, belonging to no bloc.

The billionaires don’t want independents on the L.A. School board. They want people who will support more charters, more onerous teacher evaluations, more high-stakes testing, more closing of public schools.

With Mayor Bloomberg’s time in office coming to an end, and the possibility that his reforms will be tossed out by the next mayor, the corporate reformers don’t want to risk losing control of Los Angeles.

Crain’s NY ran an unscientific poll asking “which of Mayor Bloomberg’s policies should the next mayor abandon first?” There were five choices. More than 60% of respondents picked “education” as the first Bloomberg policy to be eliminated by the next mayor. Quinniapiac University ran a scientific poll asking New Yorkers what they thought of mayoral control. Only 18% want to see the mayor in charge of the public schools.

So now the next battle to take over the public schools shifts to Los Angeles.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Los Angeles, Privatization

The Million-Dollar Question in Los Angeles School Race

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2013 //
5

A reader, who is obviously stunned by the all-out, multi-million dollar campaign to oust Steve Zimmer from the Los Angeles school board in tomorrow’s contest, asks this question:

“Is it over the top to say that the election of Steve Zimmer is the canary in the coal mine for American democracy? Maybe. But when you have a well qualified candidate who has many years of experience in the system and a TFA background, who is basically a moderate, and millions of dollars are going to unseat him, you have to wonder.”

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Teach for America TFA

Which Billionaires Are Trying to Buy the Los Angeles School Board?

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2013 //
4

Tomorrow, March 5, is Election Day in Los Angeles.

Voters will select the local school board.

Will billionaires (and some mere millionaires) persuade them to vote the slate they want?

Anthony Cody follows the money, since some of the donors will gain financially by electing their slate.

Mayor Villaraigosa boasts of having raised $3.7 million to keep the “reform” (aka, privatization) movement alive in Los Angeles. He must feel some urgency since Bloomberg’s third term ends this year, and NYC voters are tired of his endless school closings.

In addition, this article includes a list of the big donors to the campaign to oust Steve Zimmer and to protect Monica Garcia.

The supporters of the L.A. Campaign include not only New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who failed to reform NYC’s public schools; Joel Klein, who works for Rupert Murdoch and is selling product to the schools; Philip Anschutz, the producer of “Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back Down,” and funder of anti-gay, anti-evolution campaigns; Michelle Rhee’sStudentsFirst; Eli Broad; and assorted Hollywood moguls who no doubt are education experts and parents of children in the L.A. Public schools.

Let’s hope that the voters in Los Angeles are not swayed by big money and propaganda.

If they buy Los Angeles, which city or state will they buy next?

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Jonathan Kozol Endorses Steve Zimmer for Los Angeles School Board

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2013 //
3

From: Jonathan Kozol To: Steve Zimmer

School Board Member, L.A.U.S.D.

Subject: The Re-Election of an Enlightened Educator

Dear Mr. Zimmer,

March 3, 2013

I’ve been one of your strong admirers in the education world for a good while now. I’m writing to tell you and my many friends in Los Angeles that I think your voice is terribly important in defense of public education at a time when it is under fierce and irrational attack from those who would replace it, as much as they can, with charter schools and other private or semi-private institutions.

This issue is all the more important in light of the fact that many, if not most, charter schools are incapable or serving children with special needs — or, in order to boost their test-scores artificially, refuse to serve these children.

I’m also glad you’ve courageously resisted the political demand to judge the value of our teachers according to their students’ grades on standardized exams — a practice, as many members of the U.S. Senate have belatedly observed, simply drives beleaguered teachers to drill their students for the tests instead of giving them a rich and broad curriculum that incorporates those aspects of our culture that can never be reduced to numbers.

For these and other reasons, I thank you for your loyalty to children. I whole-heartedly support you.

Sincere Regards,

Jonathan Kozol

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Los Angeles, Teacher Evaluations

Why Are Walton Billionaires So Interested in Los Angeles Schools?

By dianeravitch
March 2, 2013 //
51

The big school board race is this week in Los Angeles, and we know that the billionaires have lined up behind their slate. We know that Eli Broad wants to own his hometown’s school board and Mayor Michael Bloomberg has tossed $1million into the race to help the same candidates that Eli wants.

What is less well known is that one of the biggest founders of school choice–AKA, privatization–is the Walton family of Arkansas. Sure, the natural connection between Arkansas and Los Angeles might escape you, as it does me. But consider this, from an article written on Huffington Post by Peter Dreier of Occidental College:

In 2006, one member of the family gave $250,000 to a statewide initiative for universal preschool education.

“In Los Angeles alone, the Walton Family Foundation has donated over $84.3 million to charter schools and organizations that support them, such as Green Dot Schools, ICEF schools, and the Los Angeles Parent Union, as well as $1 million to candidates or political action committees which support diverting tax dollars away from public schools. They believe in high-stakes testing, hate teachers unions, want to measure student and teacher success primarily by relying on one-size-fits-all standardized tests, but have an entirely different set of standards when it comes to judging charter schools.”

Furthermore, the Waltons generously support other organizations that promote privatization:

“The Waltons have long supported efforts to privatize education through the Walton Family Foundation as well as individual political donations to local candidates. Since 2005, the Waltons have given more than $1 billion to organizations and candidates who support privatization. They’ve channeled the funds to the pro-charter and pro-voucher Milton Friedman Foundation for Education Choice, Michelle Rhee’s pro-privatization and high-stakes testing organization Students First, and the pro-voucher Alliance for School Choice, where Walton family member Carrie Walton Penner sits on the board. In addition to funding these corporate-style education reform organizations, since 2000 the Waltons have also spent more than $24 million bankrolling politicians, political action committees, and ballot issues in California and elsewhere at the state and local level which undermine public education and literally shortchange students.”

You do understand what is going on, don’t you? It is the Walmart management style–deregulation, low-wage employees, cost-cutting over all–transported to education.

Categories Los Angeles, Privatization, Walton Foundation

What Mayor Bloomberg Wants More Than Anything in the Schools

By dianeravitch
March 1, 2013 //
76

Mayor Bloomberg believes that having a high-quality teacher is crucial, and most people would agree with him.

Mayor Bloomberg also thinks that class size is unimportant, and most parents and teachers would disagree with him.

In the past, he said that he would be happy if he could double the class size and double teachers’ salaries, thus guaranteeing a “great” teacher in every classroom.

But here is the unknown: Would a teacher who is “effective” with a class of 24 be equally effective with a class of 48?

On his weekly radio show, he said today:

“I got in trouble every time I say this. But I would do anything to have better quality teachers, even if it meant bigger class size, even if it meant them standing rather than sitting. That’s what really makes a difference. That human being that looks the student in the eye, adjusts the curriculum based on instinct what’s in the child’s interest.”

So, his ideal would be a classroom so crowded that the children were standing because there were not enough chairs for them. And somehow, the teacher–with 48 or 60 or 70 or 80 children in her class–would be able to look every student in the eye and adjust the curriculum based on her instinct about what was in that child’s interest.

There is a disconnect here. The mayor, who is now spending big money to spread his educational vision to Los Angeles and Louisiana, does not seem to understand that having a super-large class makes it impossible for the teacher to look each student in the eye–even when they are standing, not sitting–and know what is in the student’s best interest. What he wants to happen is more likely to happen in a classroom with 20 or fewer students, not in an overcrowded classroom.

If only he had some experienced educators who were advising him!

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Education Reform, Los Angeles

Corporate Bloc Collects $3 Million to Buy L.A. School Board

By dianeravitch
February 27, 2013 //
14

Corporate reformers are taking no chances.

They have raised more than $3 million to make sure that they control the Los Angeles school board.

The school board president Monica Garcia will have $1 million, more or less, to fight off education activist Robert Skeels, who has raised $20,000, more or less.

Inexperienced Kate Anderson, the corporate favorite, will have $1 million, more or less, to battle incumbent Steve Zimmer, an experienced teacher. Zimmer will be outspent many times over.

The money continues to pour in from out of state donors, zeal Street, equity investors, and others who think it would be fun to buy a school board of a major city.

Meanwhile, back in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has announced the closing of another 26 years. This, after 11 years of mayoral control with no dissent permitted. The closing schools are, as usual, disproportionately black, Hispanic, poor, and enrolling large numbers of students with disabilities. Too bad he can’t run for a fourth and fifth and sixth term so he can finish the job of reforming the city’s schools.

Mayor Bloomberg wants Los Angeles to follow his lead. He has contributed $1 million to the corporate campaign fund.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Los Angeles
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