A Small Win for the Big Budget Reformists This Election

On March 5th the voters of Los Angles spoke and they said they wanted to keep Steve Zimmer despite the enormous effort from the big budget reformists (The Coalition for School Reform and co.) to oust him. Zimmer managed to win district 4 with 52% of the votes against Kate Anderson, the coalition’s main interest this election. Their other candidate, Monica Garcia of district 2, won with 56% of the votes. While they would have liked Antonio Sanchez to win in district 6 he will participate in a runoff come May 21 to determine his position on the board.  

For all the hoopla and attention surrounding this election nothing major actually changed. The gridlock against the two sides (Coalition vs. UTLA) may just have to continue over the next four years.

It is no surprise that Garcia was able to win in her district. She has been board president for two terms and is quite popular with the people. Although the UTLA has voiced dissatisfaction with Garcia their president Warren Fletcher stated, “We’vehad definite differences with Monica Garcia’s vision for LAUSD. But… we have,despite not seeing eye to eye, worked with her on several issues. We’re readyto work with her for the next four years.”

The big battle took place in district 4 where Zimmer held his ground against the Coalition. The Coalition is comprised of LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and other big names that support punitive accountability using test scores and the Charter movement such as NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee. They have deep pockets and a financial stake in the Charter movement’s success. LAUSD is the second largest district in the country and therefore an essential part of their agenda. They spent more than $4 million on their three candidates this election. They spent $1 million alone on Garcia while the runner up raised a mere $20,000. The bulk of their money went towards supporting Anderson because they wanted Zimmer gone at all costs.

The Coalition took issue with Zimmer once it became clear that they could not control him. As an independent Zimmer had openly questioned the lack of oversight of charter schools which obviously threaten the Coalition. Of the seven board members about three already had intentions to get rid of Deasy. Zimmer was a wildcard. He could possibly provide the last vote to fire Deasy when the time came which would jeopardize the bulk of the Coalition’s influence over LAUSD. Zimmer had to go. In his place they offered up Kate Anderson the former congressional staffer and corporate lawyer and mother of twins.

At the end of the day their money could not save them. In fact it may have been their money that cost them the election. Vice president of the UTLA, Gregg Solkovits, postulated that, ““People don’t like it when out-of-state billionaires decide they can interfere with races when it’s a local issue.” TheCoalition received $1 million from Mayor Bloomberg, $340,000 from the California Charter Schools Assn., $250,000 from an organization led by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee and $250,000 from a New York-based subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It’s possible that voters were upset that people with no children in the schools and no ties to the community were fighting hard to make decisions in it.

Zimmer on the other hand was a man of the people from the beginning. He started out in the grassroots and people remember that. Zimmer displayed his true desire to help the children of LAUSD. He strongly supports the arts and the pursuit of an innovate curriculum. His personal connection to the community which he serves is the main reason he was able to win his district.

During the campaign there was much mudslinging from both the coalition and the UTLA. Although Zimmer has never stated outright his desire to see Deasy go some now believe he has a reason to. Zimmer announced that he will continue to cooperate with Deasy for the benefit of the children. 

Mayor Bloomberg Brings His Agenda to LA

Last week NYC’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $1 million dollars to the Coalition for School Reform created by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. With this large donation Bloomberg hopes to see Monica Garcia reelected in district two, Kate Anderson in district 4 (pushing hard to get rid of Steve Zimmer) and Antonio Sanchez in district 6 come March 5th.

This election is a decisive battle in the war over school reform in the City of Los Angeles. On one side there is the UTLA (United Teachers Los Angeles) and on the other there are the “reformists”. UTLA strives to protect its members from Bloomberg’s recent attempt to bring his school reform tactics to LA and will support Steve Zimmer in his campaigning.  Bloomberg has called Zimmer a “flip-flopper” on reform issues which seems to be a critique of Zimmer’s, as well as the rest of the board’s, leniency on bad teachers in the union. Bloomberg believes that the current system is flawed because nothing can be done to punish ineffective tenured teachers and teachers who do perform well are not rewarded. Superintendent John Deasy has joined forces with Bloomberg and Villaraigosa to clean up the system. Garcia and Sanchez agree with the policies Deasy has tried, but failed, to implement in LA.

On the surface it appears that Bloomberg is supporting a noble cause. In many ways he is. Everyone would like to see children succeed in school. What Bloomberg fails to realize is that his reform measures have by and large been failures. Since he took office in 2002 his administration has closed over 166 schools in NYC some of which they opened themselves. They are constantly shuffling students from one school to the next disturbing any type of stability in the child’s education. His administration emphasizes specialized and charter schools. They break up large public schools and spread out the new ones. Many children have to take long drives and bus rides to get to these new schools. For the children that do not qualify to attend the new schools (English learners, special needs students and children with behavioral problems especially) their only other option is to remain in one of the large public schools which suffer from severe neglect and essentially become what Diane Ravitch calls “dumping grounds”. The situation is messy and with each closed school disdain for Bloomberg and his reform grows in NYC.

It is not entirely surprising that Bloomberg has continued to push hard for charter schools. He is a businessman and corporatizing the educational system could benefit him. By trumping up the prestige of charter schools those that can afford to pay for them will pay what they need to get their children in. Now that Villaraigosa has gotten into bed with Bloomberg he must be held accountable if there are mass school closings in LA in the upcoming years. Even though UTLA has promised to support Zimmer it seems Bloomberg has done a thorough job buying his candidates.