EDUCATION POLITICS-We’ve endured another nail-biter of a weekend suffused with an oxymoronic army of paid “volunteers” deployed to Get Out their paymaster’s Vote and in the process consume mountains of cash toward the mortification of our democratic process.
What, you say – you didn’t know there was an election, even? Well then you must not be living in LAUSD’s first district, the one left bereft of representation last winter when its octogenarian stalwart, Marguerite LaMotte, discourteously died at a conference in San Diego [her passing is a deep sorrow to Angelenos].
Because political fliers of fabricated filth have been flying through mail slots there like Harry’s invitations materializing at Hut-on-the-Rock. You would have to be off the mail-grid to be unaware of this election … or not a resident of LAUSD1.
The void left by Ms LaMotte’s passing has attracted a furor of political attendants from far, far beyond the boundaries of this Angeleno megalopolis. Like the preceding schoolboard races of Bennett Kayser, Steve Zimmer and Mónica Ratliff, this race marks a steady escalation in the intensity of carpetbagger’s focus. What we have here is not just a local schoolboard election of parochial impact. In our very own LAUSD district #1 we are the incumbent hosts of a saltating national battle to privatize public funds.
Note well that these public education funds amount to a veritable treasure trove; the education sector is estimated to be one tenth of USA’s GDP. That is second only to the healthcare industry, and we all know well the muscle of that industrial complex.
Note in passing the largely unrealized, underestimated one-billion dollar ipad purchase of suspicious provenance and at least as questionable utility. It is hardly a secret that those who benefit most from these purchases and decisions, have a broad and deep agenda that addresses children’s essentially only insofar as it augments their own mendacious one.
So who is this cabal of predators intent on denying our children books and teachers in the name of “civil rights”? Who is drawn to our little clutch of LAUSD1 kids? Have a look at the roster of financial boosters ginning up the pecuniary playing field.
This list of “Independent Expenditures”, or “IE”s is a roster of groups maintained by the Los Angeles Ethics commission, and it is a work in progress with no requirement to report all activity until long after this election is history.
The finances, agenda and supporters of these groups are not only incomplete, but are technically not part of any campaign, so in practice this setup provides plausible deniability to any entity they might support.
Any tricks, dirty or otherwise, are divorced from their candidate’s oversight … and responsibility. And Alex Johnson is denying culpability for any of their mailers, roving bands of paid staff (the search for and salaries of whom have recently been removed from the campaign’s website) or community-dividing, truth-twisting antics.
But you can view your very own pdf of many of those mailers through that list on the Ethic Commission’s website yourself; you don’t have to reside in LAUSD1. As of Friday, Alex Johnson had amassed $769K worth of “Independent Expenditures” to George McKenna’s $114K.
For good measure there is a special $25K IE fund just for the purpose of opposing Dr McKenna; there is no such uncivil counterpart from McKenna’s supporters.
The financial imbalance between campaigns is nearly an order-of-magnitude, accounting for the unregulated flurry of scurrilous claims that appall even Johnson’s highest-profile endorsers.
Follow this money yourself. The 6 IEs are as follows; let google be your friend:
- Mark Ridley-Thomas’ pet “African American Voter Registration, Education & Participation Project”: $410K.
- CA Charter Schools Association: $169K.
- Eva Moskowitz of NYC’s “Great Public Schools” PAC: $46K.
- CA Charter Association’s “CA Black PAC”: $37K.
- SEIUW PAC for Alex Johnson: $22K.
- “Saving Local Jobs”: $3K.
Ask yourself why, for example, does it appear that Eva Moskowitz is spending forty six thousand dollars on a school board race in Los Angeles? Or who is behind the “Great Public Schools PAC”? Follow the money yourself and decide whose private agenda you want representing your interests.
The bottom line is that this influx of cash is anti-democratic and corrupting. Dr George McKenna is an honorable, courtly educator with a real CV of educational accomplishments. While his politics in relation to the current LAUSD board is yet to be tested in real life, his passion and experience and competence as a professional educator is incontrovertible; his life-long dedication in service of Children unassailable. See for yourself the primary evidence of the defamatory mailings via the Ethics Commission’s catalog.
Such deceit never really could have managed to sway your vote against the exemplary Dr. McKenna, but the mailings are intended simply to instill sufficient confusion and doubt as to keep you from the voting polls. Don’t Fall For It!!!!
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Don’t repeat last June’s scandalous election turnout of just 13%. It only takes a handful of lock-step charter school conscripts in matching tshirts to turn out and turn this election.
Don’t let a slovenly turnout decide this election in the favor of interests that are not our children’s.
Let Dr. George McKenna do his lifelong work, fighting for the real civil rights of real children: overseeing their proper education.
And let we the people do OUR work by turning out to vote our voice.
VOTE TUESDAY!
(Sara Roos is a politically active resident of Mar Vista, a biostatistician, the parent of two teenaged LAUSD students and a CityWatch contributor, who blogs at redqueeninla.com)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 65
Pub: Aug 12, 2014
