CommentsEASTSIDER-So why would a happily retired 74-year old politician named Jackie Goldberg be running for the LAUSD School Board? As it turns out, for very good reasons.
For all the talk, this election is all about the Charter School Industry, not Charter Schools per se. It’s because their bought and paid for President of the LAUSD Board, Ref Rodriguez, was not equipped for the job, just bought it to give them a 3-2 majority, and ultimately turned out to be an indicted crook who pled out to felonies and left the 2-2 Board in chaos. And a Special Election.
No, I’m not making this up. It’s a major reason for the recent UTLA strike against the LAUSD, and the result of this election could either bring us some solutions to the problem, or simply another bought and paid for 3-2 Board that the Charter School industry can use to gut our public education system without any rules, regulations, or controls over Charter Schools at all. Full stop.
Why Run at All?
Goldberg’s analysis of the race shows why she should run. Other than her, not a single candidate in the race has any name recognition with the voters of over 7%. That’s right, seven percent.
Absent some game changer, this election will be won by a candidate financially supported by the Charter School Industry and their billionaire boys club backers.
With 10 candidates, most of whom are amazingly qualified, their problem is that they are unknown. But the sheer number of candidates falls right into the Charter Industry playbook. Let them all beat each other up in the primary, and in the runoff pile in the millions of dollars (yes, millions) to back their choice, and violà, a 3-2 Board majority.
Having held almost every political office in Los Angeles over the years (successfully), Jackie has very high name recognition, and in a quick special election to fill out the expired term of Ref Rodriguez, that counts for a lot.
Jackie Goldberg’s Pledge
When asked, Goldberg explains that she is not opposed to all Charter Schools. For one thing it’s the law in California, and for another, she’s not about to tell a LAUSD parent that they should shun the charter school in their area with 20 students per class and good lab facilities in favor of the local public school with 40 students/class and no lab or library. The real answer is to establish reasonable rules and regulations governing Charter Schools in the LAUSD. We have none now, and that’s a crime, legal or not.
What she wants to do, aside from demolishing the platitudinous BS that comes out of the Charter School Industry’s owners, is to take this field of really good candidates, and set the stage for them to compete in the next full election for District 5.
Austin Buetner, the Hedgies, and the Board
Austin Buetner knows virtually nothing about California public education. He’s a hedge fund guy (Blackstone, Evercore Partners) who moved into politics with a made-up Deputy Mayor job for Antonio Villaraigosa, then went on to run the LA Times (after he and Eli Broad tried to buy it), got fired within a year, and god help us, obtained the LAUSD Superintendent position in a potentially illegal hire.
While under indictment, Ref Rodriguez stayed on at the behest of his Charter School owners and cast the deciding vote in a secret closed session meeting of the Board (which violated the Brown Act) where they appointed Beutner. This was before Ref went off to cop a plea for his felonies and resigned. Proof that truth is stranger than fiction. You can read all about it here.
Anyhow, in a really good article by The Washington Post, we discovered way back in 2014 Why Hedge Funds Love charter schools.
This quote tells it all: “Tax benefits and real estate investment may also explain why Wall Street is so hot on raising money for charter schools.”
And just in case you don’t think that the Charter school industry owns Mr. Beutner, check out this LA Times article with the title, Under Pressure, LAUSD releases confidential contracts for reform consultants.
Just the next day, the Times ran another piece, this one revealing that, “The Times in November obtained information that Beutner was considering a plan to divide the school system into about 32 networks of schools that would have substantial independence but that also would be held accountable for improving student achievement.
By the way, here’s a shout out to the LA Times own Howard Blume, who has done an amazing job in covering the Education beat for them and deserves full credit.
All these facts are important. This is about our children, and you don’t get to go back and retroactively fix their education. This is not about profit and loss statements for billionaires and their private school corporations.
The Takeaway
The reason I’m making an urgent plea for voters in LAUSD District 5 to vote, and vote for Jackie Goldberg is twofold.
First, this is a huge District, almost the size of a County Board of Supervisors District. You can check out the map here.
It covers not only LA City; it extends from Los Feliz to cities like Huntington Park, Cudahy, and Southgate, as well as including my own Northeast LA and East LA.
No matter who you are, that’s a lot of cities, areas, and jurisdictions to try and keep track of, and there are obvious competing interests at stake. Jackie knows this map.
The second reason I think Jackie is the ticket has to do with the fact that this election is only for the balance of the current term -- now through December 2020. So, it is a partial term. And being a Special Election, there is going to be very little time for the successful candidate to get a handle on the badly split Board politics and severe budget problems. As well as trying to heal the District after a shocking strike which was arguably exacerbated by a clueless Superintendent.
Add all these factors together, and I hear the “insider take” is that the voter turnout will be somewhere in the 10-15% range. Whatever the final count, every vote is disproportionally important in a low vote election, and I hope that Jackie Goldberg can help galvanize a higher turnout as a politician with a good name.
There is only one candidate who has name recognition, is a proven fighter for parents and taxpayers alike. She will not need too long to get up to speed; nor will she need a flak jacket to successfully steer the LAUSD between now and December 2020.
Also, it doesn’t hurt that she knows more about the LAUSD Budget than the Superintendent and has credibility with State officials.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
