PAA’s 2012 Election Roundup
2012 Election roundup!
Here’s a review of how education issues fared, from our members across the country. Some good news, some not so good, in no particular order. What happened in your neck of the woods?
Disclaimer: As a not-for-profit organization, PAA does not endorse candidates; any opinions on specific races in the reports below are those of individual members only.
From Wendy Lecker of Connecticut: The big news in Connecticut is the defeat of the charter revision in Bridgeport. The mayor, Bill Finch, supported by Michelle Rhee, her husband, Kevin Johnson, Michael Bloomberg, ConnCAN, business leaders and more pushed a revision to the city charter that would eliminate an elected school board in favor of one appointed by the mayor. Just over a year ago, in July 2011, Mayor Finch, the President of the State Board of Education, ConnCAN and TFA reps engineered an illegal takeover of Bridgeport’s BOE, which was overturned by the Connecticut Supreme Court. So, Mayor Finch and his allies aimed their efforts at disenfranchising Bridgeport parents through a revision of the city charter.
Big money was poured into this campaign by Rhee, Bloomberg, ConnCAN, the Connecticut Coalition for Education Reform (a business group), companies like United Illuminating, Aquarian Water, the local hospitals, etc (PAA-er Jonathan Pelto detailed the donors and their likely election law violations at jonathanpelto.com). Ads flooded the airwaves and t-shirt-clad workers staffed the polls yesterday.
PAA-CT member and retired Judge Carmen Lopez, who was instrumental in the lawsuit challenging the illegal board takeover, worked tirelessly to educate the public about the implications of an appointed board. She wrote op-eds, and spoke at gatherings all over the city. BOE members Maria Pereira (also a PAA_CT member) and John Bagley also spoke out. Jonathan Pelto exposed the questionable campaign activities of Rhee and others.
In a surprise David vs. Goliath victory for democracy, the charter revision was defeated by a vote (unofficial) of 11,121 to 9,231.
From Dora Taylor in Seattle: It’s 50% for and 49% against charters in our state so far. There are still 600,000 mail-in ballots to count and most are from King Country, the most progressive county in the state and where Seattle is located. We are all crossing our fingers. It will take a few days to find out.
From Sharon Higgins, Oakland CA: Sadly in Oakland,