Opinion: HOW I BEAT THE POWERBROKERS IN A SCHOOL BOARD RACE
BY BENNETT KAYSER, OP-ED IN THE LA DAILY NEWS | HTTP://BIT.LY/173VB2Q
3/28/2013 12:17:23 PM PDT :: In my 2011 school board race, I beat the big money.
My campaign coffers never topped $35,000. My opponent Luis Sanchez raised more than five times as much. Sanchez also benefited from the generous support of "independent" interests willing to spend millions to promote their agendas. He also had the backing of well-known elected officials. Sanchez had served as chief of staff for the current School Board President Monica Garcia -- who had served as chief of staff for then-board member Jose Huizar who is now a member of the Los Angeles City Council.Big money, heavy connections and big machine politics are at it again in the up-coming school board race run-off on May 21 to represent east San Fernando Valley. Monica Ratliff is a teacher, and that's almost like being Satan to many of the very rich "reformers" willing to make mega-contributions. In this contest, Antonio Sanchez has big financial backers and connections. That's no surprise because he used to work for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigrosa, who has plenty of rich friends who care passionately, or so they say, about the students of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Why is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reaching deep into his pockets to support candidates for the Los Angeles School Board? Shouldn't he focus on the New York City schools that still need major improvements? Why does Michelle Rhee, the former superintendent of the Washington D.C. public schools or the other outsiders willing to write huge checks care about our public schools? Let's call these self-proclaimed "reformers" what they really are -- reactionaries.
No matter how they pay to spin it, the b/millioniares are quite content to allow a two-tiered education system with more for the haves
