Alliance schools paying alumni to promote anti-UTLA message
*UPDATED
A bitter war of words between the management of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and UTLA, the union trying to organize its teachers, got nastier today.
UTLA accused Alliance management and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) of “anti-teacher activity” by paying alumni to call parents of students to sway their opinion against union efforts to draw the Alliance teachers into UTLA.
The CCSA confirmed that it is paying alumni to make calls, but claimed to be doing nothing wrong.
UTLA released what it said were “leaked” emails from a CCSA employee, Annie Lee, that included the script the alumni were to follow when they called the parents.
“This is sowing the seeds of distrust among parents and students,” Michael Letton, an Alliance teacher, said in a statement issued by UTLA. “This is an unethical practice. Paying alumni to read a script designed to get parents to sign a petition against their own students’ teachers infuriates me.”
Elana Goldbaum, a teacher at Alliance’s Gertz-Ressler Richard Merkin 6-12 Complex who has been active in the union drive, said, “I don’t want parents to get misinformation. This is 100 percent a campaign to create fear among parents. It’s inappropriate.”
Alliance College-Ready Pubic School operates 26 charter within LA Unified, many of them high performing, and its teachers currently work independently without union representation. A group of teachers at Alliance has been working recently to organize Alliance’s 600-plus teachers to join UTLA.
In a statement, CCSA confirmed it had hired “less than 10″ alumni over the age of 18 to “share information with the Alliance community about UTLA’s well documented opposition to charter public schools.” CCSA also said it had nothing to hide and Alliance schools paying alumni to promote anti-UTLA message - LA School Report:
