Eli Broad

The Coalition for School Reform’s District 6 (East San Fernando Valley) runoff election coffers have been replenished thanks to big donations received from Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad and StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee’s education advocacy group, among others.

According to reports just filed with the LA City Ethics Commission, Broad gave the Coalition $250,000. StudentsFirst contributed another $100,000. A LA-area business consulting group called Aurora Management Partners contributed $30,000 to the Coalition, and Century City 1800 Partners gave $20,000. As LA School Report reported Monday, the Coalition had $230,000 in its war chest at the beginning of April. These new contributions push that amount to $630,000.

Previous posts: Runoff 2013: Slow Fundraising Start for District 6; Runoff: Union & LA Times Might Shift Endorsements

In terms of direct campaign fundraising, Ratliff hasn’t raised any money at all since the primary election, and Sanchez has raised just $15,000 since early March.

As for the IE committees, the latest financial reports from the LA City Ethics Commission cover a time period between mid-February and April 6:

*UTLA-PACE, the teachers union’s political arm, received $237,000 in contributions, as well as $628,000 in “miscellaneous cash increases” but only has $73,000 left for the runoff because the union spent heavily in the weeks leading up to the primary. (See report here.)

*The Coalition for School Reform received $712,000 in contributions during the same time period. But it also spent heavily on the primary, so the Coalition has $230,000 in its account to spend on the District 6 election. (See report here.)

*And the Local 99 branch of the Service Employees International Union collected $398,000 between February and April. It has $261,000 to spend on the runoff. (See report here.)

In terms of spending, outside groups including the Coalition for School Reform and the LA County Federation of Labor spent almost $1.3 million to support Sanchez in the primary, but they have spent only $66,000 on him since then.

Mayoral Rivals Talk Like Supply-Siders; Spending Roars
While the candidates are going to pains to try to differentiate themselves before the March 5 election, they found one issue to agree upon unanimously at an education forum in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday — their desire to retain John Deasy. LA Times

Mayoral Candidates Discuss Ways to Improve Schools at Education Summit
The five candidates running to succeed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa each vowed Wednesday to continue his commitment to public education, along with his strong support of LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and vision for reform. LA Daily News
See also: LA Times, Neon Tommy

Keep Questions Coming About L.A. Candidates’ Union Cash
Official records show union political action committees account for the vast majority of the more than $7.5 million spent on citywide, City Council and L.A. school board races so far in the form of unrestricted independent expenditures. Business groups can’t keep up. LA Daily News Editorial

LAUSD Write-In Candidate Jeneen Robinson Ends Campaign
Write-in candidate Jeneen Robinson has ended her campaign for the District 4 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District board and is endorsing incumbent Steve Zimmer in Tuesday’s election. LA Daily News

California Districts Make Bid for NCLB Waiver
Nine California school districts today will seek a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act that would set up a radically different school accountability system from the rest of the state and present the biggest political and legal test yet of the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to grant flexibility in exchange for promises to enact certain reforms. EdWeek

Districts Drop At-Large Elections to Comply With Voting Rights Law
Next week, Pasadena Unified voters will elect school board members by trustee areas for the first time, switching from at-large elections in which all candidates compete districtwide. EdSource

Voters Weren’t Told About Plan to Redistribute Education Money
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to use Prop. 30 tax revenues to help poorer students. It’s a laudable goal but shouldn’t come at the expense of more prosperous school districts. LA Times

School Districts Can’t Charge Parents for Basic Education
Out of necessity, cash strapped schools have for years been asking parents to cover some of the most basic classroom needs:  craft supplies, a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, an Algebra book.  But it turns out that is illegal. KPCC

California Appellate Court Dismisses School Budget Challenge
In the ongoing tussle over budget rules, a state appellate court has dismissed a challenge from school groups who said California leaders had illegally manipulated the state constitution when they wrote the 2011-12 budget. SacBee

New Survey Finds Teachers Aren’t Prepared for Upcoming Common Core Standards
Starting in 2014, students in California and 45 other states will face a whole new set of standards called the Common Core. They represent a major shift in K-12 education across the country. KPCC

An anti-Garcia UTLA mailer

The teachers union political action committee has allocated the majority of its expenditures in the East LA District 2 School Board election — almost $90,000 — to attack incumbent LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia and bolster the chances of forcing a runoff between Garcia and one of her three union-endorsed candidates.

But are the attacks accurate or, as LA Times columnist Steve Lopez recently noted about both sides’ campaign mailers, misleading?

In an interview with LA School Report, Garcia refuted most of the claims made against her and took responsibility for those that were accurate.

“I think the other side is using a strategy that is focused on not offering anything, but on just saying no to reform, to change.”

One set of mailers, which purports to support candidates Robert Skeels, Annamarie Montanez, or Abelardo Diaz, has a clear message: “Anyone but Garcia.” (View here.)

In a different mailer, the union criticizes Garcia for supporting charter schools and teacher layoffs and for voting to cut after school programs and libraries. (View mailer here and the story here.)

Garcia said that many of the votes the union has criticized her for were “difficult and painful” decisions she was compelled to make in the face of harsh budget limitations in a state that already ranked 49 out of 50 for per-pupil spending.

But she also noted that none of these decisions were unilateral. “Everyone knows no member of the Board acts alone,” she said. “It takes at least four votes.”

Indeed, UTLA-backed Board Member Steve Zimmer made some of the same difficult votes as Garcia (and is being attacked by the Coalition for making them).

Another political mailer has an even more biting tone: Featuring an unflattering photo of Garcia, it calls her “guilty” and accuses her of “breaking the law and our schools” (a reference to a 2009 situation in which Garcia’s campaign, Friends of Monica Garcia, was fined for accepting three contributions from one company that cumulatively exceeded the $1,000 limit and for contributing once each to the campaigns of two fellow School Board candidates at the time. (View mailer here. See LA City Ethics Commission report here.)

Garcia said her campaign treasurer wasn’t aware the campaign was breaking any rules when it gave to fellow Board candidates, but she takes responsibility. “We returned the money when we were aware of the error in accounting,” Garcia said. When asked how she plans to avoid reporting errors this election cycle, Garcia said her intention is to be “flawless — we’re scrutinizing everything.”

Previous posts: Coalition TV Ad Attacks Zimmer over Robert Kennedy School; UTLA Focus: Defend Zimmer, Defeat Garcia; Here Come the Misleading / Attack Mailers

Donations From Independent Groups Shaping City, LAUSD Elections
Independent expenditures continue to dominate the school board election, with reform- and union-backed organizations battling to guide the future of the nation’s second-largest school district. LA Daily News
See also: LA School Report

In Their Words: L.A. Mayor Candidates Answer the Times’ Questions
Readers will find that some answers are clear and emphatic, and some are carefully hedged. A couple of candidates left questions unanswered. But in a race where the competitors are scrambling to break away from the pack, voters can find a few revealing contrasts. LA Times

California Trails Nation in Reading, Math and Science, Report Finds
California has largely trailed the rest of the country in reading, mathematics and science in the last decade, according to an analysis released Thursday of test results from the five most populous states. LA Times
See also: SI&A Cabinet Report

Charter Discipline: A Tale of Two Students
Does penalizing students for a laundry list of common infractions—both minor and more serious—train students to be self-disciplined, or lead some to become disaffected from school?  At one Chicago charter school, the school community’s verdict is mixed. EdWeek

Fathers Read to Children at South L.A. School
Many 99th Street Elementary students don’t have fathers at home, so police and California Highway Patrol officers fill in at the Donuts With Dads event. LA Times

LAUSD Considers Carpenter for Pilot Program to Combat Enrollment Fraud
More than 200 present, past and future parents of students at Carpenter Community Charter School in Studio City came to meet seven of the top Los Angeles Unified School District officials to answer questions about the future of their school, and how they can combat fraudulent enrollment. Sherman Oaks Patch

Study Compliments and Questions Brown’s Funding Formula
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California, released Wednesday, praises Gov. Jerry Brown’s overall plan for school finance reform, while raising questions about elements of the formula that would steer substantially more money to disadvantaged students. EdSource

That number is sure to grow in the next two weeks before the March 5 primary election date.

District 2: This is a key school board race, as the teachers union is determined to oust incumbent school board President Monica Garcia, who has been a major supporter of reform efforts.

But in an unorthodox approach, the political arm of the teacher’s union has spent $20,500 sending out a mailer with the headline, “Anyone but Monica Garcia” (view here), featuring all three UTLA-endorsed challengers (Robert Skeels, Annamarie Montanez, and Abelardo Diaz) rather than identifying any particular candidate it supports.

That isn’t even the negative spending: according to City Ethics, UTLA-PACE has spent an additional $88,700 to oppose Garcia with unspecified negative messaging.

The groups spending in support of Garcia have stepped up: the Coalition for School Reform has almost doubled its spending last week to $412,600; SEIU Local 99 has spent $98,500; and the LA County Federation of Labor has spent $44,300 on her behalf.

Candidate Isabel Vazquez, who has not been endorsed by the teachers union or the Coalition, hasn’t received any outside spending at this point.

District 4: This Westside race between incumbent School Board member Steve Zimmer and his challenger Kate Anderson is also a contentious race. According to City Ethics, UTLA-PACE has spent $207,000 to help Zimmer win his reelection bid, and it has spent an additional $125,000 to directly oppose Anderson.

Zimmer is also getting support from SEIU Local 99, which has spent $119,700, and the LA County Federation of Labor, which has spent $46,100 on his behalf.

While Anderson may not have union backing, she’s been getting serious support from the Coalition for School Reform, which has spent a total of $501,000 to boost her race.

District 6: Perhaps because all three candidates are endorsed UTLA, this race has not gone negative, and only one candidate, Antonio Sanchez, has benefited from IE money.

To support Sanchez’s bid, the Coalition has spent $487,000; SEIU Local 99 has spent $91,500; and the LA County Federation has thrown in $44,300 on his behalf. Sanchez and his two opponents, Monica Cano and Maria Ratliff, have all been endorsed by UTLA, but so far, the City Ethics website has not reported any spending on their behalf.

Previous posts: UTLA-PACE Attacks District 4 Challenger Anderson; East LA Forum: District 2 Candidates, Issue By Issue; Here Come the Misleading / Attack Mailers

Union Wins Right to Represent Valley Charter School
The Los Angeles teachers union announced Wednesday night that it has won the right to negotiate a contract for teachers and counselors at a West San Fernando Valley charter school. LA Times

Open Letter to New York Mayor Bloomberg
Perhaps I haven’t pleased everyone in my pursuit to make our student’s education a priority, and by eschewing politics to pursue education reform I’ve offended the extremes of the education debate. Venice Patch Op-Ed by LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer

Slate Mailer Sleaze in L.A.
If you are on record as ever having voted in an L.A. municipal election, this month your mailbox will jam up with photo-filled mailers in advance of the March 5 primary for mayor, City Council, city attorney, controller, Los Angeles Unified School Board and community college trustees. LA Weekly

For First Time, a ‘Parent Trigger’ Without a Hitch
For the first time, a group of parents has succeeded in pulling a “parent trigger” on a struggling school without resistance. On a 7- 0 vote, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday afternoon quickly approved a petition to overhaul 24th Street Elementary. Hechinger Report

California Drops Out of ELL Assessment Consortium
California education officials have dropped out of a group of a dozen states that had organized around the need to develop a new English-language proficiency assessment that will measure the language demands of the Common Core State Standards. EdWeek

Beverly Hills High Wins County Academic Decathlon
Beverly Hills High School has won the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon, earning a spot in the state competition in Sacramento next month. LA Times

Charter School Petition Is Approved
Plans to bring a charter school to Downtown got the green light from the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education this week. LA Downtown News

Changing the Debate on Charter Schools
As charter schools have dominated public discussion on education in the past several years, the debate at times has appeared to be between charter schools for the whole country or no charter schools at all. EdWeek Commentary

Judge May Dismiss Sex Lawsuit Against Former LAUSD Chief Ramon Cortines
A judge said Wednesday he was inclined to grant a motion by lawyers for former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the educator made unwanted sexual advances to a male LAUSD employee.  LA Daily News

API Rewrite Getting Fast-Tracked, Graduation Rates Come First
Under pressure to quickly add new indicators for school success into the Academic Performance Index, a state advisory panel recommended Tuesday a point-scoring system that would reflect the number of students who’ve graduated. SI&A Cabinet Report

Report Questions Impact of Brown’s Finance Formula on Career Tech
In proposing to give school districts money with fewer strings attached, Gov. Jerry Brown is confident that local school boards and superintendents are best able to make the right decisions so that all students can graduate ready for college and work. A report released today questions that assumption. EdSource

Late today, a city official from the Ethics Commission called LA School Report to say that UTLA-PACE had in fact disclosed its IE spending to the Commission on time, but due to a clerical error, the paperwork was not filed properly at the Commission.

According to election disclosure laws an independent expenditure committee must report spending made on behalf of candidates within 24 hours, and requires the information is made public on the City Ethics website.

How much money has UTLA-PACE spent to help candidates? All we know for sure is that the numbers reported today by the LA Times (read here), and reported on our site (read here) last week are rendered inaccurate. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see.

*Update: An earlier version of this post directly quoted the Ethics Commission when it should have been a paraphrase; the post has been corrected.

To comply with city election law, committees that make independent expenditures (IEs) on behalf of candidates must file disclosure papers within 24 hours if an expenditure meets or exceeds a cumulative total of $1,000. This mailer may not have pushed UTLA-PACE to its spending threshold, though according to Ethics Commission records, mailers like this one are usually costly.

UTLA-PACE has not yet responded for comment. We’ll let you know.

Click to view the front and back of the mailer.

As of February 5:

The Coalition spent $73,000 each on consulting services for Monica Garcia, Kate Anderson, and Antonio Sanchez, adding up to $219,000. This raises the amount the Coalition has spent so far in the election to $329,000.

The LA County Federation of Labor spent almost $19,000 each on consulting services for Monica Garcia and Antonio Sanchez, totaling $38,000. The County Fed spent an additional $30,000 for scripted telephone calls supporting Steve Zimmer. (To read the script, click here.) So far, the County Fed has spent $118,000 on its three endorsed candidates.

SEIU Local 99 spent a $1,000 each on phone banking for Garcia, Zimmer, and Sanchez. This increases its election spending to $167,000.

In response to a LA School Report story on Friday, UTLA recently declared that it was following campaign disclosure laws. Yesterday, UTLA secondary Vice President Gregg Solkovits told LA School Report that defeating School Board President Monica Garcia was a top priority.  But the group has yet to declare any substantial campaign spending.

“To our knowledge PACE has reported expenditures in a timely and proper manner. If there have been any oversights, PACE will correct those.”

Previous posts:  What’s UTLA Going to Do With Its Money?, UTLA-PACE: Website Now, Disclosure Later? Teachers Endorse Garcetti for Mayor, Union Head Decries “Media Witch Hunt”

Most of the money went to The Feldman Group, which has also done polling for Garcia and Sanchez on behalf of the SEIU. The Coalition has also finally redesigned its website, indicating that Jerrold Perenchio and Eli Broad are among its top contributors (as they were in 2011).

That means that three major IE campaigns — LA County Fed, SEIU, Coalition — have now started spending the money they’ve been raising in recent weeks.  Where is UTLA’s IE, UTLA-PACE, when will it start spending — and does it have enough to keep up with the others? We’re doing our best to find out.

Previous posts: January Contribution Reports, Part 2, Update: SEIU Spends Big On District 4′s Zimmer,  Different Rules for UTLA-PACE, Update: Outside Money Pouring In, Labor Groups Spend for Garcia & Sanchez

School Board Steve Zimmer’s campaign fundraising has been less than stellar in terms of direct contributions, but it got a big boost this week courtesy of an Independent Expenditure (IE) from SEIU Local 99, which represents classified LAUSD employees.

According to the latest expenditure reports, SEIU Local 99 has thrown down $68,688 to support Zimmer, much of it going to phone-banking and polling (you can see the phone-banking script here).

Zimmer isn’t the only endorsed candidate on whose behalf SEIU Local 99 has begun spending money.  SEIU’s IE campaign also put in $14,418 in support of Monica Garcia and $48,075 in support of Antonio Sanchez.

However, the Westside District 4 contest (Zimmer vs. Kate Anderson) is the only race where the SEIU and the Coalition for School Reform have endorsed different candidates.  The Coalition for School Reform has not yet disclosed any substantial expenditures.  This week’s news suggest that the SEIU could be bracing to mount massive campaigns on behalf of its candidates, and that District 4 is shaping up to be one of the most hotly contested races.

Previous posts: Different Rules for UTLA-PACE, Update: Outside Money Pouring In, Labor Groups Spend for Garcia & Sanchez, Reform Coalition Picks Garcia, Anderson & Sanchez

Why not? It’s because there are two different types of IE committees functioning in city-wide and LAUSD Board races —  ‘general purpose committees,’ and ‘primarily formed committees’ — each operating under a different set of disclosure rules.

UTLA-PACE is an example of the ‘general purpose” committee and as a result there’s much less information about its fundraising and who’s supporting its efforts.

A ‘general purpose committee,’ which is an ongoing operation like UTLA-PACE, is required to report about its contributions received twice a year, but beyond that, it must report only when it becomes active in an election, usually triggered by any expenditure.

Another trigger is when an IE committee active in a Board election receives a donation of $1,000 or more. But because UTLA-PACE collects small amounts, usually less than $100, from thousands of teachers, that is a rarity.

In contrast, ‘primarily formed committees,’ such as the Coalition for School Reform, are formed for a specific election, so they must follow a more rigorous disclosure schedule that includes quarterly and semi-annual reporting. See more details at the City Ethics website.

UTLA-PACE is also is able to avoid disclosing donor information on its semi-annual reports because IE committees are only required to provide the information for contributions of $100 or more. So the union Super-PAC, which spent $1.4 million in the last school board race, can play it close to the vest — a tactical advantage.

Previous posts: Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?, Dark Money Dominates LAUSD Elections, UTLA-PACE’s Robust Campaign Chest

The most up-to-date filing schedule can be found here, on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission’s homepage. It’s important to keep in mind that the schedule and reporting requirements are different for direct campaign contributions and IE contributions.

The next disclosure date is Thursday, January 24th — tomorrow.  Read on for more about the schedules and different reporting requirements.

For IE spending, committees have to disclose spending within 24 hours of having spent anything.

For direct contributions, candidates are required to provide information on contributions and spending at regular intervals (most recently on January 10th, and again tomorrow January 24th).

What’s still missing?  Contributions made to IE committees have to be reported at the same time as IE spending disclosures, but they aren’t published online. Those have to be requested individually from the Ethics Commission — which we are doing.

*Information in this post has been updated since its publication.

The two organizations spent a combined $54,564 in support of School Board President Monica Garcia, going mostly to a poll, a field program and direct mail (see their first piece of campaign literature here). The County Fed also spent $25,161 on a flyer campaign for Antonio Sanchez, a newcomer running for the East Valley’s District 6 seat (see Sanchez flyer here). No IE spending has taken place so far in the Westside’s District 4, which pits incumbent Steve Zimmer against challenger Kate Anderson.

Independent expenditures are much like Super PACs – they are spent by organizations working independently from a candidate’s campaign and their funding isn’t subject to any contribution limits. In 2011, IEs for school board races totaled more than $4.6 million. In previous school board elections, the biggest IE campaigns have come from the Coalition for School Reform, UTLA and SEIU Local 99.

Previous posts: SEIU Endorses Garcia, Zimmer and Sanchez, Local 99, LAUSD’s “Other” Labor Union, Antonio Sanchez, Consensus Candidate?, Democrats Decline to Endorse Garcia, District 6: SEIU & UTLA Endorsements*

For example, the Coalition for School Reform  — a group of advocates including (but not limited to) charter school proponents — raised $150,000 in the last few days, according to two late contribution reports (see reports here and here).

That leaves the Coalition with just under $300,000 cash on hand, since they ended last year with about $145,000 in the bank (see last semi-annual report here).

For comparison, the teachers union’s IE committee, UTLA-PACE, already had $634,901 in its campaign chest as of June.

This is just the latest reminder that, thanks to strong interest in the outcome of the race and no-limit contribution rules, IEs on both sides can raise and spend gobs of money for publicity, organizing, and  other campaign activities — likely eclipsing direct contributions to individual campaigns.

Additional reporting by Samantha Oltman

The rules are straightforward, at least in theory. But as LA School Report has shown in previous reporting, finding out exactly who’s giving to IEs can be tricky if the IE is headed by a union that collects member dues.

Read below for some key highlights of what’s required, or read the full document campaign finance laws here.

Key Provisions:

IE committees can’t work with candidates, and they must explicitly state that they don’t coordinate with candidates’ campaigns.

If  IEs receive contributions of $50,000 or more, they must disclose on communications who their two biggest contributors are.

Anytime a committee makes an independent expenditure, they must tell the Ethics Commission with 24 hours.

IEs must disclose to the Ethics Commission the names and contact information of any donors who give $100 or more.

]]> https://www.laschoolreport.com/election-2013-independent-expenditure-rules/feed/ 0 https://www.laschoolreport.com/coalition-for-school-reform-ie-will-be-headed-by-scn-strategies/ https://www.laschoolreport.com/coalition-for-school-reform-ie-will-be-headed-by-scn-strategies/#respond Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:33:46 +0000 http://laschoolreport.com/?p=3429 The March 5 elections are less than three months away, and campaigns and advocates are busy hiring campaign consultants.

The San Francisco-based SCN Strategies political consulting firm has confirmed that they will manage the independent expenditure (IE) campaign for the Coalition for School Reform.

Meantime, three individual candidates — both union-endorsed and otherwise — have hired SG&A Campaigns to manage their campaigns.

Independent expenditure (IE) campaigns, like Super PACs, are supposed to be independent from the candidate and are not allowed to coordinate with the individual campaigns. While there are strict limits on how much an an individual can contribute directly to a candidate, there is no limit to how much an individual can contribute to an IE committee.

Mayor Villaraigosa raised money for the Coalition in 2011, much of it from well-to-do folks like Philip Anshutz, Eli Broad and Reed Hastings. He is expected to perform similar fundraising duties this year.

Sean Clegg, left, and Ace Smith, center, of SCN Strategies, pictured with Chris Lehane, right

As the 2013 race for three LAUSD School Board seats heats up, so will the political fundraising that pays for the candidates’ campaigns. Just as they have in recent elections, independent expenditure (IE) committees are again likely to eclipse direct donations to candidates’ campaigns.

At least one IE committee is ahead of the game: UTLA-PACE, the political action council of the teachers union. While the latest number won’t be available until the next filing deadline in January, as of June 30th, UTLA-PACE already showed $634,901 in its account.

The report, available by request form the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, shows that the committee added $324,000 in the six-month period. That number is sure to rise for the July-December filing period.

UTLA-PACE’s IE has consistently been the biggest spender in recent board elections, outpacing the Coalition for School Reform and an IE run by the local branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

It’s no secret that UTLA wants to have union-endorsed candidates control a majority of the board. The latest edition of the UTLA newsletter urges members to envision its candidates winning control over the board:

“It will take four votes on the LAUSD School Board for UTLA and its members to change the dynamics of the Board of Education… All UTLA members will have to be part of [the campaign] from January on if we are to elect a truly pro-educator School Board.”

Previous posts: Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?, Attack Ads on the Horizon, Dark Money Dominates LAUSD Elections