Superintendent Deasy

Jaime Aquino‘s surprise announcement Friday that he’ll resign from Superintendent John Deasy‘s staff at the end of the year has sent shockwaves throughout LA Unified. Tomorrow, the district school board will take up the matter in closed session.

It’s unclear what they’ll discus – but his impending departure has exposed the district and its fractured board to a number of sudden and burning questions, not least of which may be:

Is Deasy Next?

On election night in March, just as it was becoming clear that Steve Zimmer was going to hold off a tough challenge by Kate Anderson, I got an email from a semi-prominent school reformer, offering three bold pronoucements: there would be a new board president (there is), there would be a new makeup of the board (there is) and Deasy would be on his way out. My correspondent told me: “Enough board interference makes his job really unfun and he leaves for greener pastures.”

They were unusual predictions, coming as they did months before Monica Ratliff pulled off a shock upset against Antonio Sanchez. Deasy’s staff is certainly frustrated by the new makeup of the board, as evidenced by Aquino’s departure. When asked last Friday if he was thinking about resigning, Deasy declined to comment – an ominous response coming from the man who told LAUSD administrators little more than a month ago, “I and this administration are not going anywhere.”

And that’s just the first question awaiting resolution:

Who will replace Aquino?

Will it be another headstrong reformer? Or will it be someone a bit more palatable to the new ideological makeup of the school board? Will Deasy be given autonomy in the search for Aquino’s successor? Will the board insist on having input? Will there even be a replacement?

How will Vladovic respond?

The new board majority seems to have an affinity for process. They like asking questions. They like discussion. They like committees. So far, Board President Richard Vladovic has let the debate flow, showing little interest in speeding things up – in stark contrast to his predecessor, Monica Garcia. But with the slow pace of board action being partially blamed for Aquino’s departure, will Vladovic endeavor to speed things up, lest more senior staff resign?

Did Aquino have other reasons to quit?

“My heart is completely broken,” Aquino told the LA Daily News. “But the current climate doesn’t allow me to lead an agenda that is in the best interest of kids.”

There’s something a bit vague about that explanation. Was he frustrated by the slow pace of deliberation? By the workload created by incessant questions from various board members? Or by the new idealogical makeup of the board, whose budget priorities differ greatly from those of Deasy?

Some have suggested that Aquino might have other reasons for quitting – namely, for questions raised by the tablet computer procurement process, which led the district to enter into a deal with Apple for iPads with Pearson software for every student and teacher in LAUSD – at more than $600 a pop. Aquino has been criticized for his role in the process because he used to work for America’s Choice, which is owned by Pearson.

“There’s no question the procurement issues related to the iPads and the Pearson software is a significant part of this,” said former board member David Tokofsky.

Will the Common Core Rollout Get Even Bumpier?

Will Board members see Aquino as something of a “lame duck,” and take his recommendations less seriously than before? Will further elements of the district’s technology plan, as well as the transition to the Common Core curriculum, be called into question?

It could well turn out that Aquino’s resignation is only the first surprise.

Previous posts: Aquino’s Resignation Explanation; Deasy Deputy Jaime Aquino Resigns (Updated);  Aquino Sees Deeper Thinking but Falling Scores with Common Core; Senior District Employee Gives to Garcia

“It was a meeting to discuss what had happened in my election and what we should think about the future of LAUSD,” said Kate Anderson, who unsuccessfully ran for LAUSD School Board against Board member Steve Zimmer.

But other sources who attended the meeting characterized the mood of the meeting  as rudderless.

“Nothing came out of it,” said one frustrated reformer who was there. “It was just another sort of, ‘the ed reformers lost, what can we do about it?’ There’s a lot of those meetings. There’s no clear next actionable plan.”

Those attending the meeting included Ben Austin of Parent Revolution, Ryan Smith* of United Way, Marshall Tuck of the Partnership for LA Schools and Gary Borden of California Charter Schools Association. There were few big-money donors there, with the exception of Frank Baxter, who gave $100,000 to the Coalition.

When reached for comment, Baxter said only, “I’m optimistic about our future.”

Los Angeles has a healthy surplus of non-profits working to reform public education. But when it comes to influencing public policy, they’ve had mixed results.

“We have a strong coalition of civil rights leaders, parents community leaders that wants to see changes in LAUSD,” said Anderson. “We haven’t coalesced together as strongly as we should.”

A key problem the group faces is to figure out who will now lead the Coalition for School Reform, the independent expenditure (IE) committee created by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that’s been a central vehicle through which reform advocates have pushed their agenda.

One source said Anderson herself was considering taking over as head, but has since decided against it.

Another option that remains under consideration is to add a year-round nonprofit 501(c)(4) advocacy group, with an eye toward pushing ed reform ideas over the long term rather than solely through election-season campaign spending.

In the meantime, sources at the meeting said that if anyone appeared to be in charge, it was the California Charter School Association (CCSA).

“CCSA is taking operational control of the Coalition,” said one source.

Another said: “CCSA is absolutely part of the answer. They have a real vested stake in this stuff. They might have the biggest natural self-interest.”

*A previous version of this post said Elise Buik of United Way was at the meeting; she was not.

Previous posts: What Next for the Coalition for School Reform?; How Ratliff Won (& Reformers Lost)*; Reform Coalition Focuses Massive War Chest on Mailers; Why the Coalition’s Going All Out to Elect Sanchez

But that story was actually written in 2003 — back when Blume was writing for the LA Weekly rather than his current gig at the LA Times — and concerned a different Coalition: the Coalition for Kids, headed by then-Mayor Richard Riordan.

Ten years later, the story is pretty much the same — only the names have changed. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Coalition for School Reform just spent over $4 million on three races, losing all but one.

And, with Villaraigosa on his way out, some donors fuming at their expensive defeat, and with the very usefulness of independent expenditure (IE) campaigns fueled by big-money donations being questioned, the Coalition yet again faces an uncertain future.

Possible changes that may be discussed at a Friday meeting include dissolving as an organization, creating a year-round non-profit advocacy group, or simply changing names when the next Board elections take place in two years.

Even before last week’s shock election that saw Monica Ratliff defeat the Coalition-backed Antonio Sanchez, a meeting was already being planned for this Friday to discuss “the 2013 board elections and to discuss preparations for future elections,” according to an email obtained by LA School Report.

With a subject line “LA Board Elections Debrief and 2015 Planning” addressed to “LA Ed Reformers and Friends,” the email was sent out at the beginning of May and has been circulating among reform allies since then.

The invitees are a veritable who’s who of school reformers, including former Board candidate Kate Anderson, Partnership for LA Schools CEO Marshall Tuck, Green Dot CEO Marco Petruzzi, Camino Nuevo CEO Ana Ponce, former Board President Yolie Flores, outgoing Deputy Mayor of Education Joan Sullivan, and Jed Wallace, President of the California Charter Schools Association.

Flores said she expects the meeting to be an informal discussion.

“I haven’t been a part of [the Coaliton], so it’ll be interesting,” said the former LAUSD Board member. “Folks have been calling me asking what I think. I’m interested in challenging folks to be much more thoughtful about how they think about Board elections. There’s some pretty basic things that I was shaking my head that didn’t happen.”

For all the post-election recriminations about the candidate that was chosen and the campaign that was run, one basic question to be answered is: are these campaigns even worth it?

A number of other big-money IE campaigns —  namely the Department of Water & Power union’s campaign on behalf of Wendy Greuel’s doomed mayoral run– suffered expensive losses this year.

Though Villaraigosa has previously pledged to continue his involvement in Los Angeles education, it’s unlikely he’ll be very involved in future School Board races, and it’s unclear if Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti’s views will line up with the current school reformers.

His wife Amy Wakeland* was the Coalition for Kids’ spokesperson in 2003, but he won the UTLA endorsement and never endorsed Coalition candidates including Board member Monica Garcia or Antonio Sanchez.

“For me, this organization is a means to an end,” said one reformer who’s been invited to Friday’s meeting but didn’t want to speak on the record. “It’s a vehicle for a group of people, with Villaraigosa at the helm, to invest.There’s a variety of ways to do that in the future — with or without this particular name. Given the number of high-profile losses, maybe attaching the name to candidates isn’t the best thing to set them up for success.”

That being said, the Coalition for School Reform still has over $500,000 in the bank. It can change its name, but not its purpose, which is to elect School Board candidates.

“They have to spend their money on something,” said one pro-reform political consultant. “In two years, it’s gonna be another war.”

Indeed, four LAUSD School Board seats are up for election in 2015: District 1, covering mostly South LA (currently represented by Marguerite LaMotte); District 3, covering the West San Fernando Valley (currently represented by Tamar Galatzan); District 5, covering a hodge-podge of neighborhoods from Silver Lake to Vernon (currently represented by Bennett Kayser); and District 7, covering San Pedro, Harbor Gateway and South LA (currently represented by Dr. Richard Vladovic).

Will this year’s loss hurt fundraising in the future? One donor we spoke with, Frank Baxter, the former U.S. Ambassador to Uruguay who gave $100,000 to the Coalition, said he would continue to support similar efforts.

“I will never stop fighting for better education for our kids,” he said. “Whatever course that takes, I would like to be part of it.”

But one reformer, who’s been invited to Friday’s meeting, says that LA’s reform effort needs to morph into a more grassroots kind of effort, which might mean creating a new kind of organization.

“People in the reform community are talking about setting up a 501(c)4,” he said. “Not an [Independent Expenditure campaign] that pops up every election cycle, but that exists in between elections building up a base.”

Named for a section in the tax code, 501(c)(4)s are non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting “social welfare” that are increasingly being used by education organizations such as StudentsFirst who wish to be involved in political advocacy.

Unlike 501(c)(3)s, they are allowed to spend money on political campaigns and do not have to reveal all of their donors. Examples include the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association.

The source pointed to the 2003 Blume story as evidence that the reformers have consistently failed to learn lessons from past electoral defeats.

“We are literally living that again,” he said. “We’ve learned nothing in ten years. That has to change.”

*A previous version of this post identified Garcetti’s wife as Amy Wakefield

Previous posts: New Mayor’s Wife Has School Reform Past; How Ratliff Won (& Reformers Lost)*; Reform Coalition Focuses Massive War Chest on Mailers; Why the Coalition’s Going All Out to Elect Sanchez

Anderson’s talking about the Support Our Superintendent petition that’s been circulating the past few days.

Signed by more than 1,200 people, with a goal of 2,000 by today, the petition’s purpose is “to support the work of Superintendent Deasy and the policies he has put in place.” It’s also meant to counter-balance the various UTLA polls and surveys that are meant to show teacher dissatisfaction with Superintendent Deasy.

The organizers are rallying from 10:30 – noon at the LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry today — the same day that teachers and SEIU members are also rallying.

“Please show you stand with John Deasy and President Obama by signing this petition, which will be presented by a LAUSD parent to the School Board on May 14th,” asks the Parent Partnership site, a grassroots group headed by Rene Rodman and Amy Baker who tout their independence and lack of outside funding:

“This is a 100% grassroots effort!  There is no central organizing group, no big funding, no media coverage.  Just community members coming together to be represented and to give input.”

Email info@parent-partnership.org for further details and any questions. We’re told that Mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel have both signed the petition  but have not yet confirmed.

Previous posts:  Multiple Protests, Packed Agenda; Parents Rally for Classroom Breakfast; Union Focusing on Jobs at Tuesday Board Meeting

The Mar Vista parent laughed easily and often, and said she was getting to see her children a lot more in the month since the March 5 primary.

But she wasn’t without ideas and regrets in terms of the campaign she’d just been through against District 4 School Board Member Steve Zimmer.

Many of her observations about the race — low turnout on primary day and the unwanted distractions of the outside contributions to the Coalition for School Reform — are familiar.

However, Anderson also put a finger on inaccurate voter turnout projections that shaped her campaign budget decisions and ultimately sealed her fate.

If she’d known how low turnout was really going to be, her campaign would have spent less on a big initial early mailing.

“I would have mailed to a much smaller universe at the start, and then focused much more on the field.”

By and large, Anderson seemed content with the race she’d run — and the outcome.

“I’m disappointed about having lost, but I am still so energized by this campaign and by the momentum and the energy that I saw out on the campaign trail,” she said.

She said she didn’t wish that she’d attacked Zimmer for his indecisiveness or his tenure on the Board during a teacher sex abuse scandal, which some observers had expected and encouraged her to do.

“I had a very positive message of change, which was really resonating with the people that we were talking to. I think that was the right message for me to delivering.”

In fact, she said that she had emerged from the process respecting Zimmer, and that they were planning to meet and share ideas in the near future.

“I have deep respect for Steve, and believe he’s truly in this for the right reasons,” she said.  “I genuinely like him as a person.”

Her explanation for why she lost largely mirrored those that have been given by others in the past month (see: A Good – But Not Great – Campaign, Say Reform Insiders).

The campaign was out-organized in terms of field operations by the teachers union, UTLA, and she was defeated largely by absentee ballots cast before primary day.

“That’s the place where knocking door to door makes a difference,” said Anderson.

It wasn’t so much that Anderson’s campaign started late or did anything obviously mistaken, she said. It was mostly a matter of not having enough money.

“If I’d had twice as much money, I would have been able to have staffed a much more robust field campaign.”

“It makes me so sad,” said Anderson about primary-day turnout that was projected to be in the high 20s but ended up at just 22.5 percent for District 4.

“If turnout had been just dismal — instead of abysmal — I would have won.”

“As a candidate it’s a bit surreal to have a substantial IE [independent expenditure committee] operating alongside your own campaign,” she said.  “However, I’m grateful to for their effort.”

However, she did remark on the distractions that the outside funding created.

“What was disappointing to me was how much attention and focus that ended up getting,” she said.  “It took away from the real attention and parent support that we were building.”

“Because Kate [Anderson] lost, every single thing [the Coalition] did looks wrong,” said one insider who — like most of those contacted for this story — declined to talk on the record.

In particular, insiders denounced the notion that the campaign consultants hired by the Coalition were incompetent or conflicted by their work for other clients including labor groups.

“The way consultants get clients is by winning,” said another insider.  “Pulling punches for the possibility of future client work makes no sense.”

However, the insiders – a half-dozen campaign and school reform veterans familiar with the Coalition and its consultants — generally agreed that there were specific strategic decisions and actions that SCN Strategies, the consulting firm hired to do most of the Coalition-funded work, might have wished it had decided differently – and might have affected the outcome of the District 4 race, which Zimmer won with 52 percent of the votes.

One insider described SCN as “good people who didn’t run a great campaign.“

Over the past week or so, criticisms of the Coalition-funded campaign to elect Kate Anderson, Antonio Sanchez, and Monica Garcia have begun to emerge.

Insiders told LA School Report that the Coalition-funded campaign won on primary day but lost – badly – when it came to mail-in ballots.

Former state lawmaker Gloria Romero wrote a scathing oped claiming that Mayor Villaraigosa shouldn’t have tried to oust Steve Zimmer in the first place.

Rival consultant Brian Adams wrote a letter to former Mayor Richard Riordan outlining several key failings and an attack ad against Zimmer that was never aired.

Looking back at the primary campaign, most of the insiders praised the teachers union for running a particularly effective campaign against the Coalition, stressed the difficulties and uncertainties of running a hotly contested local School Board campaign, and noted that pretty much any decision can be dissected in hindsight.

However, there was general agreement among those we spoke to that the “Talking Bench” TV ad was off-topic and ineffective.  “It wasn’t about kids, it was about RFK School.  That didn’t make a lot of sense.”

And there were several other issues that came up as possible mistakes.

For example, the Coalition-funded campaign might have spent too much on District 6.

“You don’t need to spend $1 million to get Antonio Sanchez into a runoff when the union is spending nothing,” said a reform insider.

At the same time, it might have pent too little on Kate Anderson in District 4, given its fundraising advantage and how close the race was.

“We shouldn’t have been near spending parity in District 4,” said an insider.  “We had a four to one funding advantage and we didn’t do a good job leveraging our financial advantage. There’s no strategic excuse for that. “

The funding advantage could have been put to use with an early start on the vote by mail front.

“If you have that much money, why not start 30 days before mail-in ballots get sent out rather than waiting until 30 days before the primary,” said one insider.  “The real campaign was in the mail.”

The Coalition may also have relied too heavily on mailed flyers and paid field workers to canvas neighborhoods, and under-emphasized online campaigning and other “new” forms of generating votes.

“Consultants say you’ve got to do direct mail and are afraid of not doing it,” said one insider. “But the world of political campaigning is changing, and some consultants are going to have to be dragged into this world kicking and screaming.”

Reform supporters behind the Coalition may have relied too much on outside efforts and consultants rather than supporting the candidate herself.

“Strategic help on the candidate side is a more important fundamental thing to get right than mail and paid field,” said one campaign observer.  “You need a solid volunteer-driven field program, which can really only be effective through the campaign itself.”

Some insiders thought that the Coalition didn’t attack Zimmer vigorously enough — or rather didn’t pick the right avenues of attack..

For example, the Coalition campaign on behalf of Anderson – and the Anderson campaign itself – should have focused on the hot-button issue of sexual abusers in schools — “the child molester stuff “ — according to one insider.

“Sure, Zimmer differed from UTLA on the [teacher removal] issue, but he’d still have to go around explaining his position.  You know what they say in politics: When you’re explaining you’re losing. ”

Instead, Anderson supporters focused on budget decisions made by incumbent Anderson, which the insider described as “pattycake” stuff.

Last but not least, the Coalition and its consultants failed to respond effectively to the “outside money” attacks made by the union against Anderson and her far-off funders.

“We’re going to continue to get this knock on anyone we support until we figure out a response,” said an insider — noting that it was the union’s most effective argument.  “They use it over and over again. “

The feedback from the insiders wasn’t unanimous – or conclusive.

“Should they have come up with another ad?  That’s a fair tactical question,” said a campaign insider.  “But the fact that Anderson won on election day shows that the message worked.”

There were also differences of opinion about whether it would have helped to attack Zimmer via the teachers union or not, as proposed in the Brian Adams online ad.

“I think there’s a misconception with a lot of the more hardcore reform-y types that attacking the union is the way to have the debate,” wrote one insider in an email.  “That is wrongwrongwrong. Especially in a Democratic strong hold like LA, in a Democratic program, that is a way to lose. Even in really conservative states like Alabama and Tennessee, teacher unions in the abstract poll well.”

Both the Coalition and SCN Strategies have declined so far to respond to LA School Report for this story.

Previous posts: Coalition Campaign was “Half-Hearted and Incompetent,” says Rival Consultant; The Zimmer Attack Ad That Never Was; Mayor Overreached Against Zimmer, Says Reformer; How Steve Zimmer *Really* Won

Romero has had public disagreements with Villaraigosa in the past, and she first made her negative assessment of the outcome in an LA Times piece last week.

Now, in a new Orange County Register commentary, the head of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) – California writes, “The balance of power on the school board has shifted away from the mayor, who overreached, and from the broader reform community.”

Incumbent Monica Garcia won her re-election outright, garnering a very healthy 56% of the vote. In District 6, Antonio Sanchez is heading toward a runoff with the second-place finisher, Monica Ratliff. Incumbent Steve Zimmer appears to have been reelected as well, although there are still a number of provisional and late absentee ballots yet to be counted.

As of noon, a Coalition for School Reform consultant held out hope that there could be as many as 20,000 votes still to be counted in the Westside’s District 4, and said there was an outside chance the outcome could still change.

Challenger Kate Anderson, meanwhile, sounded as if she had conceded the race. “I’m disappointed,” she told LA School Report. “We expected it to be close. We felt such energy and momentum in the field. And if you look at the results, we lost on absentee ballots. Our feeling in the field wasn’t wrong, it just wasn’t enough.

Indeed, Zimmer’s own campaign consultant, Mike Shimpock, was surprised at just how big his candidate’s margin of victory among early absentee ballots was — 16 percentage points.

He credited Zimmer’s own work going door-to-door in the district.

“Steve is out in the field a lot,” said Shimpock. “And he is well-known in that district. I think that paid off for him in the early vote… In these lower turnout elections, it’s always a mistake to underestimate candidates who come out of the grassroots.”

Both Shimpock and UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits also credited Zimmer’s victory to a backlash against the Coalition for School Reform’s big money campaign.

“People don’t like it when out-of-state billionaires decide they can interfere with races when it’s a local issue,” said Solkovits, who pointed out that a relatively large donation by Michelle Rhee’s organization Students First may have had a similar effect last night in Sacramento.

While the attack against big checks from far-off candidates may have stuck, the reality is that UTLA and SEIU spent nearly as much as the Coalition in the District 4 campaign.  The Coalition spent $1.4 million, while UTLA and SEIU spent $1.1 million.

As for UTLA, last night’s results were something of a mixed bag. The candidate they really wanted out — Monica Garcia — won handily in a low-turnout contest.

“We knew District 2 was going to be an uphill battle,” said UTLA’s Solkovits. “We were out-resourced. She was an incumbent with some degree of popularity. We did our best. You don’t win everything.”

Indeed, it’s worth pointing out that UTLA’s two claims at victory, Zimmer in District 4 and Sanchez in the District 6 runoff, were for middle-of-the-road candidates who generally support Superintendent John Deasy and many of the policies that UTLA was attacking Garcia for supporting.

In an interview with KPCC this morning, UTLA President Warren Fletcher sounded conciliatory on the topic of Garcia “We’ve had definite differences with Monica Garcia’s vision for LAUSD. But… we have, despite not seeing eye to eye, worked with her on several issues. We’re ready to work with her for the next four years.”

Superintendent John Deasy seemed unperturbed by the events last night.

“I’m looking forward to meeting with the new Board when it’s finally decided,” he said. “The district and the Board led the agenda before the race. It will continue to lead the agenda after the race.”

Previous posts: Voter Turnout Far Below Expectations, FINAL LAUSD ELECTION RESULTS, Live Tweet Election Coverage, Deasy in Danger? It Might Depend on Vladovic

Grand View Elementary teacher Irene Perez making calls at Carrow’s

About 20 teachers sat down in the back room of a Carrow’s restaurant in Santa Monica last night making phone calls reminding registered voters to vote for UTLA-backed District 4 incumbent Steve Zimmer.

Volunteers were given cell phones, a list of phone numbers and were allowed to order a meal for up to $10 plus a drink (no alcohol though). The goal: call voters to remind them to vote.

“I wanted to see if you’ll join us in helping to elect Steve Zimmer tomorrow,” a tentative Grand View Elementary teacher Irene Perez said into the phone, as her son Kingston ate from a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Westside teachers — both active and retired — have been phone banking for Zimmer nearly every night for the past two weeks, in places like Carrow’s or Fu’s Palace or a bar and grill in Playa Del Rey called The Outlaws.

While it’s low-tech compared to the Coalition for School Reform’s smartphone-based field campaign, gathering groups of teachers together like this is a tried and true way to get teachers and others to vote for union candidates in low-turnout elections.

Most of the people on the volunteers’ list had already told a UTLA volunteer that they planned on voting for Steve Zimmer. For those that hadn’t, the teachers read from a script, which according to election law must be posted on the City Ethics Commission website.

Cecilia Powell, a 4th grade teacher at Windsor Hills, had barely heard of Steve Zimmer — she kept wanting to call him Zimmerman. But, she said, “I really support the union.”

Other teachers, like Michael Giarin, a teacher at Daniel Webster Middle School, were alarmed at the prospect of Zimmer’s opponent, Kate Anderson. “It scares me that someone with no experience can come in and buy the election.”

Mike Dreebin, a retired teacher and former UTLA Vice President, said he knows both candidates and was generally complimentary of both of them. Anderson is his neighbor, and he actually volunteered for her failed State Assembly campaign. While he likes Anderson, he is suspicious of the efforts by the Coalition for School Reform on her behalf.

“I believe in conspiracies,” he said. ” I believe there is a right-wing conspiracy to privatize schools, to make them into factories that make a profit.”

“I want to help Zimmer beat this Kate Anderson lady,” Perez told LA School Report in between phone calls. Zimmer had helped Grand View fight charter school co-location, she said.

Previous posts: Coalition Fields Effort to Avoid Runoffs, Opinion: “Outsiders” vs. Special Interests, Zimmer Irate Over Reform Coalition Attacks, Analysis: Air War Vs. Boots On the Ground

Towards the end of the discussion, Zimmer makes the case that School Board seats shouldn’t be bought by outside interests, and Anderson points out that she’s done a ton of her own independent fundraising.

How Outside Spending Is Changing the Race to Represent Northeast San Fernando Valley Schools
Sanchez has been able to hire three paid staff members, had more than a dozen mailers go out on his behalf and was the subject of a commercial that aired during Lakers games. KPCC

Steve Zimmer and Kate Anderson Face off on AirTalk
Both candidates talk about where they stand on Deasy, why Zimmer does not agree with charter school expansion and Anderson is pushing for it, and if teacher evaluations can be tied to student performance.. KPCC

L.A. Unified, Other School Districts Seek New Measures of Success
Nine California school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, will apply to the U.S. Department of Education for relief from rules that, over time, have labeled most schools that receive federal funds as failing, officials announced Thursday. LA Times
See also: LA Daily News

Arne Duncan’s Education ‘Sequester’ Claims Questioned
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has long been seen as an administration asset. But this past week, he’s also been the chief spokesman for the White House claims about the potential impact of sequestration on education jobs. Now those estimates have run afoul of fact-checkers. EdWeek

California Students Leave Hundreds of Millions in Aid Untapped
Only about half of California’s high school seniors applied for federal and state financial aid last year — leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table, according to a report by Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based nonprofit advocacy group. LA Times

Los Angeles Parents Powerless as Candidates Ignore Abuse
Seven Los Angeles public school teachers and aides have been charged with molesting more than 50 children in just over a year, though you’d hardly know it from the campaigns for next week’s municipal election. Bloomberg

California Schools Earn Bronze When It Comes to Serving Healthy School Lunches
The results of the latest HealthierUS School Challenge for schools are in, and California schools didn’t do too badly. They didn’t do too well, either. KPCC

LAUSD Adding Security Aides to Boost Safety
Specially trained security aides are being added to all elementary school campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and it’s all in an effort to boost school safety. ABC LA

Student Panel Offers Expert Advice to Lawmakers on Evaluating Schools
If the state wants an accurate accounting of how its schools are performing, it should find a way to include student input in its Academic Performance Index, said those perhaps closest to the issue – the students themselves – at a state hearing Wednesday. SI&A Cabinet Report

Jazz Day at 24th Street Elementary
The Los Angeles Jazz Society is hosting concerts at three LAUSD elementary schools as part of the Black History Month celebration. These concerts are a part of a larger initiative to bring jazz programs to public schools. South LA Intersections

Low voter turnout and a fierce battle between two groups split along ideological lines could make this race one of the costliest per-voter in nation. Based on turnout figures from past elections, outside groups could spend more than $29 for each vote in this School Board election. That dwarfs the outside per-vote spending in the 2012 Presidential race, which was estimated by ProPublica to cost $8 a vote.

Continue reading for details on the big influx of money.

District 2 (Downtown, East LA)
Lines are drawn sharply in District 2, where the teachers union has vowed to unseat incumbent School Board President Monica Garcia, a strong advocate for school reform. The Coalition for School Reform has spent $615,000 on her behalf, an increase of more than $200,000 since last week. SEIU and AFL-CIO have spent another $218,000 on her behalf. Meanwhile, UTLA-PACE, the political arm of the teachers union, has spent about $90,000 on negative advertising. But the union is doing little on behalf of her challengers — three of which it has endorsed. The approach seems to be wait and see: with five names on the ballot, this race will certainly go to a runoff in May.

District 4 (Westside to Hollywood)
This Westside race has seen a big jump in spending. The two candidates, Kate Anderson, a reform candidate, and incumbent School Board member Steve Zimmer, who is teacher union supported, are in an all out sprint to the finish, and with just two candidates on the ballot, the race is certain to be decided on March 5.  To support Zimmer, the teachers union has teamed up with SEIU and AFL-CIO (who support the reform candidates elsewhere) to spend $484,000. In addition, it has spent $260,000 to oppose Anderson. On the other side, the Coalition for School Reform has spent $700,000 on behalf of Anderson, and another $130,000 to oppose Zimmer.

District 6 (East San Fernando Valley)
In this race, all candidates are supported by UTLA. But the reform group has singled out Antonio Sanchez to throw its weight behind, perhaps because Sanchez is the only candidate in District 6 who has voiced support for LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. Here, the Coalition has teamed up with SEIU and AFL-CIO to spend almost $900,000 on his behalf, up from about $600,000 last week. The reform group may be betting that with such heavy spending Sanchez can win outright, but with three candidates in the field, this race is likely to go into a runoff.

Previous posts: Outside Spending Tops $2 Million, Grows Negative; Robust Fundraising Numbers for Candidates

Volunteers gather in District 4 candidate Steve Zimmer’s campaign office before they prepare to walk the precinct.

An energetic crowd gathered early on a Saturday morning to listen to a pep talk from District 4 incumbent Steve Zimmer before hitting the pavement to walk the precinct.

Standing on a chair to address the crowd, Zimmer spoke of his appreciation for their efforts and pride in the commitment of those who showed up, including some of his former students.

“The most important thing that each of you can bring today to these doorsteps is your own story,” Zimmer said. “Your experience with me as a board member and as a leader of this district, that’s what actually makes a difference when people go to the ballot box.”

About 65 volunteers snacked on bagels and cream cheese at the West Hollywood campaign office overlooking Sunset Boulevard before gathering in teams to head out.

District 4 Board Member Steve Zimmer stands on a chair to address the crowd.

Zimmer also addressed the recent $1 million donation from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the Coalition for School Reform, which backs Zimmer’s opponent, Kate Anderson.

“The question out there very strongly is can a very narrow agenda buy a school board seat, kick out a successful incumbent, and destroy the coalition that we’ve built,” Zimmer said. “Our answer to that agenda is a loud and clear…”

“No!” the throng of volunteers eagerly screamed out in unison.

Zimmer said there is one primary focus from now until election day:

“Really, the focused message now is getting out to voters,” Zimmer said. “It’s all about voter contact now.”

Steve Zimmer’s field manager, Esteban Hereida, hands out t-shirts to the volunteers.

Renata Garza, a LAUSD schoolteacher who lives in Pasadena, said she gladly sacrificed her Saturday morning to help Zimmer’s campaign.

“He’s one of those genuinely good people motivated by no other reason that he wants to help students, and I think that’s inspiring,” said Garza who teaches at 49^th Street Elementary School.

Others said the children in the district must be the top priority.

“There’s so much fighting going on that no one’s looking out for the interests of the kids,” Amy Sobajian said.

Sobajian, who said she lives near Kate Anderson and knows her, likes both candidates but said she has made her choice.

“She’s a good person, but he knows how to do the job,” Sobajian said.

Longtime volunteer Jeannie Garcia helps organize the food and train volunteers for Saturday’s walk.

About 120 volunteers have helped out in recent months, making calls and walking precincts as well as hosting “meet and greets” and fundraisers, according to Zimmer’s campaign manager, Ari Ruiz.

Volunteers talk to voters about Zimmer’s work on the Board, including a nutrition resolution passed to ensure children have enough time to sit and eat while at school, his experience as a former schoolteacher and his support of SB 48, the resolution that ensures “the school district is the leading voice to include the history of the gay, lesbian and transgender community,” Ruiz said.

Despite the fact the campaign is “obviously up against a lot of money,” Zimmer has endorsements from Planned Parenthood and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, among other organizations, said the upbeat Ruiz.

“It is the broad coalition that is coming together to say that we can do transformation of our school district,” Zimmer told his volunteers. “We can ensure excellence for all kids, and we can do it together.”

District 2: Monica Garcia: “She has been a consistent, if sometimes lukewarm, supporter of reform.”

District 4: Kate Anderson: She is “squarely in the camp of education reform – but sane reform that doesn’t hand over our public schools to private interests.”

District 6: Monica Ratliff: “Ratliff may be a teacher, and a UTLA chapter chair at that, but her platform is pure students-first. Her platform encompasses standard reform issues from curbing teacher tenure to encouraging more charterlike flexibility at the school sites.”

Previous posts: Who Won the LA Times Endorsement Contest?; Times Endorses Garcia, Anderson, & Ratliff 

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

L.A. Votes: Greuel Fights Back 
With the clock ticking down to election day, the Los Angeles mayor’s race is getting testy. LA Times

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy Seeks No Child Left Behind Waivers
With California unable to get a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, LAUSD and nine other districts have launched an effort to create their own data-based accountability systems — and have more freedom in how to spend tens of millions in federal dollars. LA Daily News

More Students Taking and Passing Advanced Placement Exams
More students in the Los Angeles Unified School District took and passed an Advanced Placement exam last year, reflecting a rise in success on the college-level tests in California and nationwide. LA Times
See also LADN

L.A. Unified Set for Funding Boost Under New State Formula
After five years of crippling budget cuts, the Los Angeles Unified School District would receive an estimated $820 more per student over the next two years under Gov. Jerry  Brown’s proposed new funding formula. LA Times

In California, Thousands of Teachers Missing Needed Credentials
The last time Charlie Parker took a social studies class, he was a teenager with an Afro and Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. Yet here he was, standing at the front of a classroom, trying to teach dozens of high schoolers subjects that never appealed to him when he learned them more than 30 years ago. CA Watch

State Releases District Breakdowns Under School Funding Formula
Districts and charter schools now know how they’d make out under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Local Control Funding Formula, his plan for sweeping school finance reform. EdSource

Thousands of Children Could Lose Head Start Services Under Sequestration
Just one week after promising to inject funds into early childhood education in his State of the Union address, President Obama is warning that the Head Start program will instead face cuts if lawmakers fail to reach a compromise over the budget. KPCC

Kate Anderson

As we reported here last week, the union independent expenditure committee called UTLA-PACE has sent out a campaign mailer to attack LAUSD Board candidate Kate Anderson, who is challenging incumbent Steve Zimmer in the Westside/Hollywood’s District 4.

But according to Anderson, the claims being made are “completely misleading:”

The mailer scrutinizes Anderson’s attendance record while she served on the LA County Child Care Planning Committee and accuses her of running for the School Board simply because she’s angling for a higher political office.

According to Anderson, however, her husband Peter often showed up at the meetings in her stead – a common practice. The mailer also neglects to mention that the attendance of other members at Committee’s meetings was similarly inconsistent. “For me, it was a volunteer work. I was serving on the committee as a parent, while also working at my law firm,” Anderson said.

As for the claim that she’s not dedicated to education issues? “The idea that I’m not committed to kids to ludicrous,” Anderson said.

Previous posts: UTLA-PACE Attacks District 4 Challenger Anderson; Outside Spending Tops $2 Million, Grows Negative; Attack on Zimmer Wasn’t from Anderson Campaign

Image of Kate Anderson from UTLA-PACE mailer

UTLA-PACE’s new mailer targets candidate Kate Anderson, who is running against LAUSD Board incumbent Steve Zimmer for a seat representing the Westside and Hollywood’s District 4.

Among other things, the mailer accuses Anderson of wanting “to use school board as a path to higher office,” and criticizes her for missing a high number of meetings when she served for three years on the LA County Child Care Planning Committee. Click here to see the front and back of the mailer.

The 2013 LAUSD Board races are getting ever-closer to breaking $4.5 million school board election spending records. As LA School Report has noted, negative ads have already begun and could increase in the next two weeks. The Coalition for School Reform launched a television ad that accuses Zimmer of being unsupportive of the arts. The UTLA-PACE website blames District 2 incumbent Monica Garcia for budget cuts and layoffs.

Previous posts: Coalition TV Ad Attacks Zimmer over Robert Kennedy School; UTLA-PACE Spends, Bloomberg Donates; Attack on Zimmer Wasn’t from Anderson Campaign

Steve Zimmer and Kate Anderson

LA School Report has learned a little of the backstory behind a recent election-focused post that was published on former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch’s blog.

As you may know, Ravitch urged her readers to support District 4 (Hollywood and Westside) incumbent Steve Zimmer and oppose his challenger Kate Anderson, based in large part on an email from a Zimmer supporter who accused Anderson’s canvassers of “spreading lies” — specifically, that “Zimmer is against the arts.”

The email Ravitch posted came from a former LAUSD employee, and the canvasser wasn’t with the official Anderson campaign. The Coalition for School Reform won’t verify it was one its canvassers, but the claim against Zimmer resembles its most recent District 4 TV ad. The Zimmer campaign claims that its candidate is a strong supporter of the arts.

A longtime school reform advocate who worked in the Bush Administration before changing her views on education issues, the New York City-based Ravitch shared an email about an upsetting encounter with what was presumed to be an Anderson canvasser:

“Yesterday, one of her (presumably paid) canvassers made the unfortunate mistake of knocking on our door and telling my husband to vote for her because “Steve Zimmer is against the arts”!

Lithgow says she never meant for her email to reach the media, and that she’s “sorry I wrote that before I’d spoken with the campaign.” She says she wrote the email because she used to work closely with Zimmer, and that he “was one of the Board members the arts branch could always rely on.”

“Anderson’s campaign called me back and said the canvasser wasn’t one of theirs, and that they would never say that,” Lithgow said.

Indeed, Anderson’s campaign manager, Madeleine Moore, confirmed it: “No, it was not someone from our campaign.”

LA School Report contacted the Coalition for School Reform, which made a similar claim about Zimmer in a just-launched TV ad, which says Zimmer “voted… to cut basics like art.” However, the Coalition would not verify that its canvassers discuss Zimmer and the arts.

When asked to comment on this story, Zimmer’s campaign manager, Ari Ruiz, said that “Steve Zimmer is a supporter of the arts,” pointing out that Zimmer was one of the co-sponsors of LAUSD Board Member Nury Martinez’s Arts Core Resolution, which established the arts as a core part of the curriculum in LAUSD schools.

Previous posts: Coalition TV Ad Attacks Zimmer over Robert Kennedy School; District 4 Candidates Air YouTube Ads, Schedule Appearances