Now, education blogger, Anthony Cody at Edweek-Teacher, has launched a series of Question-and-Answers with the 10 candidates vying for union president, each being asked the same questions.

So far four have been published:
Gregg Solkovits
Kevin Mottus
Alex Caputo-Pearl
Bill Gaffney

See full series here: Edweek: Living in Dialogue

Caputo-Pearl, left, phone-banking for Steve Zimmer in March

The first step of running for office is raising money, and the UTLA Presidential election is no exception. In an email to would-be supporters this week, candidate Alex Caputo-Pearl set a fundraising goal of $100,000 by the end of the year for his slate of seven candidates, dubbed “Union Power.”

“The Union Power slate has the kind of broad-based support that gives us a real opportunity to win this election,” he said in the email. “It is, however, going to take major funding to do it.”

The email was sharply critical of the current wave of “school reform” thinking, or what Caputo-Pearl calls the “run schools like businesses” approach, “with test scores being viewed as the bottom line.” The email makes no mention of his chief rival and incumbent, Warren Fletcher, viewed by many as the slight favorite to be re-elected for a second three-year term.

Outsider candidate David Garcia said in a recent interview that he will not raise or spend any money. He contends that spending $100,000 has become typical in recent UTLA elections, and that, “for last five cycles, the slate that has spent the most amount of money has won.”

Anyone can contribute to a candidate for UTLA office, although only UTLA members vote. The elections are set to take place in February.

Previous posts: Another Candidate Emerges to Challenge for UTLA Presidency; UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers; Union President Volunteers for Pay Cut

David Garcia

The election campaign for president of the teachers union, UTLA, has expanded with a third candidate entering the race, joining the incumbent, Warren Fletcher, and a previously-announced challenger, Alex Caputo-Pearl, a member of the Progressive Educators for Action caucus within the union.

The new candidate, David Garcia, is a former Navy corpsman and veteran of the first Gulf War who was a high school art teacher until he was laid off in 2010 because of budget cuts.

Now a substitute teacher, Garcia has begun sending emailing flyers with a 14-point campaign plank, which includes promises to lower union dues, to make all officer and board meetings open to the public and to prohibit consecutive terms for UTLA officers.

He’s also pledging to do the job for only $10 an hour, which calculates to about $18,200 a year, about a fifth of Fletcher’s annual salary.

As a frequent speaker at school board meetings, wearing black wraparound sunglasses, Garcia has been deeply critical of LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy. And now he’s taking shots at his campaign opponents.

“Everyone knows that LAUSD is wanting to privatize the school district,” Garcia told LA School Report. “That’s fine, it’s phenomenon that’s going nationwide. Everyone wants to vilify LAUSD, but it takes two to tango. The union hasn’t been doing a good job defending our teachers.”

As for Fletcher, the incumbent: “I think that he’s incompetent,” Garcia said. “He doesn’t return your calls, he doesn’t return your emails. He’s evasive. A real leader would try to bring in the community into the forum. That’s something that Warren Fletcher has avoided at all costs.”

As a parent of four children in the school district, Garcia says he supports what he calls “legitimate reform.” Having taught for years in South LA, he says the district needs to focus more on security for many schools, and he favors randomly searching students for weapons and contraband. He also thinks all teachers should be subject to random drug testing, much like army personnel.

“That would raise the consciousness of the public, convince people that these guys are professionals,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, he’s adamantly opposed to the kinds of reforms put forward by Deasy, such as using test scores as part of teacher evaluations and switching the curriculum to the new Common Core standards.

“No Child Left Behind was a failure, Common Core will no doubt be a failure,” he said. “It just keeps going and going.”

Garcia remains a decided underdog in the election, which will be held in February. Both Fletcher and Caputo-Pearl have bases of support and are expected to raise and spend tens of thousands of dollars. Garcia calls this practice “buying yourself a position of power in the union.”

Money notwithstanding, Garcia does claim to have a secret weapon – an endorsement from renown linguistics professor and liberal activist Noam Chomsky.

Chomsky did not respond to a message seeking confirmation of his endorsement.

But Garcia provided an email from Chomsky, who wrote after reading Garcia’s 14-point plank: “I’m always somewhat reluctant to endorse anyone when I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the circumstances.  But this seems a clear enough case so that I’ll overcome the hesitations. Glad to be listed as an endorser.”

Previous posts: UTLA Factions Lining Up to Oust Fletcher as President; ‘Political Season’ Starting with UTLA Leadership Conference; Union President Likely Faces 2014 Challengers; Union President Volunteers for Pay Cut

Megan Markevich, a middle school English teacher who has been a key sponsor of the initiative, said the proposal’s backers are aiming to “eliminate a lot of hurdles” to teacher participation and low turnout that plagues union elections. “Not enough voices are being heard from our dues paying members,” she said in an interview.

The initiative marks only the third time that members have used an obscure provision in the UTLA constitution that allows a petition with 500 verified signatures to be brought directly before the union membership for approval. Most decisions are reached through UTLA’s elected governing bodies, the House of Representatives, the Board of Directors and Board Officers.

If the proposal is approved, the election process for all leadership positions and contractual ratifications would change to an online system. Currently, union members cast votes by handing paper ballots to their union chapter chairs or election committees on school campuses, or through voting by mail.

The language of the petition, clearly states that online voting would become effective immediately, in time for the upcoming leadership elections slated for early next year, which will include Warren Fletcher’s bid for reelection as union president.

However, UTLA spokesperson Suzanne Spurgeon isn’t so sure a change could occur so quickly. “If it passes, there may not be time for this to take effect for the upcoming UTLA election,” she said in an email. “The election committee would need to solicit bids from firms that conduct online voting.”

The proposal will be voted on by UTLA membership in early November in an election that will be conducted the old-fashioned way — by handing out paper ballots through the chapter chairs at school sites.

Previous Posts: LA Teachers Proposing Online Voting System, Online Voting a Step Closer for UTLA Membership