The Network for Public Education Action Fund endorses Tony Thurmond for Superintendent of Public Institution in California!
California is a mess because of the intrusion of billionaires into education, billionaires who do not send their own children to public schools but want to control and privatize them. They pour millions into school board races, and they are now pouring millions into the state superintendent race, in hopes of capturing that important position.
Tony Thurmond’s opponent, Marshall Tuck, has a long history in the charter industry. Although he claims to be a Democrat (as in DFER), Tuck was endorsed by the California Republican party. Thurmond won the support of 95% of the delegates to the California Democratic party convention. Tuck was also endorsed by Arne Duncan, and Duncan’s endorsement means support of charter schools, high-stakes testing, and misuse of test scores to evaluate teachers.
California desperately needs accountability and transparency for its unregulated charter sector, not a fox in charge of the henhouse.
, Broad, and the other billionaires, should spend their money to improve schools rather than to attack teachers. https://capitalandmain.com/charter-school-donors
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From the Sacramento Bee
Fresh off a Supreme Court loss that stripped them of millions of dollars in an annual revenue, California public employee unions are finding that they still have the big money they need to run statewide political campaigns.
It just might not be enough cash to keep up with their opponents.
The first test of California public-sector union spending after labor’s June defeat at the Supreme Court in Janus vs. AFSCME is unfolding in the race for state superintendent, a contest that typically attracts intense interest from education unions and groups that want to embrace charter schools.
Education unions have ponied up $12.3 million in an independent expenditure committee to back Democratic Assemblyman Tony Thurmond. Thurmond has raised another $2.3 million in his committee.
Charter school advocates and billionaires like Bill Bloomfield and Eli Broad have amassed $30.3 million in independent expenditure committees supporting Tuck. Tuck has accumulated another $4.3 million in his own fundraising account.
It’s a daunting deficit for the education unions that have thrown their weight behind Thurmond.
The massive California Teachers Association, for instance, had a membership rate of about 90 percent last year, meaning the Janus decision cost it fair share fees from about 10 percent of the 325,000 educators it represented.
California Teachers Association spends big
The CTA is a perennial political powerhouse. It spearheaded the $121 million campaign unions bankrolled in 2005 to stymie then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s initiatives to revamp teacher tenure and restrict government spending.
It reported spending a combined $11 million on state politics between its independent expenditure committee and its issues political action committee in 2014, when Torlakson defeated Tuck. It has spent $16 million this year through those accounts, according to state records.
Low’s union advocates for the state’s 240,000 classified employees in public schools. It orchestrated a membership campaign leading up to the Janus decision that boosted its ranks
Tuck, who led a nonprofit organization overseeing struggling Los Angeles schools, is perceived as friendlier to charter schools than Thurmond. The California Charter Schools Association Advocates has contributed $1 million to an independent expenditure committee supporting Tuck.
Tuck said the high spending in the race reflects an urgency among voters to see progress at lower-performing schools.
“I want to get a lot more flexibility to the school districts,” Tuck said. “We’re the wealthiest state in the nation, and we have some of the worst schools. We need fundamental change, and that’s what this race at its core is about.”
Madeline Franklin, Thurmond’s campaign manager, said education unions are sticking with Thurmond rather than joining the deep-pocketed donors backing Tuck.
Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article220859565.html#storylink=cpy
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