Monica & Co are at it again: FIGHT PRIVATIZER PLAN TO SUBVERT DEMOCRATIC ENDORSEMENT IN SCHOOL BOARD RACE

by Anne Zerrien-Lee, bilingual public school teacher and grassroots Democrat, via email

Dear public education advocates,

Please let  your friends, colleagues and family members know about this.

Registered Democrats who live in the new 51st Assembly District can vote on this.  The names are on their June 5 ballots.  The 51st AD includes all of unincorporated East LA including City Terrace and the Union Pacific neighborhood, plus the Los Angeles communities of El Sereno, Hillside Village, Hermon, Montecito Heights, Lincoln Heights, Garvanza, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Elysian Valley, Solano Canyon, Echo Park, Angeleno Heights, Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown and Silverlake.

School Board President Monica Garcia is running a slate of candidates for the County Democratic Central Committee in the 51st AD specifically to oppose grassroots advocates who fight to keep public education truly public and who fight for the rights of workers, including teachers and health & human services professionals, to bargain collectively for due process, decent wages and benefits.

Monica and her staff have been working hard to privatize our public schools, turn them over to charters, destroy the reputation of teachers and break our unity -- oh yeah, and to reduce our wages and take away our health care benefits.

The only way we can redirect the resources of our district back into the classroom, get rid of all the high-priced consultants and stop privatization is by regaining a majority of school board seats in 2013 for candidates who represent the 99%. Monica and her pals are doing the bidding of billionaires like Eli Broad and Bill Gates, who represent the 1% and who want to privatize public education to turn a profit.

So the question is, why would Monica and her pals bother running for this volunteer position on the County Democratic Central Committee?

It's so they can block advocates of truly public education and advocates for the teachers and other school district support personnel from getting the Democratic endorsement in the 2013 school board race, an endorsement that carries enough weight with voters that it helped Bennett Kayser defeat Monica's then-chief of staff Luis Sanchez in the last school board election.

That's why we need to shine a light on their slate, and let the voters know what Monica and her slate are up to. They call themselves "progressive" to steal our votes. But really they are working for the robber barons.

The pro-public education candidates, the ones who back workers' rights, including the rights of teachers and health & human services professionals, are those grassroots Democrats who have already proven themselves by voting last time around to give the Democratic endorsement to Bennett Kayser. Those proven pro-teacher candidates listened to the pleas of our RIFd teachers, listened to public education champion Jackie Goldberg, and voted for the public good -- not for the billionaires' puppets.

The proven pro-teacher candidates are: Chris Arrellano, Mary Garripoli, Mary Rose Ortega, Ruby Medrano, Gail Burns and Carlos Leon. Their names will appear on your ballot if you are a registered Democrat living in the 51st AD.

As a public school classroom teacher, an advocate for truly public education and someone who believes our entire democracy is threatened by the many privatization schemes of the 1%, I want to encourage all Democrats, and especially those of us who are UTLA members and supporters living in the 51st Assembly District, to vote for the proven pro-teacher and pro-public education candidates in the June 5 election -- not for Monica Garcia's slate -- for seats on the LA County Democratic Central Committee.

Electing the right people is vitally important to the continued existence of truly public education, which is rapidly being privatized and destroyed by our current schoolboard under the leadership of Monica Garcia.