From a recent OC Weekly article concerning the troubled Capistrano Unified School District’s “reform” trustees:[At a recent meeting, supportive shouts] jab against rumors that the reform trustees, whose campaigns were largely financed by such conservative groups as the Education Alliance and Howard Ahmanson’s Fieldstead & Co., seek to sabotage public education from the inside out. The Education Alliance, which publicly opposes the influence of teachers’ unions, has been a point of contention for the new board’s critics. The Capistrano Unified Education Association, the local teachers’ union, endorsed trustee Christensen and current board president Ellen Addonizio when they ran in 2006; after the Education Alliance got more involved, though, the union vocally and financially backed the opponents of the “reform” slate in 2008. Posts on the website of the local chapter of the California School Employees Association (CSEA), which represents classified staff (including custodians and librarians), say Carter’s dismissal may have been part of a plan to “break the union,” a charge the trustees deny. (Have the problems of the Capo Unified School Board been solved after the recall/reform movement won?)
The President of the SOCCCD board of trustees, Don Wagner, is on the Education Alliance board.
SOCCCD trustee Tom Fuentes is a close friend of Howard Ahmanson’s. Ahmanson is a religious extremist and key financial backer of Creationism, Intelligent Design, and such measures as Proposition 8.
Education Alliance was first formed in the early 90s to promote anti-public ed and anti-union initiatives (e.g., 1994's “school voucher” initiative and 1998's union-busting Prop 226). For years, it was funded by—surprise, surprise!—Howard Ahmanson.
At the last SOCCCD meeting of the board of trustees, at Fuentes' request, OC Treasurer Chriss Street was on hand to explain that local property tax collections, on which the SOCCCD depends, will soon take a hit. With him was his employee Anna Bryson, a noisy Bush supporter, who happens to be among CAPO's "reform" trustees. Bryson has definitely received financial support for her campaigns from Education Alliance (see).Gosh it's a cozy world.
4 comments:
Have any of you actually talked to any of the CUSD trustees or the members of the group that helped them get elected?
You guys are a hoot. Bryson is almost as bureacracy- and union-friendly in her voting record as the Old Guard trustees she was elected to replace. Somehow, the Education Alliance connection that seems to concern you so much isn't playing itself out in reality - at least not based on Bryson's voting record over the past 2+ years. And what makes it all the more interesting, Bryson is the only "reform" trustee who received significant, direct support from the EA. Go figure.
We have not talked with the CAPO trustees, as far as I recall.
The origins and history of the EA are no secret, nor are the organization`s aims and the political nature of its members. Several denizens of the SOCCCD are active with EA or have been recently.
With regard to Bryson, I have noticed that she seems to keep her distance from at least some of the more obnoxious CAPO trustees and misadventures--e.g., the odd incident in which two reform trustees were caught in the Superintendent`s office--and she was the sole holdout with regard to the recent board action against the Superintendent. Still, she at least was part of the problematic reform group, and she did receive money from EA. I do find it interesting that she`s a very active Republican and finds herself working for the high-profile Mr. Street. Funny how this sort of thing so often happens in this county.
The EA may be a known quantity, but with a record of split votes and generally student- and teacher- friendly positions that are anything but EA-agenda-supportive, how do you make the leap that the reform trustees are problematic? In fact, it appears that Bryson is the one who should be raising questions because of her support of the superintendent after the golden parachute grab he and one of the old guard Trustees pulled and then tried to cover up. Turning a blind eye to that sort of thing certainly doesn't speak well of Bryson no matter what you political view is.
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