Tuesday, April 27, 2010

So they tell me

MORE RIGHT-WING POLITICS. A source tells me that IVC's Performing Arts Center (PAC) was rented this past Sunday. He says that he is under the impression that the PAC people thought it was an earthquake event. Instead it was a Republican Party Rally -– including Trustee Don Wagner, local candidates, etc. I’ll seek confirmation. UPDATE: an anonymous person emailed me to say that "they were told it was a mtng about water issues - which it was - it just also became a rally." I did some looking, and it appears that the event concerned the California "water crisis." The issue is very popular among the "patriot" or Tea Party crowd. See, e.g., "California Water Crisis." 

As far as I know, political groups are entitled to rent the PAC. On the other hand, we sure do see lots of right-wingery in this district. Doesn't look good.

MR. GOO AT CAPO? Another source tells me that a reliable friend insists that Raghu Mathur is a finalist for the Superintendent job at CAPO (i.e., the Capistrano Unified School District). Again, I’ll seek confirmation.

Education Alliance is the right-wing political group that hovers in the background of the CAPO board's policies and actions--at the very least EA is a major funder of CAPO trustee campaigns--and Mathur has connections with EA. Gosh, I hope the CAPO teachers union knows about this (well, if it's true).

UPDATE: I recall a meeting two or three years ago in which Mathur referred to his attendance of an Education Alliance gathering. So I checked the SOCCCD website and found the September 07 Board Meeting Highlights. There, we're informed that

Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur...thanked Trustee Wagner for inviting him to the Education Alliance dinner....

UPDATE #2: for the Spring '08 SOCCCD "Chancellor's Opening Session," Mathur invited Lance Izumi as his special guest.

Izumi is on the Director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI). PRI and Izumi appear to be aligned with the Education Alliance-affiliated trustees of CAPO.

Back in December of 2009, we posted Trojan horses in public schools, a portion of which follows:


TODAY, the Reg reported that
A libertarian think-tank that prominently features the Capistrano Unified School District in a documentary about how the U.S. public school system is broken will screen its 49-minute film this afternoon on Capitol Hill. [The documentary] recounts a five-year effort by the CUSD Recall Committee parents group to bring reforms to a school district plagued by scandal, community unrest and allegations of corruption reaching into the highest levels of its administration.… The 2:30 p.m. screening will be hosted by two leading GOP lawmakers....

Co-hosting the screening will be the film's executive producer, Lance Izumi, and [the director]….
Lance Izumi? Does that name sound familiar? It should. Izumi was Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur’s super-special guest speaker at the Spring ’08 “Opening Session.” He was co-billed with Elvis. Remember?
The filmmakers highlight the much-criticized construction of Capistrano's sprawling district office building, the grand jury indictment of a former superintendent, and the unpopular decision to build a high school on a hilly site bordered by high-voltage transmission lines, landfills and a high-pressure gasoline pipeline.

The filmmakers also traveled to Nashville, Tenn., to profile a family's unhappiness with local public schools, to Sweden to examine that country's school voucher system, and to Oakland to chronicle the turnaround of an inner-city charter school.
...
Several Capistrano trustees who ran on the CUSD Recall Committee's "reform" platform attended the May premiere of the film, drawing ire from critics who questioned why public school officials were apparently supporting a film calling for sweeping reforms to public education, including school choice [i.e., programs allowing parents to spend government vouchers on private schools].
That is mighty strange, isn’t it? Public school officials in favor of the private school “voucher” concept? Gee willikers! It's almost perverse!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re Mathur & CAPO: PLEASE say it ain't so! Haven't the long-suffering teachers and parents gone thru enough?!

Anonymous said...

Of COURSE it was a GOP fest - and who says they didn't know anything about it. Come ON. Just look at the guest list.

Anonymous said...

Wow. That's all CAPO needs right now. Damn.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it nice how everyone scratches everyone else's hairy backs? So good of Tom. So good of Glen. Congrats to Raghu and Don.

Anonymous said...

What a nightmare we are going through here in the CUSD world. The teachers and parents overwhelmingly pushed back against the shameful Board of Trustees in spectacular fashion. Hooray! But then...ack! What's this?? The BOT has suddenly found their pick for superintendent and it is, in fact, this Mr. Raghu Mathur? So I Googled Mr. Mathur and there seems to be quite a bit of controversy surrounding him. Most of it very familiar to what we've been seeing too much of here within CAPO already. What the french toast are we going to do now?! Stay vigilant, I suppose. CUSD parents, students and teachers may have won the battle, but the Education Alliance and its agents are indeed waging a war. Suggestions? (PS. I'm a CUSD parent, by the way.)

Anonymous said...

Of COURSE Capo's board would want someone like Mathur - check out his reign or error and terror here.

Anonymous said...

I recall that Mathur has attended Education Alliance gatherings. I looked at the SOCCCD website, and found the Sept/07 Board Meeting Highlights. There, we're informed that

Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur...thanked Trustee Wagner for inviting him to the Education Alliance dinner and congratulated Administrator of the Year President Roquemore and Manager of the Year Laura Abrams, District Payroll Manager. BvT

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...