Teachers unions trying to take back O.C. Board

By GLORIA ROMERO 

April 27, 2016

In addition to making known their presidential preferences, Orange County voters on June 7 also will make critical decisions impacting the continued on a path of supporting greater parental choice in public education and jump-starting education reforms in local schools.

Orange County Board of Education Trustees Kenneth Williams and Robert Hammond are seeking re-election. The board has become a model for championing choice and opportunity for students and taxpayers alike. Williams and Hammond served as the minority on the five-member board until the previous election cycle, when they were joined by Linda Lindholm, forming a refreshingly candid and courageous new majority.

Not beholden to county teachers unions or other special interests, they saw to it that petitions were no longer summarily denied to grant rights to independent charter schools seeking to start schools in Orange County. This switch came much to the chagrin of teachers unions, and even some school board members, because it meant an end to a default geographically based monopoly for school enrollment.

With charters, parents can “vote with their feet” and choose the school – rather than being forced by their address to enroll their child in a school that even the state of California recognizes as chronically underperforming. Teachers unions also oppose charter schools because charter school teachers and staff are not mandated to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

The new OCBE majority quickly drew the ire of old-guard interests. Two political action committees have been established to defeat Hammond and Williams on June 7, targeting them for having the audacity to prioritize the interests of students over the interests of adults employed by school districts. A series of private meetings have been held recently to discuss the opposition’s “victory” plan, as depicted in a six-page PowerPoint presentation I obtained.

So, voters, beware when you receive mail from something called “Teachers for Local Control,” which claims to be looking out for you, as Hammond and Williams are portrayed as scoundrels intent on destroying local control, devastating public education and usurping and overturning the wisdom of locally elected trustees.

The name “Teachers for Local Control” undoubtedly was poll tested and determined to be a resonant mantra with Orange County voters. What backers probably won’t reveal is that Teachers for Local Control is a chameleon group for the Santa Ana Educators Association, a local affiliate of the powerful Sacramento-based California Teachers Association, which has fought virtually every public education reform and law granting parental school choice in California.

In fact, the legal phone number for Teachers for Local Control provided to the California Secretary of State’s Office is the same number as for the Santa Ana teachers union office.

Whoops.

To oppose Hammond and Williams, local teachers unions picked Tustin Councilwoman Rebecca Gomez and Irvine school board trustee Michael Parham to advance their position that approving charter schools “undermines local control.” Hopefully, voters will understand that the “local control” they seek to protect is control by those who used to control the OCBE until voters threw out their cronies and elected independent candidates, like Hammond, Williams and Lindholm, who aren’t afraid to support local parents and students.

Miles Durfee of California Charter Schools Association Advocates hailed the Orange County Education Board members’ support for quality educational choices, highlighting that “in an environment, where a school district board and superintendent is calling for an illegal moratorium on charter school options, the county board members have played a vital leadership role [by]… focusing on kids rather than adults.”

Your vote is your voice.

Gloria Romero is an education reformer and former Democratic state senator.