Monica Ratliff for LAUSD School Board
The Empress Pavilion
Thursday, April 18, 2013 from 5:30—7:30PM
988 N. Hill St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Hosted by Ed Burke, Mario Cano, Hon. Bennett Kayser, Hon. Julie Korenstein, Connie Moreno, with special guests Hon. Jackie Goldberg and David Tokofsky
Hello Friend,
I am happy to let you know about a marvelous young candidate, a teacher, for LA School Board in a run-off in the area I served for 8 years in the East San Fernando Valley. She grew up with a single mom who went back to school to help her daughter go to College at Columbia University. Well her daughter, Monica Ratliff, won a National Hispanic Scholarship to Columbia and then went on to Columbia Law School. After law school she went to work both at the NAACP and Neighborhood Legal Services in the SF Valley. She then decided and has now taught for 11 years at a downtown garment district poverty elementary school earning honors for her commitment to students. She won the LA Times and the LA Daily News Endorsement. I would very much like you to support her as her opponent received 1.2 million dollars to her 14,000 dollars. I hope you will join us or send your support for her campaign.
Thanks always,
David Tokofsky
Monica Ratliff for LAUSD at Empress Pavilion Fundraiser by Robert D. Skeels
Some Thoughts on the District 6 Election
One other thing about Ms. Ratliff that Mr. Tokofsky failed to mention above: she's NOT supported by Rupert Murdoch, Eli Broad, Philip Anschutz, and Michelle Rhee like some other District 6 candidates are.
When United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) House of Representatives (HOR) was voting on endorsements, I was with a group of Adult Education Students supporting my candidacy (when you work with the community, you get community support) passing out our literature to voting HOR members. I was standing next to a young man who I assumed was an intern or working on another candidate's campaign. I introduced myself as a District 2 candidate and he said his name was Antonio Sanchez, a candidate for District 6. I asked him my stock question that I ask all political candidates, "what is your stance on school privatization." I was taken aback by his response, especially given we were in an union hall. He said "I don't like that word, we need to get away from using that word." Next morning I read in the LA Times that he came out of the Villaraigosa camp. That made sense in light of his political affiliations. Sanchez didn't want to talk about school privatization at the UTLA building because he's in favor of school privatization. At the Stonewall Democratic Club endorsement meeting I had the temerity to bring up Antonio Sanchez's connections with the arch-reactionary Coalition for School Reform (CSR), including Philip Anschutz, who was a major player in the passage of Prop 8. That truth made for a close vote, but afterwards I was told I was being unfair for "tarring Sanchez with the brush on an IE" (independent expenditure).
Let's be clear. Had I ever been endorsed by or learned that a Coalition for School Reform IE had been established on my behalf by fringe-right reactionaries including: Rupert Murdoch, Philip Anschutz, Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, Jamie Alter-Lynton, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Michael Bloomberg, and others, I would have immediately held a press conference denouncing their politics and disassociating myself from both them and their vile ideologies. Of course, that's because I believe in public education and oppose privatization and neoliberalism.
Photos from 1010 Wilshire Fundraiser Hosted by Suzie & Sean Abajian and Reynaldo Rivera on March 15, 2013
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