Latina Democrat endorsing Larry Elder is wrong about him but right to challenge her party
Gloria Romero is the most high-profile Democrat to break party ranks by endorsing Los Angeles shock jock Larry Elder in the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The first woman to be Senate Majority leader in California, Romero is not wrong for doing so.
It’s true that Romero is dead wrong about Elder. He’d be a nightmare as governor of California because he knows little about government, leadership or policy. He’s a hero to racists, and a misogynist — I could go on and on.
But the reason Romero is wrongly turning to Elder is completely right.
Our public schools are failing Black kids, Latino kids, homeless kids, troubled kids and disabled kids. Any road to reforming this reality always dies at the immovable barrier called the California Teachers Association.
Everybody knows this is the truth, but in Sacramento and beyond, politicians, “business leaders,” “Black leaders,” “Latino leaders” and everyone else is afraid to say it out loud because they know they will pay the consequences. They know CTA money and CTA politics will hunt them down and make them sorry.
A few years ago, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg tweeted that he “had the back” of Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar as Aguilar was being criticized by the Sacramento City Teachers Association. The union was furious with him to the point where Steinberg regretted his tweet.
He’s supportive of Aguilar but has tread lightly with the union ever since. To be fair, Steinberg denies this characterization of his posture toward the union. He points out that CTA once paid for billboards in Sacramento that trashed him for supporting education reform legislation authored by Romero herself.
Steinberg is one of Sacramento’s most accomplished politicians in generations and he has supported school board candidates opposed by CTA. But despite his support, and having his heart in the right place, nothing ever changes. CTA freezes Steinberg out. It’s their way or the highway.
Meanwhile, do you see Steinberg or any other local politician leading a charge for reform amid news that SCUSD teachers suspend Black kids at one of the highest rates in the state? Nope.
Do you hear Black leaders in Sacramento demanding that the Black suspension rate be rectified immediately? Nope.
Why is that? Because any talk of Black suspensions ultimately leads to classrooms where suspensions are taking place. Such conversations ultimately lead to the biases and behaviors of largely white teachers doing the suspending.
No one in Sacramento or California with political aspirations is gonna probe that hornet’s nest. Meanwhile, addressing the issue at the district level requires a school district to negotiate with CTA members.
In other words, forget about it.
Teachers union demands control
This’s just one way that inequality in our schools goes on year after year. Aguilar has spent nearly five years trying to push an equity agenda that puts the priorities of students first, particularly those kids from groups that Romero has spent her adult life trying to help.
SCTA members, who are largely white, cast a vote of “no confidence” against Aguilar earlier this year despite the fact that his school board unanimously approved an extension of his contract.
Why? Because Aguilar has stuck to his equity agenda, continues to try to financially stabilize the district and has resisted a teachers union that behave as if they are co-superintendents of the district. They’re not.
Newsom and a California legislature dominated by Democrats are complicit in this. They know how these battles are playing out in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, to name a few.
Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, a terrific and courageous legislator, commissioned an audit of the district finances. That audit found that the district was overextended on its health care commitments to teachers. Not only are SCUSD teachers the highest paid in the region, but they also have Cadillac health benefits rivaled only by Bay Area schools.
The state auditor recommended that all employees, including Aguilar, take a pay cut and that health benefits be moved to a more inexpensive pool as neighboring districts have. That was two years ago.
Has it happened? No. Has McCarty called press conferences and tried to rally the community behind the idea that his very own audit concluded? No way.
Why? See: Steinberg, Newsom, Democrats.
Democrats fear CTA
When The Bee’s editorial board interview Newsom in July, I asked him why he allowed CTA to block the schoolhouse doors to my kids last year when his private school kids got to stay in school during the pandemic.
His answer didn’t come within 10,000 miles of my question.
At 66, Romero is fed up with all of this. She’s fed up with her own party being owned by CTA at the expense of kids, and she’s not wrong for feeling this way.
““My mantra is, ‘If we don’t educate, we will incarcerate,’” Romero told Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times.
Romero is absolutely right. Of course, she’s not only dismissed for thinking Elder could help kids he doesn’t really care about either. Romero is also dismissed for being a long-time proponent of charter schools.
In CTA-controlled Sacramento, supporting charter schools means you’re “anti-union.” It means you are in league with Republicans. Supporting charter schools means you are dead to CTA, marked for life.
My kids are students in SCUSD, not at charter schools. I support Aguilar because I want my public school district to be strong and equitable, and to put the interests of kids above those of adults.
But there’s no constituency for this hope of mine. CTA owns the schools, and you either fight a war with them if you want to improve student outcomes or seek other options.
That’s why wealthy people in Sacramento send their kids to private or charter schools. You get tired of the ugliness and bolt.
It’s hard to have a real conversation to change this dynamic when people are literally afraid to speak.
Earlier this week, I saw a bunch of respected people I know in Sacramento taking turns dumping on Romero, calling her a traitor.
This is a self-made woman from a poor family in Barstow, the armpit of California, who made something out of herself. She became a leader — someone who deserves respect — but now she’s a punchline for people who haven’t done anything for public school kids.
Romero cares more about public school kids than any of the people laughing at her now. She’s wrong about Elder, and likely knows it in her heart, but what’s the alternative? California libs care more about teacher salaries than public school kids neglected by the state’s strongest, most insidious constituency.
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
