In the world of K-12 education politics, when you are trying to do something right and shake up the status quo a little bit, it’s very hard to avoid flak. And anyone running for local school board deserves careful scrutiny. But when silly rumors start flying and supposedly serious news agencies report them, I suppose it’s time for someone else to step up and take on the challenge. Hey, no problem: I’m used to being called silly names by teachers unions.
In case you’re not aware, I’m talking about the upcoming elections for Douglas County Board of Education, an area south of metro Denver for the uninitiated. The story begins last December when the local teachers union — affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers — endorsed and gave money to four Board candidates (including two incumbents), one in each of the competing districts. (See the document at the bottom for screenshots of campaign finance reports.)
Then the local Republican Party endorsed four other Board candidates (including one incumbent) to challenge them. So why do we act shocked that Republicans representing parents and taxpayers in conservative Douglas County opt to back candidates other than the ones financed by the teachers union?
Maybe because it’s not terribly common to see those bound together by their support for parental choice, charter schools, high academic standards, financial transparency, and accountability — agenda items to which union leaders generally are not favorable — try to get a little organized.
But just exactly why did the highly-respected Ed News Colorado team report the story so breathlessly yesterday?
Because of the reactionary backlash from status quo-friendly forces. Worse, though, why did Ed News Colorado re-publish an unsubstantiated rumor about the Republican-backed candidates — a rumor with its only known origins in the diary of a liberal Colorado Pols blogger? (The same diary also falsely asserted that the Colorado League of Charter Schools is supporting the candidates, which it has not done and cannot legally do.)
According to a Douglas County source, at least three of the Republican-backed candidates also received a call from the Denver Post‘s Jeremy Meyer asking about the rumor, which they obviously refuted as the figment of someone’s imagination.
But as I noted at the beginning, the flak will fly — including in the form of rumor and innuendo — when taxpaying citizens form a credible challenge to established interest groups in the K-12 system. In this case, the interest group of course is the AFL-CIO member American Federation of Teachers, which has given money not only to its slate of four endorsed candidates but also to a new 527 group called Accountability for Kids.
Registered agent for the 527 group is Heather Atkinson, who worked as recently as this spring for Carolyn Siegel’s Denver lobbying firm. You may recognize Siegel’s name as one of the alleged Colorado Democracy Alliance insiders — specifically, her name is listed on the infamous memo next to “AFL-CIO public relations -educate the idiots”.
But in any case, Siegel is the former AFL-CIO political director. With Atkinson on board, we’ll have to watch closely to see if the 527 “Accountability for Kids” will be collecting union political contributions from all over the state (and other states, too?). The automatic dues of construction workers, pipefitters, heat insulators, and service employees being redirected to fund a school board race far away.
Now there’s a side of the story that would be interesting to cover, too. But maybe the story of union-backed school board candidates is too passe and commonplace. Unless I came up with an unsubstantiated rumor of my own about the AFT or its chosen candidates, local media outlets would work diligently to track it down. That would get traction, right? Nah, never mind, I don’t want to play that game….
The fact that the four candidates were not endorsed by the union should be worn like a badge of honor. AND thank goodness they are running!! Four districts cancelled elections because their candidates were unopposed… Now that’s scary
I am a candidate in District D for the upcoming Douglas County School Board election. Three Douglas County newspapers have endorsed me in District D (The News Press of Douglas County, Highlands Ranch Herald, and Lone Tree Voice.)
I am a Republican since 1993 and was Douglas County Republican Party delegates in 2004, 2006, and 2008. I was also webmaster for the Colorado Federation of Republican Women in 2005.
School Board election is a non-partisan race but my Party’s Central Committee endorsed 4 Republicans in July 18, 6 weeks before the filing deadline for candidates and 2 months before the teachers’ union made an endorsement.
My Party boss now has accused me to be a handpicked candidate by the union even though I have not received a dime of donation from the teachers’ union. My opponent was the only candidates that did not bother to show up at the teachers’ forum in August 31. Who do you expect to get the endorsement?
Two of the 4 chosen one are lawyers but I am the only one who has owned a successful Douglas County business. Yet, they claimed to be fiscal conservatives.
I am the only candidate who testified for Senator Harvey’s transparency act. However, they are the one who claim that they are for transparency.
I am the one who had child in a charter school and was a member of the District Advisory Committee’s charter school sub-committee. Yet they claim to be a supporter for charter school even though 2 out of 4 don’t even have children in Douglas county school district.
My Party has spent $13,000 so far and will send out 78,000 flyers only to the party members to support its chosen 4. Our Party’s phone bank will be used to defeat two of its fellow Republicans, all in the name of union busting.
The CODE OF ETHICS FOR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS said that school board members should “refrain from using my board position for partisan gain.” Yet, the 4 chosen one are all adhered to one Party’s platform and is funded and promoted heavily by one single party.
As a loyal member of the party and a fiscal conservative, I am heartbroken by my party’s action to divide the community and to pick a fight to the teachers who normally are very supportive for the school district.
A house divided against itself cannot stand,” to quote a famous Republican, President Lincoln. In such difficult time, we need to have school board members that can bring people together. We need to have school board members that “Respect for the needs and feelings of other people, a well-developed sense of fair play, and the ability to listen and communicate well.”
The party boss does not own you. Please elect the best candidates for the job based on his/her response from newspapers, the candidate forums, his/her experience, and whether the person has the best interest of our community.
Kevin Leung
Douglas County School Board Candidate – District D
http://www.kevinyleung.com
kevinyleung@hotmail.com
Castle Rock, CO
In the 1930’s, labor unions got legitimacy. Under the Roosevelt administration, labor unions got protection and the ability to organize industrial laborers. The Unions then represented workers who made things. The United Auto Workers, Mineworkers, Steelworkers, etc. It was good to be a Union boss.
Now we are in the 21st century and so many U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Unions have seen their membership shrink as the reason for their existence has withered on the vine. Union bosses have a good rich life, paid for by the dues of their workers. So the bosses made the decision to go outside the industrial world that had justified their existence. One area of greatest union growth in today’s world is the government worker.
The AFL-CIO is America’ largest union. Among its components are the following:
AFGE – with 600,000 federal employees.
AFSCME – with 1.6 million nurses, child care providers, EMT’s and sanitation workers.
SEIU – Service Employees International Union with 1.8 million employees in health care, public services and janitors. The SEIU is in hot water for being in bed with ACORN.
AFT – American Federation of Teachers – with 850,000 teachers, school related personnel, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Because the AFL-CIO is under pressure to expand their worker base and because so many of the new growth areas are government and health care workers, it is no wonder that all of the AFL-CIO entities are strongly in favor of a Single Payer Government Health Care system, Card Check and Obama. This results in some rather startling positions for a labor union to take especially a Teacher’s union.
The American Federation of Teachers strongly supports Government health care.
The American Federation of Teachers strongly supports the Employee Free Choice Act also know as Card Check.
The American Federation of Teachers board unanimously endorsed Barack Obama for president well before he became his party’s nominee.
In our area, there has been a significant rise in the number of charter schools within the Douglas County School District. The teachers and employees at these charter schools do not belong to a union. They don’t pay union dues. Charter schools do not have any limitations imposed upon them by union contracts. The AFL-CIO wants a piece of this action and so far they are shut out. If the charters are unionized, there would be little difference between them and the unionized public schools.
The AFL-CIO game plan is surprisingly simple. The Douglas County School board has 7 districts with elected school board members. Four of the districts seats are up election this year. The AFL-CIO through its AFT section, has handpicked a candidate for each of the four districts. To be endorsed by the AFL-CIO, the handpicked candidates presumably had to fill out a union questionnaire and be interviewed. They would voice the right beliefs and make the right promises to get endorse.
The four candidates that met the approval of the AFL-CIO are:
Sue Catterall, a democrat running in District B.
Kevin Leung, running in District D
Kristine Turner, running in District E
Emily Hansen, a democrat running in District G
A union sweep in the upcoming election will likely open the doors to unionizing the Charter Schools.
The Republican Party has taken notice of this union power play. They have endorsed four candidates themselves. The four candidates that met the approval of the Douglas County Republicans are:
John Carson, running in District B vs. Catterall
Daniel Gerken, running in District D vs. Leung
Doug Benevento, running in District E vs. Turner
Meghann Silverthorne, running in District G vs. Hansen
For a Douglas County Voter, the choices are stark in light of the union’s power play.
If you like Government Health Care, unionized Charter Schools and Barack Obama, go with the union picked candidates.
If you don’t want Government Health Care, unionized Charters or the direction the country is heading, go with the Republican endorsed candidates.
All of the candidates above, live in Douglas County. All are well educated. The two groups differ philosophically and fundamentally in their world view of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
On October 5th, one of the last school board candidate forums was held in Castle Rock. Both sides had rehearsed their talking points. In summary, the union backed candidates want to pass bonds and raise taxes to pay the union teachers and school workers. The union candidates approved the board’s decision to cut off bus service to certain kids and parents of the district.
The Republican backed candidates want to pay attention to and represent the taxpayers of Douglas County. After all, only 38% of property tax payers have kids in the DC Schools. These candidates strongly disapproved of the school bus cuts, since busses represent only ½ % of the school district budget. They look at bond or tax hikes with skepticism.
The union backed candidates care about the teachers and other union members. The Republican backed candidates care about the parents, homeowners and kids.
Since this is a county wide election, voters will get the chance to vote for all 4 seats. The campaign signs you see are mostly for the union backed candidates and are likely paid for by the AFL-CIO. It is a mail-in election and the ballots will appear in your mailbox shortly.
Mike Robinson is Senior Partner at Robinson & Henry P.C., a Castle Rock Law Firm.