Schools and Communities First – Los Angeles Education Examiner

Split Decision on Board Elections Reverses School Board Alignment – EdX News from Election 2020

Seventeen hours from the close of polls in LA County (LAC) leaves a mixed set of results – from polar opposite wins, to hopeful-anticipation.

While 100% of LAC’s precincts have reported partial results, VBM (Vote By Mail) ballots continue to be delivered to ballot counting facilities statewide, including LAC’s Norwalk, where the count is on-going. Updates to LAC counts will not come before the close of day and starting next week, only twice per week.

When registration for delivery of VBM ballots closed last month, 5,709,853 were registered to vote in LAC. Registrations at Vote Centers since that time, including right up through the close of election day, remain unreported.

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Uneven early voting across LAUSD Districts means it may count more than ever.

Are you wondering whether the vote is effectively all over. Whether so many early ballots have been returned there’s, say, little point still in advocating for Schools And Community First (prop 15)? For community college board members? For Schools local bond measure RR? For your LAUSD BD3 (Schmerelson v Koziatek) or LAUSD BD7 (Castellanos v Franklin) board member?

The TL;DR is Your vote is still needed! Your advocacy is crucial. At best 4 in 5 ballots have not yet been counted as returned. Students are needing their voters’ support.

Who’s already gotten their VBM in? Who votes in the districts electing a school board member?

In a Big News Week, Updated Schools and Communities First Quietly Qualifies for the November Ballot

Back in April, backers of Schools and Communities First submitted a record-breaking 1.7 million signatures to the Secretary of State to qualify the funding measure for the fall ballot. While the state had to verify the signatures, less than 1 million were needed so it was all-but-certain the measure would earn its ballot spot.

And over the weekend, the state made it official. Schools and Communities First will be on the ballot.

“With the steep cuts in our county budget we’ll be faced with really difficult decisions that will jeopardize people’s access to these critically needed services,” writes Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheilia Kuehl.

Backers of “Schools and Communities First” Submit Record Breaking Number of Signatures for Inclusion on Fall Ballot.

Backers of the Schools and Communities First Ballot Initiative didn’t let a little thing like a global pandemic stop them from submitting 1.7 million signatures to the California Secretary of State to earn a spot on the November ballot. The measure needs 50%+1 vote to pass. California’s fiscal analyst estimates it would raise an estimated $8-$12.5 billion a year for education and public safety by changing the state constitution and raising property taxes on California’s largest businesses.

“Now more than ever, we need to support those heroes on the front lines who have been caring for the most vulnerable, educating our children, and keeping Californians safe,” said Alex Stack, communications director for the Schools & Communities First campaign, in a press statement.

To qualify for the fall ballot, Schools and Communities First would need nearly one million verified signatures (read: signatures of voters registered in California). Because of poor handwriting, error recording the signatures or people just putting bad information on the signature sheets, the state recommends gathering 20% more signatures than the minimum requirement.

Protect The Tax-Payer’s Revolution

Here in L.A., we’ve just finished weighing in on two ballot questions regarding schools funding. Really engaged activists and politicians will argue the initiatives we voted on are unrelated, both the two just addressed and another coming up. But many of us see a set of connected dots in a three-part series: Measure EE [June 2019], Proposition 13 [2020], Schools And Communities First (SCF).

The three initiatives do share a common objective in funding schools, but their significance shifts according to the context in which each is evaluated.

One year ago during a cold and rainy January, UTLA’s teachers (and allied communities) went on strike for contract concessions above and beyond the typical matter of a paycheck. At issue were systemic questions of management and budget, District resources and their equitable distribution, and the very nature of public service in our modern democracy.