Key takeaways from this week's election

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The State of our Government Unions
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Dear John,

While ballots are still rolling in through the mail, California voter turnout for this week’s primary election will likely be the lowest in the last 20 years ([link removed]) , with only one in five registered voters casting a ballot. Besides the voter apathy, there are still a number of key takeaways from the election results.

For starters, Republican baseball legend Steve Garvey’s second place finish accomplished two laudable goals: It has somewhat energized Republicans who usually feel powerless in the one-party Golden State, and taken the insufferable Democrat Katie Porter out of politics — at least for now — as she gave up her Orange County Congressional seat to run for Senate.

But the bellwether of things to come in California can be seen from the election results in Orange County.

Low turnout should create easy win conditions for the highly organized and well-funded. Teachers unions — which are better funded and better organized than most candidates — were set up for success. But they failed in their efforts to flip the solidly pro-school choice Orange County Board of Education (OCBE), which oversees Orange County’s education budget and the county's 43 charter schools.

Local teacher unions have spent months campaigning, organizing, marketing — even lobbying for changes to the electoral system — attacking OCBE. On top of that, they’ve spent hundreds of thousands dollars of their members’ dues directly on union-backed candidates and against OCBE incumbents.

But by the current count, the pro-charter majority looks to have held their seats — and it wasn’t even close.

“I think voters responded to my message of parents rights and school choice,” said ([link removed]) incumbent Tim Shaw, who looks likely to defeat the union’s anti-charter school candidate David Johnson.

The unions’ record against OCBE is dismal: Since 2018 there have been 11 opportunities to gain ground on the countywide appeals board. The teacher union-funded candidates lost 10 of those races.

Why are the teachers unions so focused on OCBE? Because the board has taken a strong pro-charter school position and approved 29 charter schools over the last 6 years.

Charter schools are public schools that are managed free from union control, which means that the success of charter schools exposes the failure of neighboring union-run schools — and unions will stop at nothing to kill their competition.

Former State Senator John Moorlach, director of CPC’s Center of Public Accountability, was elected to the Orange County Republican Central Committee this week, and explains the dynamic in his recent column in The Epoch Times ([link removed]) :

"Here in the Orange and Los Angeles County area, districts are closing schools due to declining enrollment. There are 1,400 schools in California that saw enrollment decline by 20 percent or more.

The only area where enrollment is improving is with California’s charter schools. And Mr. Newsom and the Legislature, in conjunction with the California Teachers Association and related public school teacher unions, have done everything in their power to limit access to and growth of charter schools...

The simple truth is that parents are waiting in line to enter their children into charter schools. The Orange County Classical Academy in the city of Orange has a lengthy list of students wishing to attend. And why not? Charter schools outperform regular unionized public schools. And charter teachers are happier than their counterparts in public schools."

Another reason Orange County has become ground zero for unions’ ire?

When pro-parent candidates were elected to the Orange Unified School Board, the board immediately ejected the union-controlled district superintendent. Unions declared war: They launched recall campaigns against the newly-elected pro-parent candidates — Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma. While there are still thousands of votes to count over the next month, sadly, it looks like the recall may succeed.

In California, teachers unions have controlled our local school boards for decades. Establishing that control is quite easy. Unions use teacher members' dues to get the unions’ candidates elected to the school board and their union network to help get out the vote. Once elected, these candidates vote to support union demands on everything from salary increases to retirement benefits.

A recent CPC report ([link removed]) exposed what looks to be coordinated money laundering schemes where millions of dollars are contributed by unions to California Democratic Central Committees that end up in key legislative coffers. In the case of Orange County’s Sen. Josh Newman, his millions of dollars of contributions come from hundreds of miles away. There’s a reason that he’s donated money and resources for these recalls and has authored a bill ([link removed]) to get rid of the parent-first majority of the OCBE trustees.

With the wave of pro-parent school board candidates elected over the last few years in response to the pandemic school closures and politicized race and gender ideology being taught in schools, the unions are — for the first time ever — playing defense.

So, in Orange County, the unions’ recall was a warning to anyone running on a pro-parent platform or any school board that rejects union control.

As explained in our California Local Elected Officials’ Recall Elections in California: How They Happen and How to Best Respond Toolkit ([link removed]) :

"California’s powerful government unions are unfortunately the driving force behind many recent recall efforts of local government officials and newly-elected school board members. These unions are used to calling the shots in local politics. They put their formidable war chests and get-out-the-vote machine behind candidates they can count on to pay back the favor by voting for union proposals, regardless of the cost to local and school budgets.

When the voters elect a candidate who is committed to fiscal sustainability instead of union cronyism, the unions often throw their weight behind a recall to maintain their grip on the city council, school board, etc."

That the recalls may succeed is not surprising.

"The reality is that the candidate being recalled always will have an uphill battle,” said Lance Christensen, CPC’s Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs. “Simply put, when you ask a voter if they are dissatisfied — they’ll say yes."

The unions' strategy in Orange County is likely a launching pad for future recalls to counter the pro-parent movement across the state. On social media this week, attorney Julie Hamill, the director of CPC’s new justice center, called it part of “the multi-pronged strategy used by union activists to keep non-union people off school boards.”

Hamill writes ([link removed]) :

“This week, we saw the results in Orange County. So now, if a non-machine candidate seeks out a win and gets a school board seat, unions will lie cheat and steal to remove them via recall.

What are we going to do about this?”

What are we going to do, indeed.

At California Policy Center, we’re in the trenches fighting the unions’ iron grip on California every single day.

Next week, we’re bringing together pro-parent activists, school board candidates and school board members for two days of training on how to mobilize in an election year at our Parents, Not Partisans Summit ([link removed]) in Sacramento.

And, our efforts to help teachers and public employees leave their unions continue to break records. Today, nearly 30% of public employees in the state have said no to union membership. Last year alone, nearly 60,000 public servants downloaded their opt-out forms through CPC’s online program ([link removed]) , citing bullying, political differences and finances as the main reasons they’ve opted to pause their dues.

For every union member who opts out, the unions lose $900 in membership dues. Employee opt outs since 2018 have taken a hammer to the unions' bottom line. Research shows California public unions are missing out on nearly $400 million dollars a year.

In addition, CPC's California Local Elected Officials (CLEO) continues to educate and support school board members and other local elected officials throughout California’s thousands of cities, counties, and school and special districts in standing up to government unions.

If you’re tired of government unions controlling California politics, there’s no better time to get involved than before the November election. If you’re interested in running for local school board, get familiar with our free, online Candidate Academy ([link removed]) for candidates who enroll through CLEO.

If you are a teacher looking to opt out of your union, you can learn how to do so and how to find union alternative benefits through CPC’s website: mypaymysay. ([link removed]) com ([link removed]) .

And, to help sustain and grow all of these efforts, you can support California Policy Center by making a donation of any amount here ([link removed]) .

SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])
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** Parents — The Ultimate Education Reform
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In his latest column in ([link removed]) The Epoch Times ([link removed]) , CPC's Lance Christensen lays out why we cannot allow nostalgia for an idealized past to blind us to the realities of today's government-run schools. As stewards of our children’s future, parents and taxpayers must advocate for a system that values individuality, fosters excellence, and empowers parents to make informed choices about their children’s education.
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Join National Review Institute and the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco on Thursday, March 14 for a luncheon with National Review Capital Matters editor and NRI fellow Andrew Stuttaford. Learn more and register here ([link removed]∣=7235125&jb=1) .

SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])

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