A new exposé reveals teacher union boss for who she is. 

August 27, 2021
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“It’s abundantly clear from the last year and a half how far she’s willing to go to push her agenda.”

That’s just one of many conclusions tucked inside the chilling exposé Los Angeles Magazine published this week ([link removed]) on top-union boss Cecily Myart-Cruz. In a rare, sit-down interview granted by the ruthless leader of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), author Jason McGahan gathers insight on how a union that purportedly works to improve the lives of students and teachers has ruined so many over the past year and a half.

Myart-Cruz's callous comments are an epic demonstration of gaslighting, where she denies so much of what those of us living in reality know to be true.

“There’s no such thing as learning loss,” she told McGahan,echoing previous statements she’s made ([link removed]) , where she reasoned that since children weren’t learning before the pandemic, learning loss couldn’t have happened.

“It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables,” she continued, as she tried to downplay the ramifications of her union’s refusal to allow children in the classroom, saying instead they learned about protests and insurrections.

“It is not radical to ask for ethnic studies,” Myart-Cruz said of one of the many non-pandemic-related-demands UTLA issued as a condition of returning to work.

“It’s not radical to ask for police-free schools,” she continued, referring to the union’s stipulation that police be defunded before their members would resume meaningful instruction.

“Education is political,” she added, acknowledging that reopening schools is not the only goal of the United Teachers Los Angeles.

OK, that last one might be true, but it shouldn’t be.

While powerful teachers unions across the country routinely used children as bargaining chips, nowhere is that more evident than in California, where the UTLA took advantage of a global pandemic to push an extremist agenda at the expense of student achievement and health. When parents, citing mounting evidence proving full, in-person instruction could be done safely ([link removed]) , Myart-Cruz and the UTLA dug in their heels and demanded more from the district, including free childcare, shortened work days, vaccine priority, pause in academic assessment testing, and more. She even bragged her union could extract more taxpayer giveaways ([link removed]) than unions less willing to trade childrens’ wellbeing for a few extra bucks.

Presumably, the UTLA has only quietly agreed to reopen schools this year as a sort of in-kind political contribution to Gavin Newsom (on top of the $2.3 million teachers unions ([link removed]) have gifted to try to protect him). Parents are left to wonder, “What will happen September 15?”

Fortunately, there’s a forthcoming solution in Los Angeles that stands to upend the unhealthy power dynamic which virtually ensures unions will always win while students lose. LAUSD is working to shift its school funding model to one that will empower principals ([link removed]) to make decisions that respond to the local needs of students, while putting parents on equal (or perhaps higher) footing than unions.
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Through the new, Student Centered Funding approach — which LAUSD plans to implement for the 2022-23 school year — the district would allocate money to schools, then the principal would then make staffing and programmatic spending decisions. Currently, the district makes these choices for all 1,000 schools in LAUSD, sending them a set number of staff, materials, and other in-kind resources.

The UTLA has launched a full-on assault on Student Centered Funding, including a “massive digital ad buy” to convince LAUSD to abandon its plan. Why? Simply put, Student Centered Funding would diffuse money decisions and make it more difficult for the likes of Cecily Myart-Cruz to bully a district as she has. Because decision-making would move from the district to the school level, UTLA would need to lobby 1,000 principals rather than one board of education. Conversely, parents would find it much easier to collaborate with their schools, because choices would be made by people who know their students' unique situations.

The next few months — as parents advocate for a change that would truly give them a seat at the table and the UTLA flails to retain every bit of control it has — may be the most contentious yet. And Myart-Cruz is ready.

“If our union is stigmatized, I’m glad. I will wear that as a badge of honor,” she said.

But, so are parents. Supported by groups like CPC’s Parent Union ([link removed]) , and more local grassroots networks like California Students United ([link removed]) , parents are showing themselves to be a formidable voice for students and together, they can prevent another hijacking of kids’ futures.

Hear from September 14 recall candidates:

New responses have been addedto our candidate questionnaire ([link removed]) . Learn where the candidates vying to replace Governor Gavin Newsom stand on important issues, from school reopenings to union influence in Sacramento. Read here ([link removed]) .

More from CPC
* LAUSD’s Student Centered Funding terrifies UTLA ([link removed])
* California’s misguided education priorities ([link removed])
* Which COVID mitigation measures work ([link removed])
* Listen: ‘Larry Elder is the Blackface of white supremacy’?! ([link removed])

CPC and allies in the news
* Community unites at school board to push back against mask mandates and radical curriculum ([link removed])
* Recall candidates should support bold education reform now, not in 2022 ([link removed])
* New lawsuit seeks to change upcoming gubernatorial recall election ([link removed])
* Exclusive: Cecily Myart-Cruz’s hostile takeover of L.A.’s public schools ([link removed])

Classroom headlines
* The lost year: What the pandemic cost teenagers ([link removed])
* Two students banned from school for not wearing masks ([link removed])
* California school district removes COVID-19 test blood drawn language after parent pressure ([link removed])
* Critical Race Theory falls apart when you consider what happened in Afghanistan ([link removed])
* Sixth-graders at this East Bay school sent home crying after teacher’s positive COVID test ([link removed])
* Bay Area schools face coronavirus cases and quarantines ‘Parents are overwhelmed’ ([link removed])
* COVID false positive rapid tests wreak havoc on students, parents, faculty ([link removed])
* Quarantined: A new law is disrupting California school reopenings ([link removed])

Union news
* S.F. moves to suspend police, fire employees who refuse to report vaccination status ([link removed])
* Why America’s largest teachers’ union refuses to support vaccine mandates ([link removed])
* Many California prison employees ordered to get COVID-19 vaccines in new mandate ([link removed])
* EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: In mandatory training, CA Faculty Union leader says there’s nothing good about ‘white’ culture ([link removed])
* EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: CA teacher’s union uses mandatory training to bully members to vote no on recall ([link removed])

Other things we’re reading
* Who gets to decide what’s allowable speech? ([link removed])
* The gross misuse of taxpayer money draws needed attention ([link removed])
* California customers face higher rideshare bill on Prop. 22 reversal ([link removed])
* California in 3-way tie for 2nd worst unemployment in U.S. ([link removed])

Connect with CPC

Want to keep up with CPC and our partners during the week? Follow us on Twitter ([link removed]) , join our Facebook ([link removed]) community, and sign up to be part of the growing Parent Union ([link removed]) .


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