from Melissa Fox, candidate for 70th Assembly District:
The great news today is that the teachers’ strike at Capistrano Unified School District is over.
For months, the teachers at CUSD attempted to negotiate with an ideologically rigid and anti-public education board of trustees that refused to bargain in good faith.
Instead, the trustees attempted to use the budget crisis as an excuse to destroy the teachers’ union and force a strike.
Today, under pressure from a united community, the board of trustees has been forced to bargain in good faith and to agree that the teachers’ 10 percent pay cut and furloughs are temporary rather than permanent.
When parents and students stand with teachers, public education wins.
I am proud to have walked with you on the picket line and I thank the teachers for their courage and determination, and the thousands of parents and students who kept the pressure on the trustees to bargain in good faith.
Now we need to continue to ensure the highest quality education for our children by supporting the recall of anti-public education CUSD trustees Mike Winsten and Ken Maddox.
CUSD needs trustees who are committed to quality public education. These trustees have shown that they are more committed to the anti-public education ideology of outside influences such as the extremist Education Alliance than to our children.
April 27, 2010
[poll id=”250″]
While we appreciate support for the recall of Maddox and Winsten, we are not happy that Melissa Fox is choosing our fight to further her political run. One of the main reasons for the recall is because of the political agenda of the Board. We do not believe politics should be running our school board. We are already fighting Tony Beall and his crowd for turning this into a Conservative/Liberal war, and we don’t need or want Ms. Fox to contribute to the main ideology that we are fighting. There are Republicans, Democrats, Independants, Green Party members, Libertarians, Christians, Catholics, Agnostics, etc., that are involved in the recall, and for all of us that are involved, this is not a Partisan fight – this is a Parent fight. So Ms. Fox, we thank you for your support, but please but don’t use our battle as one of your campaign platforms. Thank you.
I’m pretty sure Melissa has been involved in this issue for a while, and isn’t just using it as you suggest. She is after all a parent living in the South County.
I’ll tell you what: if her primary opponent Mike Glover, or any of the Republicans she might be facing – Choi, Amante, Wagner – put out a statement on this issue, we will print that as well.
Thanks Vern. We are just so tired of politicians using our district to push their agendas. We just want what is best for our children and their PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. I hope Ms. Fox knows that I meant no disrespect.
What a transparently self-serving position to take. And the timing couldn’t be better.
This is a trougher in the making… sucking-up to a big labor initiated recall. Why don’t you just invite the progressives into to town?
What does Fox really know about CUSD? Less than nothing, assuming her position is accurately represented here.
When did they start striking? it seemed like the quickest strike ever.
Whenever I am on a picket line, just from my experience, I don’t know about you, I am normally demanding support for what we are marching and striking. I would be hoping to raise awareness and get allies to my cause from all sectors of the community. I would think an organizer or ‘Ladera Parent’ would be DEMANDING that all the other candidates do as Melissa and help them in their fight, champion their cause, and raise awareness to the issue in the District. It’s funny that you mention that there are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Green Party members, Libertarians, Christians, Catholics, Agnostics, etc., all supporting the recall. Sounds like Melissa should be welcome then.
Also… there isn’t much partisan in that statement right there written above, nor is there any of the self-aggrandizing most candidates write into their statements, or come to think of it there isn’t any mention of her campaign at all, or “agenda”, as you put it, at all either. In fact, it sounds like Mrs. Fox is pushing your agenda. You’re not trying to recall Maddox and Winsten because of their political agenda, you want them recalled because their political agenda is contrary to your best interests. So Ladera Parent, I ask you, is it just you who is being partisan by pushing away people who are championing your interests?
It was interesting to see that the union got nothing from CUSD and proclaimed victory.
Melissa.
I have an American flag you can wrap yourself in.
Melissa Fox is full of BS. She is a typical political candidate that will say whatever she believe will garner her the most votes, dam the facts and the truth. The strike called for by the teachers’ union was not about the contract. The CUSD board offered for weeks prior to the strike to negotiate. The tentative agreement reached could have been reached without a strike. The teachers’ union wanted a strike to create discord, chaos and strife in CUSD in order to enhance its chances of winning the November elections (3 trustees are up for election and how trustees will be elected) and getting the attempted recall of trustees Mike Winston and Maddox-Lopez certified for the November election. The current board is the first CUSD board to hire indepdent negotiators to negotiate with the teachers’ union. Before that, CUSD administrators would negotiate on behalf of CUSD; whatever increases the teachers’ union got the administrators would also get (a very incestous relationship to say the least). The teachers’ union used the students as its pawns and stooges in its quest for political and financial gains. In contrast, the CUSD board is not covering the $34 million deficit it must deal with solely on the backs of the students and the younger teachers as the teachers’ union wanted to do. Did anyone really expect the teachers’ union to state the truth vs. the fiction that it won an “important” victory? Did anyone expect the teachers’ union to admit that it could have negotiated the tentative agreement reached without the strike? That the strike was called solely to further the political ambitions of the teachers’ union? Of course not.
Okay, I see where you’re coming from #9. You side with the board against the teachers, and so you hate on Melissa for taking the other side. Your prerogative.
But if you voted in the poll at the bottom of the story, you can see what a tiny minority you’re in. This poll’s been on this blog for over a month. 357 votes out of 423 to recall these two weenies. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT. So you can gripe all you want but you are fringe, brother.
And I’d argue with your claims too but I really gotta run now. Someone else will. Melissa is both sincere, and solidly in the mainstream on this issue.
CUSD Parent, you are full of BS. You shouldn’t get on blogs and repeat crap and rumor that you hear from other people without checking out the facts. Oh and making assumptions about people you don’t know isn’t good either.