VTA is in it for the money?

Today in the NCTimes comment thread which follows the article indicating the CSEA is also endorsing Jaka, Chunka, and Lilly anonymous bloggers repeated the same lie that is often heard from Guffanti supporters. See the article and the comments here:
<http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/09/04/ap/strange/d93038io0.txt>



The truth is that during the endorsement process for school board members neither salaries nor benefits are ever mentioned--not in the candidate questions, not in the discussion.

The slanderous and despicable charge that teachers are selecting candidates so they can get big pay raises is given lie to by the fact that during the fourteen years that the VTA has been forced to endorse school board candidates the salaries of VUSD teachers has fallen from third highest to one of the lowest in the county.

VTA only goal is to find candidates that support public education.

VTA was forced to form a Political Action Committee and to participate in local school board politics only after a gang of three stealth candidates seized the majority on our VUSD board in 1992. Immediately upon being seated, they put creationism on the VUSD school board agenda. By the second meeting the elimination of all contraception information from the sex ed program came up. Shortly they started turning down millions of dollars of federal grants that could have helped VUSD students. They did not believe in federal government giving money to local schools.

When it became painfully clear that the number one priority of the "anti" group of three was an extremist political agenda and not the education of our VUSD students, a community led recall was started. The union joined that recall effort months later.From that time until now, the "anti" have tried to regain the majority on our board. So far they have failed.

The teachers of this district would be thrilled to get out of local politics, but the last time we took no action in a board election, chaos ensued (1992-1994). Our then Extremist school board majority and their "anti" agenda made headlines in major newspapers across this country. Vista became infamous as one of "those" places. No one wants that to happen again—not teachers or parents and especially not local businesses.

Notice that the not-endorsed candidates raise the vast majority of their overwhelming and massive funds from OUTSIDE the district. Generally these outside groups out spend the teachers and the locals by thousands of dollars. Local businesses do not support the "anti" group or their OUTSIDER AGENDA. Chaos is not good for business.