Guffanti lie six, the union's job is to get money without adding value

Lie five is not only untrue, its inflammatory and a despicable slur on all union members everywhere. Hard to believe a statement like the following would be allowed in a fairly refereed editorial page.


Lying slander, # 6 in the series of Guffanti lies:

"In fairness, the union was just doing its job of getting more money without providing more value.."

Here are some of the values that the Vista Teacher's Association have added HEROICALLY to our VUSD community.

(VALUE 1) We took the political and personal risk of responding to the citizens of VUSD and joining in a recall of two school board trustees who turned our district school board meetings into circuses with HUNDREDS in attendance and satellite TV trucks in the parking lot (CNN, FOX not News, CBS and NBC were a few). There were reporters from all the cable networks, local TV stations and others here in little old VUSD. Why to watch, marvel at, and broadcast to the world the ANTI school board majority's antics. We were the original Dover, Pennsylvania type attack on public education in the United States. It was huge news. And it needed to stop so we could get back to educating our children. VTA joined. We recalled. VUSD is back to business. No more sideshows here or anywhere else in our county or state since.

(VALUE 2) The Vista Teachers Association ACTIVELY supported every school bond in the last twenty years--Prop K , Prop L Prop LL and Prop O and eventually the ANTI crowd's steadfast rejection of all school bonds was overcome in 2002. Prop O passed. Many many schools were built. VUSD is coming back from two decades of unmerited attacks by ANTI-Public education folks.

(VALUE 3) We have interviewed, using the same questions and panels, all school board candidates who are willing to be interviewed. The panels used the same scoring for each candidate. Each time we interviewed it was very clear that there were some candidates who supported public education with their words, deeds and by where their children attended and some who did not. We recommended those who did support FACT based public education.

I remember only one close vote ever and that was the decision not to support Barbara Donovan again in favor of (I forgot sorry). I voted to support Barbara but was out voted by other members of our large Representative Assembly. A group made of representatives from every site in the district. It is the governing board of the VTA.

Every single other time, there was no question about who to support because only a few candidates believed in public education. The others wanted to dismantle it. In 2000, Guffanti actually belonged to a national organization whose stated goal was the dismantlement of all public education in the United States.

If VTA could have broadcast the interviews of those candidates and the voters of VUSD could see what the ANTI candidates said, the ANTIs would be getting only a few hundred votes each election. As it is their numbers have declined in each election since 1992.

(VALUE 4) Some of the finest, most self sacrificing teachers in the North County doing some of the finest teaching.