Little did I know when I posted about Gloria Romero a month ago, that she would make a local appearance to spread her brave message! Ms. Romero stopped by the Lane Room at the B'game library on Friday to address a group of local woman--and they let a guy in, too! Her story is even more compelling live--here are a few choice parts:
She got her PhD in psychology, but chose not to study clinical psych because she didn't want to be around crazy people--then she joined the California state legislature.
As a Democratic state senator from East L.A. one of her first assignments was to work on prison reform, then she went on to work on school reform--flip sides of the same coin! And they are the two most heavily unionized aspects of state government.
She realized that coming to B'game was the heart of enemy territory since the CTA is headquartered here. As a former teacher she is still a member and it was interesting to hear the sexist slurs that have been used against her by her own union leadership. I won't repeat them here--use your imagination.
To get tenure in K-12 takes two years--really 18 months in practice--while at the college-level it takes seven years.
She was adamant about passing Prop. 32 as the only way to make progress for both the kids and the teachers themselves. Her comments about how little the union hierarchy communicates with the membership were very telling. Forced collection of union political dues is a money train that has steamrolled independent-minded teachers and politicians alike.
One last point she made was about the League of Women Voters advertisement running on TV. We used to think of the LWV as a non-partisan group interested in examining both sides of an issue. That is why B'game uses them to moderate City Council candidate debates--or has in the past. Ms. Romero indicated the League refused to even talk to the pro-32 advocates prior to designing their ad. That is a very sad demise for a once-valuable organization!
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