Why California Democrats Protect Sex Abuser Teachers

Padilla has until the end of August to revive his failed bill. Whether he succeeds or not, when historians look back at the failure-by-abstention of Senate Bill 1530 in June, it is likely to be pegged as a key turning point for Democratic politicians in California on the hot-potato issue of firing bad teachers.

Parent Revolution executive director Ben Austin says, "That vote was outrageous. If you ever needed a prove point that the interests of powerful special interests trump the needs of parents and kids, that was it."

Austin, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, says he's not anti–teachers union, and notes, "Many of the supporters of this bill are progressive Democrats who support unions and teachers unions. This has nothing to do with that. We're looking to protect children who are in a teacher's care."

Of Butler's and Eng's abstentions, Austin declares, "They should be embarrassed. They should be ashamed."

Today, powerful breakaway Democrats — many of them liberal Latinos, including Padilla and Romero — no longer accede to CTA and UTLA. They have openly split with the unions and are fighting key pieces of the union platform, including its protection of educators who should not be near children or have shown they cannot learn to competently teach.

Padilla is a measured man whose most radical comments are phrases such as: "I was as surprised as anyone to see this resistance from those who voted no and those who abstained."

But Romero pointedly critiques Democrats who toe the CTA line. She says the Democrats who make up the majority vote on the Assembly Education Committee are "dominated" by the California Teachers Association. (The only apparent exception is the committee's Democratic chairwoman, Julia Brownley of Oak Park in Ventura County, who voted yes on SB 1530 but could not get her Democratic colleagues to join her. Only the minority Republicans joined Brownley in voting yes on the bill.)

Brownley's lonely courage went unremarked by the Sacramento press corps, and she was not quoted in print. But as she explained that day, "I do believe the bill is very narrowly crafted for a teacher or other certified personnel within a school district who in the very, very rare circumstance sexually abuses a child or who abuses children through a violent act or through neglect, or who engages with students with illegal drugs. I ... wanted the author to accept amendments that we discussed, but today I'm going to err on the side that this bill will give school districts some tools in their toolbox to address the very rare and unspeakable acts that may occur in the future."

Romero is particularly distressed by the behavior of Eng, who has slowly climbed from Monterey Park City Council member to town mayor to Sacramento legislator, and whose wife, Judy Chu, has similarly climbed to become a U.S. congresswoman.

Last year, Eng authored an anti-bullying bill to prevent bullying in schools. Gov. Jerry Brown signed that bill into law in 2011. "The ultimate bullying is sexual abuse of kids in the classroom," Romero says, "but [Mike Eng] remained silent with [SB 1530]."

"Bills in the Assembly don't die because the members vote no," Romero adds. "They die because [Assembly] members are silent. They show no backbone. ... People like Mike Eng remain silent, or try to skip out of the room, rather than show backbone."

For years, CTA has been the biggest giver of campaign cash to Eng.

Another breakaway Latino Democrat is Yolie Flores, an ex-L.A. Unified School Board member who decided to leave her powerful elective post after realizing the school board has little real power. Among the biggest problems Flores encountered: Few L.A. teachers are ever seriously evaluated for competence, yet they're granted lifelong tenure after just 18 months on the job and then are extremely difficult to fire.

Flores marvels that Padilla "had the courage to put [SB 1530] forward. I was cheering Alex the whole time. I was really proud of him. It's been a challenge to get this kind of bill through in Sacramento."

Flores now is president of Communities for Teaching Excellence, a national organization based in L.A. that is trying to improve teaching skills, give teachers more support — and then hold teachers accountable for whether kids learn.

She says of the CTA's view that existing state laws already make sure that bad adults are removed from classrooms: "I don't know what planet Dean Vogel lives on, but that's not the reality. I worked on the [LAUSD] board, and I know what really happens." Even when disastrous teachers are permanently removed from contact with children, Flores says, California law is so stacked against firing them that "we'll put them in the rubber room — they are still paid — and that's taxpayers' money."

She's disgusted by Butler, Eng and other Democrats, who ensured that Padilla's bill would die. "They're cowards," Flores says. "They should have voted up or down. To abstain, they abdicated their responsibilities. I have no respect for that."

Austin, for years a defender of UTLA and CTA, tries to explain the unusual and increasingly intense split among Democrats over education and teachers unions.