The Brief

A teachers union endorsement has been a powerful, but not invincible, force in Los Angeles school board elections.

An endorsement from United Teachers Los Angeles typically brings money and the people-power of 35,000 members. Since January, educators dressed in the union's signature red, armed with stacks of door-hangers, have canvassed the city, knocking on doors every weekend in competitive districts.

Echo Park elementary school educators Betsy Ures and Emily Ponce joined more than a hundred fellow members at the union’s headquarters near Koreatown last month to spread the word about the union-backed candidate in Board District 5, Karla Griego.

“I actually really enjoy knocking doors, talking to regular working people and hearing about their experiences with LAUSD,” Ures said.

Candidates endorsed by UTLA have a significant edge — since 2015, 63% have won their school board races.

And when an endorsed candidate missteps, it also draws scrutiny to the union. That was the case last week when UTLA’s choice for Board District 1, Kahllid Al-Alim, was revealed to have made antisemitic remarks online.

The power behind an endorsement

Ures and Ponce started teaching at the school around the same time, went on strike together in 2019, and navigated remote learning during the early years of the pandemic.

“I don't think people realize how much you know children are dealing with,” Ponce said.

For example, more Los Angeles families are being evicted than before the pandemic. A higher rate of students are reporting persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. An estimated 32,000 California youth experienced the death of a parent or caregiver from COVID-19.

Ures and Ponce’s pitch for Griego as the “teacher’s choice” included her almost 20 years as a special education teacher — she would be the first such educator on the board — and that she’s the parent of a teenage student.

“She's a really great advocate for teachers and for students,” Ponce said at one door.

This year, the union endorsed candidates in three of LAUSD’s four open races.

• In Board District 1: Community organizer and parent Kahllid Al-Alim. 
• In Board District 3: Incumbent former principal and teacher Scott Schmerelson. 
• In Board District 5: Special education teacher Karla Griego
• In Board District 7: No endorsement. Incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin is running against Long Beach educator Lydia Gutiérrez.

Griego is one of four candidates in District 5. The others are Bell mayor and school board staffer Fidencio Joel Gallardo, parent and retired teacher Victorio R. Gutierrez and educator and Huntington Park city councilmember Graciela Ortiz.

Ortiz has been removed from her LAUSD job pending the outcome of a confidential investigation related to a civil lawsuit.

Pamphlets of Karla Griego are left on residents' doors by UTLA members. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for Laist.

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West area board directors of UTLA, Marie Germaine and Stacy Yakimowich Chavez, go door to door in the West Adams Historic neighborhood canvassing for Karla Griego. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for Laist.

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UTLA’s endorsement process takes weeks, if not months to complete. In the fall, an expanded endorsement team of members reviewed research compiled by a political consultant, interviewed candidates and submitted its recommendations to the union’s political action council, board of directors, and house of representatives who all vote on the endorsements.

UTLA chose to endorse candidates that are closely aligned with its platform, which in recent years has included workforce issues like teacher salaries and class sizes, but also housing, adding more green space to campuses, defunding school police and creating restorative justice programs.

One of the school board’s primary responsibilities is to determine how to allocate an annual operating budget of $9 billion.

“The [district] budget reflects the values of our school district and the school board members determine that budget,” Ures said. “It's not just like we need someone on the board with our values in mind. It's also, we need someone on the board, who has a movement behind them, who can help inform the candidates once they become members.”

Teacher working conditions, student learning conditions

UTLA allies regained majority control of the LAUSD board in 2022 after charter advocates tipped the scales in favor of the independently run, publicly funded schools in 2017.

LAUSD elections broke spending records in 2017; the campaigns and outside fundraisers spent $17 million in support of — and opposition to— candidates for three board seats. Though overall spending dipped in 2022, LAUSD races continue to attract millions of dollars from outside funders, an anomaly in school political races.

“The thing about philanthropists and corporate interests is that the focus of what issues they get excited about changes from election to election,” said Michael Hartney, a political scientist and Hoover fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. “Teachers unions are perennially powerful because they are largely focused on the education issue.”

Hartney evaluated California, New York and Florida school board elections between 1995 and 2020 and found union-backed candidates won 7 out of 10 seats.

Educators make the case that better working conditions for teachers create better learning conditions for students. The message seems to work most of the time.

“Voters perceived that the union-backed candidate would do a better job than the non-union-backed candidate,” Hartney said of a study that asked people to evaluate a fictitious match up between two candidates, one with and one without teachers’ endorsement.

Whether electing educators themselves — or candidates who’ve won their endorsement — makes a difference on academic outcomes is harder to determine.

One study based in California found when an educator serves on the school board, teacher salaries rise and charter school enrollment declines. Average test scores and high school graduation rates do not change.

Universally, unions seek to improve the working conditions of its members.

“That may benefit students, but there are also instances we can point to where the union is, by necessity, going to have to fight for things that are good for school employees that may not be in the best interest of all students,” Hartney said.

Hartney pointed to the first years of the pandemic when teachers unions’, including UTLA, pushed back on plans to reopen schools to in-person learning. Student attendance, reading, and math test scores have yet to rebound, though some research shows states where schools reopened earlier didn’t have significantly higher academic outcomes.

Turning out parents

Primary elections typically have a lower turnout than the general election and as of Feb. 24, 7% of California voters had returned their ballots.

Hartney said when turnout is low, teachers, their families, and others in their network can sway the election outcome.

“Parents have an incentive to vote and participate in school board elections, but their interest really declines after their kids graduate from the local schools and move on,” Hartney said.

Many of the people teachers Ures and Ponce talked to in Koreatown readily admitted they had little awareness of the upcoming school board election, but there were exceptions.

“I actually moved here after my school years, but I'd like to at least stay up in the local,” said Jerin Haynes.

Haynes said he remembered getting lost in the shuffle of overcrowded classrooms growing up and wants to see Black and brown students have access to books that reflect their identities.

“Just because you don't have the kids in the room does not mean that that generation won't affect your vote, your welfare, their welfare, your kids welfare,” Haynes said. “It's all connected. It's all community. It's all network. So you have to literally try and it starts by one vote.”

Could the union lose Board District 1?

In mid-February, screenshots alleging Board District 1 Candidate Kahllid Al-Alim liked dozens of anti-semitic and sexually explicit posts from private, pre-campaign social media accounts began circulating online.

In the post that sparked the most backlash, Al-Alim wrote that an antisemitic and academically debunked book should be made “mandatory” reading for students in LAUSD schools serving high-need and Black students.

“What he is suggesting doesn't align with union values,” said Educators Caucus for Israel Chair Amy Leserman. “What he is suggesting does not align with district values and somebody who has these values should not be making decisions about students. Period.”

The caucus is made up of educators and advocates, and amplified screenshots of Al-Alim’s social media activity. Its members have called on Al-Alim to quit the race.

UTLA suspended its campaign for Al-Alim after that social media activity resurfaced last week. A final vote to rescind the union’s endorsement is scheduled for Monday, March 4, one day before the primary election. It’s unclear whether the controversy will doom Al-Alim’s campaign and overshadow the union’s other endorsements.

Al-Alim initially apologized in a brief three-paragraph statement on his campaign website Feb. 20 and expanded his response in a video published online Sunday.

“I am sorry for amplifying these dangerous ideas,” Al-Alim said. “I understand that doing so has harmed people and undermined the vital collective work we are doing to advance justice for all people, expand educational funding in LAUSD, and protect public schools.”

Al-Alim agreed to be available to talk with parents, educators, and community members, and to participate in training about countering antisemitism.

United Teachers Los Angeles decorate the walls with UTLA posteres. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for Laist.

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Assembly Democratic Caucus Chair Rick Chavez Zbur, LAUSD Board President Jackie Goldberg and Board Member Rocío Rivas are among those who have called for the longtime community organizer to withdraw from the race. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor announced on Feb. 23 that it would no longer campaign for Al-Alim and that its members will discuss whether to withdraw the endorsement completely.

“As a Jewish educator, I was really hurt to see some of the antisemitic content on his Twitter posts,” said Echo Park first grade teacher Hannah Day. “Antisemitism has no place in our movement for the schools that L.A. students deserve or any movement for social, racial, or economic justice. Nor does any other form of racism or discrimination.”

Day is a member of UTLA’s expanded endorsement team and said she supported suspending the campaign while union members decide how to move forward, but that she still supports Al-Alim’s candidacy.

“The only way we're ever going to fight off privatization, build the schools our students deserve, is if we…address these harmful ideologies within our movement and outside in the world, and work together in solidarity with one another,” Day said.

Before the news about the posts broke, teachers unions, including UTLA, had already spent $650,000 supporting Al-Alim’s candidacy.

Charter school advocates and other outside donors spent $377,000 to support Didi Watts, a longtime educator and chief of staff for current LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

We won’t know definitively how the late development shaped last-minute fundraising or opposition ads until after the primary.

At least one candidate referenced the controversy in an emailed campaign update. “I stand against discrimination in any form that would deny any of our students access to a high quality education,” wrote Sherlett Hendy Newbill, who’s been endorsed by four sitting board members. “That's why we have to keep Kahllid Al-Alim off the school board and away from our children.”

One outstanding question is whether— or how— UTLA was unaware of Al-Alim’s social media activity.

Day said a review of the candidates’ social media was not included in the research provided to the union’s expanded endorsement team.

“I think this was an oversight and I think we're learning from this experience,” Day said.

The Lynwood Library has reopened after its first major renovation in almost 50 years. New skylights brighten the space and there are dedicated areas for teens, kids, studying and community meetings.

“It does give you a feeling that our community matters,” said Danielle Trujillo, who grew up nearby and visited the library often. “That we deserve new books, that we deserve new furniture, that we deserve to be in a space that's welcoming, spacious, and inviting.”

The $8 million project began in 2024 and closed the library for about two years. The branch reopened Aug. 20 and celebrated with a ribbon-cutting Thursday.

“ I'm so happy to have this open, and a place for our community to gather, to connect,” said Lynwood Mayor Gabriela Camacho, who also brought her twins to the library.

Gabrielle Fata and her 3-year-old son Zennett can walk to the library from their home.

“ I just try to get him interested in loving books at a young age, so I just like him being around all the books and all the letters and everything,” Fata said.

Local leaders, including Lynwood Mayor Gabriela Camacho, Assemblymember José Luis Solache, Supervisor Janice Hahn and LA County Library Director Skye Patrick cut the ribbon to celebrate the completion of the Lynwood Library renovation.

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How the funding came together

Supervisor Janice Hahn said she advocated for part of L.A. County’s federal COVID-19 pandemic relief dollars to fund five library renovations in District 4, including the Lynwood Library. The southeast L.A. County city is home to about 64,000 people.

 “I still believe that libraries are a real treasure for communities and schools,” Hahn said. “I know a lot of young people get their information online and are on the internet, but I really believe libraries are still an important part of the fabric of a community.”

The 12,000-square-foot Lynwood Library renovation includes a new area for teens.

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The renovations were originally planned to be completed by November 2025. Hahn said she wasn’t sure what caused the delay.

“Wish it could've been open earlier, but [there] are always construction issues and problems that I think we face with almost everything we try to do in the county of Los Angeles,” Hahn said.

‘A library for the people’

LA County Library Director Skye Patrick said when the Lynwood Library was first built in 1977, the idea was to keep the space dark to preserve the books inside.

“The library is … no longer just about the books.  It's about the people.” Patrick said. “We want the space to be welcoming, we want it to be open, we want it to have a lot of airflow through it.”

 "I like how there's separate sections for different people to do things," said Jennifer Estrada, an eighth grader at a nearby middle school. "There's the study rooms, you could go with your friends or if you just wanna be alone."

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Jennifer Estrada is an eighth grader at Hosler Middle School, less than a mile away from the library, and has started visiting twice a week to study and hang out with friends since it reopened.

“ I feel like it's very open. You could be you in here,” Estrada said.

Trujillo, who is now the adult teen librarian here, said she’s excited to see the next generation embrace the library.

“ I try not to show it as much 'cause I don't wanna scare them away,” Trujillo said. “But I'm really excited that the teens are coming into the space and that they're happy with it.”

"Libraries have transformed from just checking out books," said librarian Danielle Trujillo. "People come in and they hang out with their friends, or they're studying for school."

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Trujillo said in addition to the teen space, the Spanish language and manga collections are also popular.

She said the library also welcomes feedback.

 “If anyone ever wants to come talk to us and share some ideas that they have for the library, we're completely open to that,” Trujillo said.

Fata said her son Zennett’s favorite books skew spooky, including Aaron Reynolds' “Creepy” series and Rhode Montijo’s Skeletown series.

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Visit the Lynwood Library

Address: 11320 Bullis Road, Lynwood
Hours:

• Tuesday- Wednesday: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Thursday- Saturday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Sunday- Monday: Closed

Learn more: Website

Topline:

Key topics: The candidates each had about 45 minutes to individually answer questions from Erin Stone, an LAist senior reporter focused on climate and environment.

Here are some of the topics they covered:

• Extreme heat
• Emergency preparedness and recovery
• Protecting communities from pollution
• Water
• Public transit

About the organizers: The event is organized by a coalition of local environmental and environmental justice groups including: Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SCOPE-LA, Sierra Club, Clean and Healthy California, Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance and Communities for a Better Environment

LAist will have more coverage and analysis of the conversations Friday morning.

The Trump administration is taking steps to advance a mysterious and unprecedented project to compile state-by-state lists of people it has decided are eligible citizens over the age of 18 who can vote in the upcoming midterm election. But it will no longer meet its own deadline to publish that information on a portal on Friday, which is 60 days before Election Day.

Department of Justice attorneys told opposing counsel in two separate lawsuits that instead of meeting the Sept. 4 deadline, they would give 48-hours notice to plaintiffs' counsel before the state citizenship portal was launched, according to recent court filings.

The U.S. has never attempted to create a comprehensive list of American citizens before this administration. Maintaining voter lists is the responsibility of states, not the federal government, as the Constitution dictates that states control elections. But President Trump has repeatedly taken steps to try to exert executive control over elections.

The basis for the federal government creating state citizenship lists is an executive order Trump signed on March 31. A lower court had blocked implementation of key parts of that executive order in 23 states and Washington, D.C., but the Supreme Court stayed that injunction late last month, opening the door for the plan to be implemented after all.

The March 31 executive order directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to create "State Citizenship Lists" of individuals the agencies believe are citizens in each state, and send those lists to state officials "no fewer than 60 days before each regularly scheduled Federal election."

The next section of the executive order says the U.S. attorney general will prioritize investigating and prosecuting state and local officials who issue federal ballots to anyone not eligible to vote.

"States here have a strong incentive to actually use these lists to try to avoid federal investigation," said Jules Torti, counsel at the nonprofit Protect Democracy, in an interview with NPR. "But we know that these lists are going to be based on really inaccurate data. So the risk of disenfranchisement here is really, really palpable."

The privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center, along with individual voters, filed a motion Thursday asking a federal judge in Maryland to block the administration from creating the citizenship lists and publishing them on a portal. Specifically, they seek to block a June 8 implementation memo authored by USCIS director Joseph Edlow that outlines the plan.

The motion, which was brought by Protect Democracy, along with another nonprofit legal group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, argues the administration's plans to share Americans' personal data between agencies and then disseminate the data to states violates multiple federal laws, including the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. Under the Privacy Act, federal agencies must give the public 30 days notice and the opportunity to comment before they collect and disseminate Americans' personal data for a new purpose.

The EPIC lawsuit also argues the government does not have access to accurate, up-to-date information on American citizens, especially those who move frequently, have changed their names, or are foreign-born. For example, Social Security's citizenship data often isn't updated when people naturalize, and the SAVE data system, operated by USCIS, frequently doesn't include records for people who became citizens as minors when their parents naturalized.

Torti said it is "deeply concerning" that the administration is still planning to go ahead with the creation of citizenship lists but is no longer going to meet the deadline, since that means the lists will be completed even closer to Election Day.

"It means additional chaos, additional confusion for the state election officials and just for voters," Torti said. "And I think that's the point. The point here is to create chaos in advance of the election."

Neither the Department of Justice, nor the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with compiling the citizenship lists, responded to NPR's request for comment.

The June 8 implementation memo stated that the portal for state election officials would be available around June 30 and a second portal where citizens could check their information would be available at a later date – but that deadline passed without further updates.

The federal government has secured a domain for the state citizenship lists portal. While the portal is not currently online, it was briefly live in recent days with a landing page that said "Coming Soon," according to court filings.

Lawyers representing Democratic party groups that had challenged the March 31 executive order in a separate lawsuit filed in April, accused the administration in a recent filing of failing to notify the court or the parties about its plans to move forward with the state citizenship portal. They asked the judge to require the federal government to give immediate updates about their plans to implement the executive order.

This latest legal battle over the administration's plans to compile state citizenship lists comes as the Department of Homeland Security is ramping up its efforts to analyze state voter rolls with the goal of identifying potential noncitizens who are registered to vote. Previous audits have found instances of noncitizens casting ballots to be incredibly rare. 

Additionally, last week, ICE published a request for information on a federal procurement site seeking vendors who can compile public voter rolls and voter history files from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories, "to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fraud detection and data segmentation activities."

NPR's Hansi Lo Wang contributed reporting to this story. 
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