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Education

Castellanos Concedes LAUSD Board District 7 Race, Dashing Hopes Of Teachers Union Majority

Patricia Castellanos (left) conceded the election for the open District 7 seat on the L.A. Unified school board to opponent Tanya Ortiz Franklin. (Campaign images)

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Patricia Castellanos has conceded the race for the District 7 seat on the L.A. Unified school board to opponent Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

Though there are many votes left to count, Castellanos currently trails Franklin by nearly 16 percentage points.

"We could not overcome the amount of money poured into this race," Castellanos wrote in a Facebook post yesterday:

Castellanos had the backing of United Teachers Los Angeles and other organized labor groups. But prominent education reform groups outspent the unions by a more than 3-to-1 margin hoping to swing the race to Franklin.

LAUSD BD7 Spending At A Glance
Infogram
Castellanos' apparent defeat ends any hope from UTLA of electing a majority to the seven-member LAUSD board. Yesterday, I shared some thoughts about what that could mean.

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