Shirley Weber: Don't Let Lara "Rape" Our Rights! Vote NO on SB 1146!

State Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) has an independent streak,

She stands up to the teachers' unions, which hurt our kids, and dumb down education.,

They also protect the worst teachers at the expense of the rest, and the best.

She tried to pass moderate teacher tenure reforms, and yet her bill was completely stone-walled.

Listen to her remarks in the committee hearings last year:

From the LA Weekly:

Weber's bill would require that teacher evaluations be based at least in part on their students' academic growth — not necessarily by using student test scores, but not banning their use, either.

A judge has ruled, in another lawsuit, Doe v. Deasy, that Los Angeles Unified School District must use objective measures of student progress in its teacher evaluations. So that's what Weber wanted to do.

That's also what her fellow Democrats in the state Assembly had such strong objections to.

Sacramento is a pretty congenial place — there's a lot of back-slapping and fist-bumping and laughing that goes on in the hallways and aisles. But when Weber's Democratic colleagues signaled that they would not let her bill out of the education committee — effectively burying it, preventing it from getting to the Assembly floor — Weber lit into them.

"When I see what’s going on, I’m offended, as a senior member of this committee, who has probably more educational background and experience than all ya’ll put together on top of each other," Weber lashed out.

Weber was even more candid when speaking to L.A. Weekly the next day.

"Obviously, it was orchestrated by the teachers union to not let the bill out," she said. "It was purely political."

Interestingly, the Assembly Education committee chair, Patrick O'Donnell, wants to take Weber's idea of a "needs improvement" evaluation for teachers and incorporate it into his own teacher-evaluation bill. But Weber objects to that, too.

Then here comes the part that really stood out:

"You're gonna rape me, rape my bill and take it as your own?" she said, incredulously. "After the work we’ve done, without my name on it? I’m not having that. You may do it, but you will not do it without my permission."

Ouch!

Well, it's time for California voters to send a message loud and clear to Ms. Weber and the rest of the State Assembly.

Call Shirley N. Weber's Office – (916) 319-2079

Don't let State Senator Ricardo Lara rape our First Amendment Rights!

VOTE NO ON SB 1146!!