蜜桃影视

This article was produced in partnership with聽

Latinos make up almost 90 percent of enrollment in L.A. Unified鈥檚 Board District 5, which has some of the district鈥檚 neediest students and the state鈥檚 lowest-performing schools. But they most likely won鈥檛 be the ones electing聽their next representative to the school board.

Tuesday’s special election for the vacant school board seat comes on the heels of a January teacher strike that drew national attention to the country’s second-largest school district. Despite that, it’s expected to draw 鈥渕inuscule鈥� voter turnout, and experts predict Latino participation will be even lower, particularly in the board district鈥檚 poorer southeast section, where Latinos make up almost the entire enrollment and where the most struggling schools are located.

Regardless of the urgency of improving educational outcomes for students living in the southeast communities, most likely it will be the district’s northeast voters 鈥斅爓hiter, wealthier, and older,聽and many without children in public school 鈥斅爓ho will turn out in greater numbers and determine the election鈥檚 outcome, say political scientists, pollsters, and community activists.

If none of the 10 candidates wins more than 50 percent in Tuesday’s primary, a runoff will be held May 14. Some experts don鈥檛 even think a Latino candidate will make it to a runoff.聽And that is raising the question among Latino leaders of whether an expensive special election is the best way to get someone who truly represents the majority.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a waste of money. It鈥檚 an undemocratic election. We talk about voter suppression in the southeast. By holding a special election in the manner that they are doing this, it disenfranchises communities, especially the southeast community,鈥� said Fernando Guerra, a professor and founding director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, which conducts the聽聽exit poll.

The two halves of聽聽are far away from each other in distance and educational opportunities. On a map,聽 BD5, as it’s known, looks like a backward letter C. Northeast of downtown, about 32,000 students are enrolled in schools in whiter, more affluent neighborhoods such as Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake 鈥斅爓here voter turnout has traditionally been higher. Latino students, however, are still the majority in BD5鈥檚 northeast section, making up聽听辞蹿听别苍谤辞濒濒尘别苍迟.

Latino experts and political watchers agree that those who will be most impacted by low electoral turnout will be the 67,000 students聽in the southeast section, which includes Huntington Park, Maywood, Cudahy, and South Gate, with an overwhelmingly Latino and low-income population.

There are seven schools in BD5 that were recently identified as being in the聽聽of schools in the state, and all seven are in the district鈥檚 southeast section, according to the district. Of the聽聽rated in the lowest categories on the California School Dashboard, 64 percent are in the southeast.

Roughly mirroring L.A. Unified as a whole, more than a quarter of BD5鈥檚 students are classified as English learners and 11 percent require special education services. More than 85 percent live in low-income households, and an estimated 2,000 students are homeless. Nearly 4 in 10 of the district鈥檚 elementary and middle schools are in the聽聽in both math and reading on the state鈥檚 dashboard.

However, BD5 topped L.A. Unified as a whole last year with its graduation rate of 83 percent, compared with聽聽for all traditional schools in L.A. Unified. In BD5, 64 percent of high school graduates were eligible for the state鈥檚 public universities, compared with聽聽for L.A. Unified. (The data do not include independent charter schools.) One reason for the higher graduation rates could be that there are a number of community organizations and Latino advocacy groups that partner with high schools in BD5 to help students graduate and go on to college.

Last week, three schools in BD5聽聽by the state as California Distinguished Schools, out of聽聽in L.A. Unified. Two are in the southeast: Linda Esperanza Marquez High LIBRA Academy, a district school, and Alliance Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science High School, an independent charter school. Renaissance Arts Academy, also an independent charter school, is in the northeast.

The problem with low turnout

Turnout is expected to be far lower because this is a special election and it鈥檚 the only major race on the ballot apart from a few municipal elections.

In 2015, 鈥渢here were four board races at the same time, so there was a greater discussion about the election in L.A.,鈥� Guerra said.

, co-executive director of Power California, a civic engagement coalition that mobilizes young voters of color, expects turnout to be 鈥渕inuscule.鈥� 鈥淚 imagine no more than 10,000 to 20,000 people are going to vote, of an electorate of 250,000 people.鈥�

The BD5 special election was approved by the school board in August, a month after board president Ref 搁辞诲谤铆驳耻别锄 resigned after聽pleading guilty聽to political money laundering charges. The seat has been vacant since then. The winning candidate will serve out 搁辞诲谤铆驳耻别锄鈥檚 term, which ends in December 2020.

When 搁辞诲谤铆驳耻别锄, a Latino, won the seat in 2015, only about 7 percent of voters cast ballots in the school board primary, Paul Goodwin, a local pollster, wrote in an email to LA School Report. The turnout 鈥� a little over 26,000 people 鈥� was comparable in the runoff election, he said.

Guerra said Latinos represented 55 percent of those who voted in BD5 in the 2015 primary and runoff elections. 鈥淏ut let鈥檚 keep in mind that they [Latinos] represent 85 percent of the population,鈥� he said.

Guerra explained that if there are about 4.5 million people living in L.A. Unified鈥檚 territory, then there are roughly 650,000 residents living in Board District 5, but someone can win the BD5 seat with only 5,000 votes. 鈥淭hat means that less than 1 percent of the people that live in the district can decide who the new school board member will be, if you do the math,鈥� he said.聽鈥淟atinos are the vast majority of the population [in BD5], and close to the majority of the voters, but of the actual voters, they will be the minority.鈥�

Jaime Regalado, a political science professor at California State University, Los Angeles, said he can see how the communities of the southeast may feel left out in the election process.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to have a lot of students and their parents feeling left out, that their voice wasn鈥檛 heard as loudly as it should鈥檝e been,鈥� Regalado said. 鈥淭he fact that the whole district tends to be lower income, but especially the southern and eastern part of the district 鈥� there may be arguments about class favoritism in the process.鈥�

Getting out the vote

Former District 5 board member Yolie Flores said in a phone interview that the Latino candidates from the southeast on the ballot should focus on getting the vote out.

鈥淚 encourage the candidates of the southeast to focus on voter turnout, because if any of them lose, it is because people didn鈥檛 go out to vote,鈥� she said.

Flores was elected in 2007 and was vice president of the board for three years of her four-year term. Flores and聽聽have been the only two Latinos elected to represent BD5 in the past聽.

There are seven Latino聽聽among the 10 names on the ballot. Two of them are elected officials in the southeast: Nestor Enrique Valencia is a council member in the City of Bell, and Graciela Ort铆z is a councilwoman in Huntington Park. Ort铆z is the only Latino among the聽top four candidates with the most campaign contributions so far. As of last week, she had raised聽, putting her聽fourth in terms of fundraising.

Flores has said the cultural and linguistic needs in most of BD5, and particularly in the southeast, should be a critical consideration in this election.

鈥淚鈥檓 a strong believer that representation matters. My own experience, during my time at the board, I had to fight some fights on policies and strategies that some board members didn鈥檛 support because they didn鈥檛 understand the population that I served,鈥� she said.

Flores said there was a 鈥渄ifferent standard鈥� when serving middle-class white families versus low-income Latino families. 鈥淢y experience was if middle-class Anglo families were asking for dual-language [programs], they were provided that right away. But when it was Latino families, their response was, 鈥榊ou want your children to learn English,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 understand the community and the living experience of the parents and the children from the community that you serve, then that community continues to be left behind. So I think representation matters for those reasons.鈥�

She said she hopes there鈥檚 a runoff because 鈥渢hat would give somebody from the southeast a greater opportunity to get elected. I鈥檓 hoping we do have a runoff, and I obviously hope that one of the candidates is either somebody from the southeast or somebody that represents the diverse community that we have in BD5.鈥�

Will a Latino advance to a runoff?

S谩nchez said he believes a runoff would be between two non-Latino candidates:聽, a former director of external affairs for the City of L.A., and former BD5 board member聽. Both live in the northeast area, and Repenning鈥檚 daughter attends an L.A. Unified school there. Goldberg has been a longtime resident of Silver Lake. She served on the board nearly 30 years ago and doesn鈥檛 speak Spanish. Repenning spoke Spanish at a聽聽earlier this month.

Repenning taught English as a Second Language at Los Angeles City College and taught in a bilingual school in Honduras. She lists among her聽聽the Latino Coalition of Los Angeles and Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose grandfather was born in Mexico.

Goldberg has been endorsed by two prominent Latino leaders, activist Dolores Huerta and Hilda Sol铆s, a Los Angeles County supervisor and former U.S. labor secretary who credited Goldberg with聽鈥渇ighting for the first living wage and ensuring support for bilingual and dual language programs.鈥� At a candidate聽聽this month, Goldberg highlighted how as a school board member she聽helped create a districtwide Spanish Bilingual Immersion聽.

Both Repenning and Goldberg have prominent labor backing. Repenning has been endorsed by SEIU Local 99, which represents education workers such as cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and teachers assistants, and Goldberg by United Teachers Los Angeles.

Goodwin said a runoff between Repenning and Goldberg would likely discourage Latino turnout.

鈥淚t depends on who the candidates are. If you have a Latino candidate who makes the runoff, there might be a push for Latinos to turn out,鈥澛燝oodwin said. 鈥淚f you have this interesting sort of inter-union battle between Heather and Jackie, where there鈥檚 unlikely to be any substantive difference between them 鈥� then you might have very, very low Latino turnout 鈥� maybe made up for by slightly higher turnout in the northern part of the district.鈥澛燬o in the end, total turnout in this year鈥檚 race could be similar to 2015鈥檚 turnout, but the composition of the vote could be different, he said.

If no Latino candidates make the runoff, S谩nchez said聽he is concerned that Latinos 鈥渨on鈥檛 have a say in who their new representative will be鈥� in this special election. 鈥淏ecause essentially it would be two candidates that really represent the northeast of the district and that also are not Latino in a majority Latino district, we have to ensure that the issues of southeast and Latino students are front and center in this election.鈥� He added, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the sad part.鈥�

Mar铆a Daisy Ort铆z, an immigrant parent who was a panelist at a recent candidate聽, said she is not as concerned that BD5鈥檚 board member be Latino as she is that the person can improve educational opportunities for English learners and low-income students.

鈥淚 hope all parents, particularly Latinos, can be very analytical about who they鈥檙e going to vote for and don鈥檛 vote for a candidate that only tells them what they want to hear. There鈥檚 much more at stake in this election,鈥� said Ort铆z, who is also a member of the district鈥檚 committee for English learners and a frequent聽聽at L.A. Unified board meetings.

S谩nchez noted that there鈥檚 an even bigger issue. He said that the majority of the people who traditionally vote in school board elections don鈥檛 even have children in public schools.

鈥淥nly 10 percent of people who vote have had their kids or currently have kids enrolled in the school district,鈥澛燬谩nchez said, based on his experience with school board races in Los Angeles, including working for M贸nica Garc铆a鈥檚 2006 school board campaign. He was also a BD5 school board candidate聽, narrowly losing to Bennett Kayser. Kayser was defeated by 搁辞诲谤铆驳耻别锄 in 2015.

鈥淧eople who make decisions for a school board are people whose kids don鈥檛 attend those schools,鈥� S谩nchez said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we need to change who gets to vote in these elections.鈥�

Increasing representation

To make the board selection more democratic, S谩nchez is advocating for youths starting at age 16 to be able to vote in school board elections, as well as non-citizens. In a school board election in November, San Francisco became the first California city to聽聽local non-citizen voting.

For that to happen in L.A., S谩nchez said the City Council would have to vote to put a measure on the ballot and voters would have to approve it. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at other cities like Berkeley, they鈥檙e allowing 16-year-olds to vote. And in San Francisco, they鈥檙e allowing immigrant families to vote in city elections. There鈥檚 a precedent with this in our state.鈥�

When candidate Repenning was asked in an聽聽with Speak Up, a parent advocacy group,聽if undocumented parents should be allowed to vote in school board elections, she said, 鈥淵es, I鈥檓 in favor of that. The electorate choosing our leaders should reflect the communities that our schools are ultimately serving.鈥�

At the parent-led聽聽in Eagle Rock this month, candidate Salvador 鈥淐hamba鈥� S谩nchez said all parents should be allowed to vote in school board elections regardless of their immigration status.

Guerra said that would be 鈥渟ymbolically鈥� important, but it would not solve the problem of low turnout.

鈥淚鈥檓 very supportive of that idea, but don鈥檛 use it as a panacea, because I think in San Francisco they just got only like 100 non-citizens to vote. It鈥檚 not like that will make a major difference. And you have to remember, it鈥檚 not all undocumented, it鈥檚 only those that are non-citizens but are here legally.鈥�

Guerra added, 鈥淚f we think that education is the most important issue, we ought to be having these elections during the presidential election so there鈥檚 a greater turnout.鈥�

Guerra also said he was 鈥渟trongly鈥� in favor of an appointment by the board instead of a costly special election. This election is expected to cost聽, based on estimates from city and county election officials.

At a board meeting last August, board member Scott Schmerelson proposed聽聽Goldberg to the seat, which drew significant聽. The board voted instead to keep the seat open until an election could be held.

鈥� Read more from LA School Report:聽

Flores said she would not have supported the appointment.

鈥淣o, I think 鈥� it always depends on who gets to appoint, and I saw what was happening and I saw the pressure to get someone appointed that I personally wouldn鈥檛 want on BD5,鈥� she said, referring to Goldberg. 鈥淎gain, I think representation matters, and I don鈥檛 know if we would have had somebody appointed that represents the cultural and linguistic needs of BD5.鈥�

鈥楾heir voice is potentially as powerful as their vote’

Getting Latinos to vote or become civically engaged has been a historical challenge, not only locally but nationwide. Even politically aware parents like Ort铆z may sit out Tuesday鈥檚 election and wait for a runoff.

Ort铆z said she was glad that she participated in the candidate forum, but she said that she didn’t feel encouraged enough to vote for any of the candidates. 鈥淚 might wait until the runoff.聽None of them has yet fulfilled my expectations, and I don鈥檛 want to vote led by emotion. I need to make a very well-informed decision. I鈥檓 still not there yet,鈥� she said.

Flores believes southeast Latinos can make a difference in special election whether they are able to vote or not.聽She聽encouraged all parents, including immigrant parents, to make their voices heard.

鈥淭hey should vote if they can. But if they can鈥檛 vote because of their immigration status, then they can go get five people in their community that can vote,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淭heir voice is potentially as powerful as their vote when they don鈥檛 have a vote especially, so there鈥檚 more than one way to make sure that representation is taken into account when we vote, and that鈥檚 by being active in other ways and advocating and organizing around the kind of candidate that will be responsive to the children that we need to lift up.鈥�

鈥� Read more about the election next week in Board District 5:聽

Taylor Swaak contributed to this report.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.