Though none of the candidates may want to admit it, the race to represent District 5 on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education is characteristic of the broader polarized climate of public education politics: the incumbent, Bennett Kayser, is an unflinching supporter of the teachers union; the second candidate, Ref Rodriguez, is a charter school operator with reform credentials; and the third candidate, Andrew Thomas, is an LAUSD parent and educator who rejects the terms of the union-reform divide.
“I’m an active dad from the neighborhood,” said Thomas, 49, in an interview with the Journal.
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