Invoking a commitment to public service as an example of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world,” former astronaut and U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly told a large, captivated audience at USC about the journey he and his wife, retired U.S. Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords (D-Ariz.), have been on since a 2011 assassination attempt on Giffords thrust them into the center of the gun-control movement.
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.
Two Los Angeles city charter amendments on the March 3 ballot would align city and school board elections with national and statewide races in the hopes of increasing voter turnout.
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