Don’t Believe the Sacramento Charter School Compromise is a Bad Deal?

“This seems like a feel-good bill for the teachers [sic] union but charters can still do what they want and still get approved if the county Board of Education is an option”

- Mike Trujillo

The Los Angeles Times describes Mike Trujillo as a “political strategist.” Usually, these types of operatives prefer to do their work behind the scenes, but Trujillo seems to have an affinity towards seeing his own name in print. This is bad for the clients that he represents but is instructive for those outside the charter industry’s inner circle who get to see what is going on behind the curtain.

In May 2018, Nick Melvoin’s school privatization advocacy group, Speak Up, attacked Jackie Goldberg’s ethnicity in a bid to block her appointment to the board seat left vacant by Ref Rodriguez’ felony conviction. Trujillo was front and center in their propaganda efforts. Ignoring the words of Martin Luther King Jr., he claimed that “Appointing a non-Latino candidate like Goldberg to the seat, even temporarily, is definitely not in the spirit of the law.” In the end, voters ignored Speak Up’s call for bigotry and overwhelmingly elected Goldberg to the seat. Unfortunately, the refusal to make a temporary appointment meant that the stakeholders of the district were unrepresented for almost a year.