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Angela Bonilla has been racking up wins lately. The president of the Portland Association of Teachers saw three of four School Board candidates endorsed by the teachers’ union win office in May, while voters approved a $1.83 billion bond to fund school construction (“Lesson Learned,” WW, May 28). Last week, Bonilla pushed her chips to the center of the table. She publicly rebuked City Councilor Dan Ryan for scolding his council colleagues for moving police dollars to parks maintenance. Her letter represented an unusual foray into city politics by the teachers’ union leader—and intensified a dispute over public safety budgets that has split the council into leftists and centrists. Here’s what our readers had to say:
zzxcvnsubg, via wweek.com: “This is why public employees should not have unions. The union throws big money at campaigns and in turn the supported candidates get elected with that money, then those beholden officials give outlandish contracts, enriching the union and continuing the cycle. It’s a racket. And in the case of our schools, it’s resulting in horrible education outcomes at a far above average cost.
“The point of unions is to protect employees from greedy employers. Who exactly are public employee unions protecting public employees from?”
HailUtahstan, via wweek.com: “When I lived in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune comment board was filled with liberals frustrated by the conservatives who ran Utah. And in Portland all the right-wing loonies gather on the Willamette Week comment board to rage against their inevitable losses in just about every issue at hand.
“So hear this, all you whining right-wingers, unions are good and help people. I attribute my success in life and in my career to my teachers in the Portland Public Schools.
“I am glad Portland Association of Teachers has a lot of clout. They protect schools and students as well as their own careers.
“My only gripe with PAT was its foray last year into antisemitic nonsense on the massacre of Israelis by Hamas and the ensuing war.”
wildwalrusaur, via Reddit: “If the president of my union wasted time and political capital on shit that had absolutely nothing to do with our work or workplace, I’d be pissed.
“Why do teachers put up with this lady; this is hardly the first time she’s done it.”
Morgan Ronald, via Facebook: “I continue to be impressed and greatly inspired by twice-elected PAT president Angela Bonilla! Judging by this comment section’s misinformation, Portland is fortunate to have strong leadership in education.”
Lisa Lowry-Pierce, via Facebook: “Unreal. Looks like PAT union really feels like they should have influence over our elected officials now as well. Good for Dan Ryan for standing up to this union bully. I’d love it if Angela Bonilla would issue a letter of apology to every PPS student for leading a bad faith strike and costing them a month of school…and to every Jewish student in PPS for her pro-Hamas rhetoric…since she’s apparently big on apologizing.”
Nathan Bamford, via Facebook: “Yeah, we need to let the entire rest of the city fall apart so we can get more cops earning six figures to play Pokémon Go.”
WINTERHAVEN NEEDS READING RESULTS, TOO
I take serious issue with Reading Results executive director Jennifer Samuels’ statement that Winterhaven School no longer planned to work with the organization “because of low need” [“See Spot Run Away,” WW, May 21]. Winterhaven was told by PPS we were not allowed to keep Reading Results as they wanted to target other schools. Just because we are a small school does not mean we do not have a need for this critical tutoring. The services offered by Reading Results were quite effective and will now leave a gap in opportunities for early intervention. Whether Samuels was toeing the line for the PPS decision in making her statement or not, she was dead wrong in stating there is a “low need.” This is another instance where PPS is dragging some schools down rather than expanding the service so all who need it can access support for early reading.
Jennifer Baker
Southeast Portland
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to:
P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com