to be around regardless” of who leads in the Capitol, he said.

A few years ago, Arambula wanted to give some districts more authority to improve low-performing schools. Opponents, including CTA, did not want to give locals that flexibility.

A CTA lobbyist came to his office and told him to drop the measure, said Arambula, an independent from Fresno who left the Democratic Party over conflicts with labor unions. He refused, but “I could not dynamite that bill loose” from a key committee, he said, and it died there.


The committee’s chairman was Tom Torlakson, now the state schools superintendent. Torlakson won the statewide office in 2010 with major backing from CTA, which spent more than $3.3 million on his behalf in a close three-way race.

Seven weeks ago, state Sen. AlexPadilla (D-Pacoima) took on the union in what his supporters, including the Los Angeles Unified School District and the California School Boards Assn., viewed as a reasonable response to the sexual abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. He proposed speeding the dismissal process for teachers who engaged in “serious or egregious unprofessional conduct”: offenses involving sex, drugs or violence.

Teachers and union lobbyists who opposed the lawmaker packed a Capitol hearing room as he testified before the Assembly Education Committee. They had already paid visits to most of the committee’s 11 members, posted photos of some of those meetings and thanked the lawmakers on Twitter.

Padilla said his bill was prompted by the case of former Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt, who was charged with 23 counts of