Chairwoman Holguin Supports Charter Schools & Other Stuff

The Chairwoman of the local El Paso County Democratic Party is a big time supporter of charter schools, which makes union support for the chair of the Democratic Party a big problem for unions. I'll get to that in a little bit, but first let me give you the backdrop.

The hypocrisy of the Holguin family political business is troublesome. I thought about that this weekend when I saw that Iliana Holguin showed up to an Ysleta football game all of a sudden now that she is running for office and has a campaign sign at the home of a prominent Republican in the Lower Valley.

His name is Fred Chavez and he's a former Justice of the Peace and lives on the same street as Commissioner Perez, who is the Precinct 3 Commissioner. In fact, when Commissioner Perez won his seat, he won the seat by defeating Chavez in the November general election that year.

Chavez is a big time Trump supporter and a big time Ted Cruz supporter. He has had Ted Cruz signs up in his yard since Beto ran against Ted Cruz and they are there to this day.

His most prominent one says "Pro-Life Ted Cruz".

The Holguins probably wanted those signs up because other than their immediate neighbors that live in the same exclusive gated community they live in, the Holguins don't even have the support of the neighborhood they live in.

The Holguin's were so desperate to have a sign in the Commissioner's neighborhood that they were willing to sell out the values of the Democratic Party in order to put their campaign sign in a Republican's yard because he happens to live on the same street. Some of you may have seen my video on Facebook about it.

A woman's right to choose is a MAJOR issue for the Democratic Party. Women's health has been under assault by the current administration in Washington and Austin. You'd think holding firm to the platform the Chair is supposed to advocate for would be a no-brainer. We should all be advocating for women's health, but if a woman is willing to look the other way on such an important issue for her own campaign's benefit, it says a lot about that candidate. Mostly, it shows that she'd rather advocate for herself than anyone else.

Seriously, this isn't a conversation we should be having about the chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party!

Support of public education is also an important part of the Democratic Party platform, as is support for unions. And this is where Iliana Holguin's very thin experience in the lower valley comes back to haunt her.

Iliana Holguin is not only a supporter of charters, she actually sits on the board of a charter school! She'll probably counter that she sits on the Ysleta Education Foundation, but that was a recent sweetheart appointment by political allies.

Her children have never attended public school.

When teacher unions can't even rely on support of public education from the chair of the Democratic Party, it is a terrible statement about that chair.

Don't believe me? Well, check it out...from her own social media page, taken just yesterday.

There's no way to walk this one back. She's solidly a charter school advocate.

Charter schools are bad for public education. Every dollar that goes to a charter school is a dollar diverted from public education. Teachers have less education, training, and aren't required to have certification. Teachers in charter schools are paid less and have almost no rights to due process. Parents and students have no right to due process. Charter schools are funded by public tax dollars and yet there is no public accountability of their finances.

They cherry-pick students. They aren't required to accept students with special needs. They aren't required to take students with limited English proficiency. They are literally the biggest threat to public education around right now.

That is why teachers' unions are opposed to charter schools. The Democratic Party is supposed to support labor - and it is a crying shame that the chair of the Democratic Party is a charter school advocate. I can't think of an another example of a Democratic Party Chair being an advocate for an anti-labor organization like charter schools.

Its actually not a crying shame.

Its an embarrassment.

Labor shows solidarity to one another. So lets recap some of Holguin's support, shall we?

One is an anti-choice, pro-Trump, Ted Cruz supporting Republican former elected official. One is the sheriff's association that has a history of endorsing local Republican candidates. Let me remind you, we are talking about the Chair of the local El Paso County Democratic Party! She's supposed to be the standard bearer against Republicans, not putting her campaign signs in their yard!

It will be interesting to see what the rest of labor does now, especially knowing that Iliana Holguin is a devout supporter of charter schools.

It will also be interesting to see how some of her closest supporters react.

Just kidding, I already know what they are going to do - I'm just waiting to call them out on it....