Conservative California superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that she would not back down from confronting the United Teachers Los Angeles union (UTLA), after a circulated video allegedly showed a union leader calling Shaw a "real threat" and warning that her election "would cause a huge problem for us."Shaw, the president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, pointed to Los Angeles student achievement scores as she accused UTLA of protecting the education establishment rather than focusing on academic outcomes."I’m not surprised the Los Angeles teachers union sees me as a threat," Shaw said, in a statement to Fox News Digital."More than half of their students still can’t read at grade level, and nearly two-thirds can’t do math.
Instead of working to help those kids, UTLA has fought to keep parents in the dark, excused failure, and protected the system that produced these results."NATION’S LARGEST TEACHERS UNION UNDER FIRE AS CONTROVERSIAL AGENDA PUTS CENTURY-OLD FEDERAL CHARTER AT RISKSonja Shaw said the recording showed union opposition to her campaign.(San Francisco Chronicle via Getty)California’s latest official assessment results lend context to Shaw’s criticism of Los Angeles Unified’s academic performance. In 2025, 46.46% of LAUSD students met or exceeded the state standard in English language arts and 36.76% met or exceeded the standard in mathematics, according to California Department of Education testing data.
That meant roughly 53.5% did not meet the ELA standard and 63.2% did not meet the math standard.Shaw said the criticism described in the video would not change her approach to the statewide race."If putting children and families first is a ‘huge problem’ for their agenda, that tells you everything you need to know.I won’t back down," she said.
"They just admitted it.I’m a ‘real threat’ to their socialist agenda.
Parents over politics.Kids over ideology.
Girls over boys in ...