Ankur Patel
Ankur Patel (Democratic Party) ran for election to the California State Assembly to represent District 45. He lost in the primary on June 5, 2018.
Patel also ran in a special election to the California State Assembly to represent District 45. He lost in the special primary on April 3, 2018.
Patel was a candidate for the District 3 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education in California. He ran against one incumbent and four challengers in the primary election on March 3, 2015. He did not receive enough votes to advance to the general election held on May 19, 2015.[1][2][3][4] He unsuccessfully ran for Los Angeles City Controller in 2013.
Biography
Patel earned his bachelor's degree in ecology behavior and evolution from the University of California at Los Angeles and his master's degree from California State University at Northridge. After earning his bachelor's degree, he spent a year teaching English to young children in South Korea, and he spent another six months teaching English to professionals and university students in China. Patel gained further teaching experience working as a graduate assistant while he obtained his master's degree.[5]
Patel has also worked as a union organizer and public radio producer and has served as the Neighborhood Council Treasurer.[5][6] After he unsuccessfully ran for District 3 in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2015, he began working for Scott Schmerelson as a school and community coordinator.[7]
Elections
2018
California State Assembly regular election
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 45
Incumbent Jesse Gabriel defeated Justin Clark in the general election for California State Assembly District 45 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jesse Gabriel (D) | 70.3 | 107,757 |
 | Justin Clark (R) | 29.7 | 45,619 | |
| Total votes: 153,376 | |||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 45
The following candidates ran in the primary for California State Assembly District 45 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jesse Gabriel (D) | 43.7 | 31,068 |
| ✔ | | Justin Clark (R) | 31.9 | 22,709 |
| Tricia Robbins Kasson (D) | 7.4 | 5,277 | ||
 | Ankur Patel (D) | 6.4 | 4,534 | |
| Jeff Bornstein (D) | 5.7 | 4,039 | ||
| Daniel Brin (D) | 3.4 | 2,432 | ||
| Raymond Bishop (D) | 1.5 | 1,088 | ||
| Total votes: 71,147 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Dennis Zine (Independent)
Endorsements
In 2018, Patel's endorsements included the following:[8]
- Nina Turner, President, Our Revolution National
- Ro Khanna, U.S. Congressman, California’s 17th Congressional District
- California Nurses Association (CNA)
- Our Revolution National
- California Teachers Association (CTA)
- United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)
- Feel The Bern Democratic Club
- Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains Democratic Club
- North Valley Democratic Club
- Food and Water Action
- Indivisibles of Sherman Oaks
- Revolution LA / Public Bank Los Angeles
- Our Revolution of the West Valley
- Our Revolution Ventura County
- Our Revolution Santa Clarita Valley
- Our Revolution Conejo Valley
- Our Revolution of the East Valley, The Democracy Project
- Americans for Democratic Action Southern California (ADA)
- Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA)
California State Assembly special election
General election
Special general election for California State Assembly District 45
Jesse Gabriel defeated Justin Clark in the special general election for California State Assembly District 45 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jesse Gabriel (D) | 65.7 | 46,168 |
| Justin Clark (R) | 34.3 | 24,109 | |
| Total votes: 70,277 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Special nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 45
The following candidates ran in the special primary for California State Assembly District 45 on April 3, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| Raymond Bishop (D) | ||
| Jeff Bornstein (D) | ||
| Daniel Brin (D) | ||
| ✔ | | Justin Clark (R) |
| ✔ | | Jesse Gabriel (D) |
| Tricia Robbins Kasson (D) | ||
| Ankur Patel (D) | |
| Dennis Zine (Independent) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2015
Four of the seven seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education were up for primary election on March 3, 2015. Only one candidate, unopposed District 1 incumbent George J. McKenna III, received more than 50 percent of the votes cast in the primary. Because of this, he won his seat outright, and the top two vote-getters in Districts 3, 5 and 7 advanced to the general election on May 19, 2015.
Incumbents Tamar Galatzan, Bennett Kayser and Richard A. Vladovic from Districts 3, 5 and 7, respectively, received enough votes to advance to the general election. They each faced at least two challengers in the primary. In District 3, Galatzan faced five challengers, Elizabeth Badger Bartels, Filiberto Gonzalez, Ankur Patel, Carl J. Petersen and Scott Mark Schmerelson. She and Schmerelson faced each other again in the general election. Kayser and challenger Ref Rodriguez defeated challenger Andrew Thomas to continue on to the District 5 general election. In the District 7 primary, Vladovic ran against challengers Euna Anderson and Lydia Gutierrez. Gutierrez received enough votes to advance to the general election with Vladovic.
In the general election, both Galatzan and Kayser were unseated by their challengers. Schmerelson won the District 3 seat, and Rodriguez was elected to the District 5 seat. In District 7, Vladovic defeated Gutierrez to secure another term on the board.
Results
| Los Angeles Unified School District, District 3 Primary Election, 5-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Tamar Galatzan Incumbent |
40.2% | 15,326 | |
| Nonpartisan | Scott Mark Schmerelson |
20.4% | 7,767 | |
| Nonpartisan | Ankur Patel | 12.8% | 4,870 | |
| Nonpartisan | Elizabeth Badger Bartels | 10.8% | 4,125 | |
| Nonpartisan | Carl J. Petersen | 10.1% | 3,839 | |
| Nonpartisan | Filiberto Gonzalez | 5.8% | 2,213 | |
| Total Votes | 38,140 | |||
| Source: Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "Primary Nominating Election: Official Election Results," accessed March 23, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Patel reported $23,998.00 in contributions and $20,936.49 in expenditures to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, which left his campaign with $3,161.51 as of February 25, 2015.[9]
Endorsements
Patel did not receive any official endorsements for this election.
Campaign themes
2015
Patel highlighted the following issues on his campaign website:
| “ | My Platform, Priorities, and Key Issues This is an ongoing and evolving discussion that, for me, started by breaking down the functions a school should provide its students. I initially came up with these broad policy categories as a way of using this campaign to bring together success stories and research — with teachers, staff, administrators, parents and students — to implement decentralized solutions to daily problems that pose as challenges to students learning and enjoying school. I hope to work with you to reduce class size because we can’t have 40 students in a class, pay our teachers poorly relative to other schools, and expect good outcomes. We receive more than $10,000 per student per year in the LAUSD from the State of California — that is where the school district’s $7 billion annual operational budget comes from. An increased level of transparency at each school site would allow parents, teachers, and students to evaluate the efficiency of the use of tax dollars. Making sure that spending is actually going to benefit the students’ facilities, transportation, food, and health would also improve learning outcomes. We need to follow the money. More broadly, the specific education policy issues that are on everyone’s mind include: Class Size Each LAUSD school brings in more than $10,000 per student per year in California. Middle School and High School teachers have 40 students per class, translating to over $400,000 per year per classroom. Our teachers aren’t getting paid enough, our textbooks aren’t new enough, and our facilities aren’t clean enough! It is clear that the money meant for educating our young people isn’t being put into the classroom. We need to support teachers with teaching assistants, and fewer students per class. This is a priority that all parents, teachers, and students can agree on. It is not a political issue. The money is there. This is one of the foremost issues facing the Los Angeles Unified School District. Class size and teacher/student ratio is an issue on which all other problems and solutions facing our education system need to be centered. Teacher Evaluations and Student Testing We need to have good teachers in our classrooms, but evaluating them has become highly contentious. I believe that student input should be accounted for in evaluating teachers. The students spend more time with their teachers than anyone else and are in the best position to assess their educational experience. This means we need to develop thoughtful questions that can be used to improve both the learning and teaching experience. Standardized tests can be useful in evaluating a student’s progress, but it should not be the primary tool used to gauge success of the student or the teacher. In fact, using a student’s test score to evaluate their teacher has many flaws. Ranging from the simple question of how to test students in special education and physical education to the unequal capability of students entering a new grade with a new teacher. The less discussed, but still important policy points include: Curricula and Instruction Time School curriculum, what our children are learning, needs to be factual and unbiased. It has to prepare them for the 21st century and give each individual young person context for their place in the world. As a L.A. Unified School Board member, I would work with teachers, parents, and students to develop instruction plans that will present an unbiased, relevant education to our children to better prepare them for the future. We don’t need to be paying huge sums of money to textbook manufacturers or software developers. Knowledge is not something to be hoarded, kept secret, privatized, and then sold. Everyone, and especially every student, should have access to information, knowledge, and the tools to access the depth of wisdom that humankind has acquired. The amount of time that our young people are intellectually engaged goes far beyond classroom time, and we can support that with materials, supplemental enrichment, and programs. The Los Angeles Unified School District curriculum (science, math, English, history) is always under political attack. I aim to host a specific conversation on what books middle school students are assigned to read in order to engage parents, teachers, and students in a potentially productive policy discussion. There is so much knowledge that we have put into books, but we need to present information to students in an objective way that engages them individually. The amount of time our young people are intellectually engaged goes far beyond classroom time, and we can support that with materials, supplemental enrichment, and programs. I bring a broad perspective on public education, the kind of long-term and global perspective from which young people in Los Angeles would benefit. I would wholeheartedly work with teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other board members to find and implement the very best instruction methods in all subjects in the classroom, and through hands-on learning. Facilities and Transportation The LAUSD spends hundreds of millions of dollars on facilities and transportation on an annual basis. Our schools’ bathrooms are unclean, and getting to school can be a hassle, and sometimes a barrier, to parents and students. Accountability regarding school contracts is lacking. The fact that money meant to rehabilitate our dilapidated schools was used for a poorly executed iPad program should help the public realize the incumbent doesn’t have the right priorities. I aim to bring individual campuses, local parent organizations, and especially students into the process that evaluates whether taxpayer money is being spent efficiently on our schools. Food and Health LAUSD’s cafeteria budget is $300 million, but our students are eating cold bread with a piece of cold cheese in the middle for lunch. Again, money meant to feed our students is being eaten by bureaucrats downtown. Food and health is not only an important issue for our students while they are in school, but also throughout the rest of their lives. So why are we giving students 10 minutes to eat highly subsidized processed food? There are many groups and organizations working to improve the diet of our students, and I want to work with everyone to make sure that we are doing everything we can to improve the quality and cost efficiency of food we provide at schools with taxpayer money. Language, Arts, and Athletics Separate from the curriculum, Language, Art, and Athletics play a crucial role in the development of young people. Each of these issues has been studied extensively, but are not used as a part of a holistic education. I aim to systematically expand and offer opportunities in these subjects to all students either during school or through after school programs. Science and Exploration We need to inspire a generation of thoughtful and creative young people capable of critical thinking. Science and exploration, including field trips and hands on learning to museums and nature will do a lot to help bring childlike-curiosity back to our schools Again, this is an ongoing and evolving discussion and I’d like your input on how we can make our schools better, what your main issues are, and let’s work together to implement pragmatic solutions. I aim to bring individual campuses, local parent organizations, and especially students into the process that evaluates whether taxpayer money is being spent efficiently on our schools.[10] |
” |
| —Ankur Patel's campaign website (2015)[11] | ||
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- California State Assembly elections, 2018
- California State Assembly District 45
- California state legislative special elections, 2018
- California State Assembly
- Los Angeles Unified School District, California
- Los Angeles Unified School District elections (2015)
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- California State Assembly
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook page
- Campaign Twitter page
Footnotes
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "General Information for Candidates, Los Angeles City Elections, 2015," accessed January 13, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk's Office, "2015 Primary Nominating Election Candidates," accessed January 13, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, “Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 3 Voter Information,” accessed February 2, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles City Clerk, “Election Night Results (Unofficial), March 3, 2015,” accessed March 4, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ankur Patel for School Board, "About Ankur," accessed February 3, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, "Ankur Patel: Candidate for Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 3," accessed February 3, 2015
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia via email on November 2, 2018.
- ↑ Ankur Patel 2018 campaign website, "Endorsements," accessed November 2, 2018
- ↑ Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, "2015 City and LAUSD Elections," accessed April 13, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ankur Patel for School Board, "On the Issues," accessed February 3, 2015
| 2015 Los Angeles Unified School District Elections | |
| Los Angeles County, California | |
| Election date: | Primary election - March 3, 2015 General election - May 19, 2015 |
| Candidates: | District 1: • Incumbent, George J. McKenna III District 3: • Incumbent, Tamar Galatzan • Elizabeth Badger Bartels • Filiberto Gonzalez • Ankur Patel • Carl J. Petersen • Scott Mark Schmerelson District 5: • Incumbent, Bennett Kayser • Ref Rodriguez • Andrew Thomas District 7: • Incumbent, Richard A. Vladovic • Euna Anderson • Lydia Gutierrez |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
