LA Teachers Union Leader Exposed After Calling Sonja Shaw A Real Threat

More than half of Los Angeles Unified's students can't read at grade level.

Parents like Sonja Shaw built a national campaign demanding accountability for that failure.

Now a leaked recording shows exactly what the union protecting that system really thinks of her.

Audio Catches UTLA Official Admitting Shaw Is a 'Real Threat'

A recording surfaced this week of Julie Van Winkle, the AFT vice president for United Teachers Los Angeles, talking to supporters about the November race for state superintendent.

She warned that a Sonja Shaw win would be "obviously a huge problem for us."

Shaw is the Chino Valley Unified School District board president who finished first in June's primary for California superintendent of public instruction.

Corey DeAngelis, the Heritage Foundation research fellow who posted the clip, said the union had just handed Shaw a gift.

He told Fox News Digital that a power-hungry union calling someone an existential threat means "you're officially over the target."

A union boss said the quiet part out loud, and now everyone gets to hear it.

UTLA backs Barrera, the San Diego school board president running against Shaw in November.

The California Teachers Association's independent spending arm has already spent more than $5 million backing him.

Shaw has drawn roughly $10,000 in outside support by comparison.

That is not a campaign.

That is a union trying to buy an office it cannot win on the merits.

Newsom Already Tried to Neuter the Job Shaw Might Win

Shaw didn't sneak into first place in June.

She beat a crowded field of seven Democrats and consolidated the Republican vote on her way to the top spot.

Gavin Newsom noticed, and weeks later he signed Assembly Bill 181, stripping most of the superintendent's authority and handing it to a governor-appointed commissioner instead.

Shaw put it bluntly: "Newsom couldn't win at the ballot box, so he changed the rules."

This playbook isn't new.

Wyoming elected a reform-minded Republican named Cindy Hill as state superintendent back in 2010, and within three years the legislature had stripped her of her powers too.

Democrats in Sacramento just ran the same play Wyoming Republicans ran over a decade ago, except this time it's a teachers union helping load the gun.

The Test Scores UTLA Is Fighting to Protect

Look at the actual numbers Van Winkle is defending.

California's 2025 testing data put LAUSD's English proficiency rate at just 46 percent.

Math proficiency was worse, under 37 percent.

Sonja Shaw is the "real threat" for pointing out numbers like those.

This isn't an isolated outburst from one union official having a bad day.

Center Square reporting found teachers unions and affiliated groups have funneled more than $1 billion into political causes nationwide since 2015.

A separate Heritage Foundation analysis found the national teachers union's president directed members' pension assets toward pressuring a major retailer over an unrelated political fight, not improving classrooms.

Van Winkle isn't protecting teachers.

She's protecting a machine, and she admitted it on tape.

Every dollar spent attacking Sonja Shaw is a dollar the union didn't spend fixing a classroom where almost two out of three kids can't pass a math test.

Keep calling Shaw a threat.

Parents are taking notes.

Sources:

• CJ Womack, "California superintendent candidate calls out teachers union, says she's a 'real threat' to 'socialist agenda,'" Fox News, September 30, 2026.
• California Post Editorial Board, "The 'Real Threat' to LA's Teachers Union," California Post, September 2026.
• The Federalist, "California Races To Neuter Office That A Conservative Might Win," The Federalist, June 29, 2026.
• Heritage Foundation, "Teachers' Unions Are Losing One of Their Government Perks," Heritage Foundation, July 2026.
• The Center Square, "Teacher Unions Spent Over $1B on Political Causes Since 2015," The Center Square, May 2026.
• America First Report, "Newsom's Power Grab Strips Voters of Their Voice in Schools," America First Report, July 2026.