We Did It! Education Jobs Bill
Passes House
Senator Feinstein Needs to
Hear from You
Thanks to your action, phone
calls and emails, the House of Representatives passed the Education Jobs Bill,
which would bring $1.3 billion to California to help put educators back
in our classrooms. CTA members went the extra mile, making repeated
calls to their representatives and even sending a group of teachers -
including members who received layoff notices - to Washington to lobby lawmakers directly.
But our work is not done. The bill
now moves to the Senate, where it faces an uphill battle.
Senator Barbara Boxer has already pledged her support, but Senator
Dianne Feinstein has voiced concerns. So please, it's time to start
dialing once again. Call Senator Feinstein at 1.866.608.6355. Tell her
to support funding for education jobs in the Supplemental Funding Bill
so we can keep schools open, educators working and students learning.
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NEA RA Takes Action to Lead
Reauthorization of ESEA
Item B calls on NEA to
aggressively pursue a national campaign to achieve a positive agenda for
ESEA that provides adequate, equitable and stable funding for ALL
public schools and is not driven by competitive grants, provides support
rather than punishment to lower-performing schools and provides
students with multiple ways to show what they have learned.
CTA members also led the charge in
passing a vote of no confidence in the Race to the Top program. The RA
finished with an inspiring speech from author and education researcher Diane Ravitch.
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Temperatures and State Budget
Fight Heating Up
Temperatures have reached the 100
degree mark in Sacramento, which means state budget talks have finally
begun in earnest. CTA and members of the Education Coalition are
supporting the Assembly's California Jobs Budget that increases
revenues and restores cuts to public schools, colleges, health care and
other social services for children. Democrats in the Assembly and Senate
are working toward a joint budget plan, but the Senate proposal still
has several troubling provisions. One would basically eliminate the
state's Class Size Reduction program by turning it into a big block
grant to school districts. It also changes the formula for awarding
funding, which would mean a reduction of more than $900 million to
schools and would shift funding away from lower-income schools. The
Senate proposal also illegally reneges on CTA's lawsuit agreement to
fund the Quality Education Investment Act. Contact your lawmakers today and tell them to
support the Assembly Jobs Budget.
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CTA to Intervene in Adequacy
Lawsuit
Within the next few days CTA will
file a motion to intervene in the Adequate School Funding lawsuit filed by the
California School Boards Association, the California State PTA and the
Association of California School Administrators. The groups have welcomed CTA into the action. As
interveners, CTA will be able to advance legal arguments at every stage
of the proceeding and would be guaranteed a seat at the negotiating
table during any settlement talks. The groups filed the lawsuit in May,
requesting that the state be required to establish a school finance
system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the
academic goals set by the state. Meanwhile a second adequacy lawsuit was
filed this month by a coalition of community organizations.
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Common Core Standards and SIG
Funding
The state's Academic Content
Standards Commission continues its work of trying to revamp California's
K-12 standards in math and English language arts to align with the
national common core state standards. Twelve of the Commission members
are CTA members and four were nominated by CTA. The group declined an
out-right adoption of the common core in English language arts and is
now focusing on the math standards, which would be a major shift for
California. The Commission is expected to make some recommendations to
the State Board of Education for consideration at its August 2 meeting.
Also at that meeting, the State
Board will vote on school district applications for federal School
Improvement Grants. Sixty percent of the schools on the state's
so-called Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools list applied for funds.
They are competing for up to $2million, but the money comes with strings
and federal interventions. Delays in the process have also made it
difficult for schools to get plans in place by the start of the school
year. CTA will hold a briefing for local chapters at the President's
Conference.
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Whitman Ad Attacks Unions
Continuing her effort to buy
herself the governor's seat, Meg Whitman has launched a new television
ad attacking labor unions for supporting Jerry Brown because he believes
workers deserve a secure retirement system. Whitman wants to cut public
employee retirement and put all employees into risky, 401(k) plans. She
also wants to solve the state budget crisis by eliminating 40,000 jobs.
Whitman has spent more than $110 million so far on her campaign. A
coalition of labor unions has fired back. California Working Families is
running ads in support of Brown and challenging Whitman's outrageous
attacks on Brown, which campaign watchdog groups have labeled "highly
misleading." CTA's 2010 Campaign Workgroup has developed a comprehensive
plan for the fall election as it will be critical to the future of
public education. CTA's top priorities are electing Jerry Brown as
governor, Tom Torlakson as Superintendent of Public Instruction and
passing Prop. 24, the Tax Fairness Act. For all of CTA's recommended
candidates and ballot initiatives, visit www.cta.org.
It's not too early to volunteer and get involved. Text "CTAVOTES" to
69866 to get campaign updates.
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