Looking ahead to the upcoming elections this year, CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett says she holds hope for a successful campaign because of the work CTA members do every day in the face of challenges.

“You are the heroes of this generation. I have hope because I know that when we all come together and work as a team, we are successful,” she told State Council Delegates at a recent convening.

“It’s what makes us a stronger union, a stronger state and a stronger nation. I have hope because I know, despite whatever obstacles those who want to destroy unions and the middle class throw in our way this November, they will not break us,” she said. “We will take action! We will make our voices heard! And we will not be silenced! So today, I want to start with the hope I draw from all of you. You are real heroes. You open minds and inspire greatness.”

Perhaps the greatest challenge for CTA is the “Paycheck Deception” initiative. She called the initiative nothing but a corporate power grab that would prevent CTA from contributing to state or local candidates and initiatives.

Doggett said the initiative “is an attack that goes to the heart and soul of everything we do,” and told Council, “We’ll stay out of politics when they stay out of our classrooms.”

• Read full speech

CTA Director Toby Boyd (at right) stresses to co-panelists Dr. Jerry Weast and Dr. Meera Mani that poverty is a major stumbling block to student achievement and that all elements of the educational system need to take on the challenge of helping children achieve. Schools need adequate funding to help every student succeed.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 9 February 2012 – Speaking to more than 400 educators and
schools supporters Thursday morning  who gathered  at a two-day conference on early learning hosted by First Five and the Water Cooler, CTA Board Member Toby Boyd reminded co-panelists that poverty is a major stumbling block to student achievement.

“We have a problem in our society: it’s called poverty,” Boyd emphasized.  He stressed that the responsibility for educating students rests on the collective society, including the school community from the superintendent on down.”

Boyd underscored that the fundamental problem for schools is a lack of adequate funding and that moving the existing money around like pieces on a chessboard won’t improve the educational process.

“We need to provide adequate funds to have our children succeed. ….We need to make
sure that we educate all our children and we have the resources to make that happen…. Our children and their success in life depend upon it.”

Boyd’s comments came during his participation in a panel discussion.  Other panels, including  Meera Mani, Ed. D., Director of the Children, Families, and Communities Program of the David and Lucille Packard Foundation; Ralph Smith, Senior Vice President of The Annie E. Casey
Foundation and managing Director, the Campaign for Grade-level Reading; Jerry Weast, Ed. D., Founder and CEO of the Partnership for Deliberate Excellence, LLC,  and former supt. of Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland; and , Catherine Atkin, President  of Preschool California, who moderated the panel.

Like Boyd, the panelists noted the significant impact of poverty on student achievement.   Dr. Weast cited statistics revealing that about half of California’s children are living at or below the
poverty line.

CTA’s Boyd told participants that teachers welcome accountability: “We need the opportunity to teach the children…Allow us to do that. Give us the opportunity to do what we know how to do.  And hold us accountable.  ….We are working to have every child in our classrooms
succeed.”

CTA-Retired President Ed Foglia (gesturing) warns about the effects on the classroom and students of the governor’s proposal to raise the standard retirement age to 67. Other representatives included higher education faculty and members from United Teachers Los Angeles. They met with Assembly Member Warren Furitani’s staff (at photo left) and other legislative staff later in the day.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 7 February 2012 – A coalition of pro-education groups brought about 100 educators to the state capitol on Tuesday to educate legislators about the vital role a sound public retirement system plays in recruiting and retaining highly qualified instructional and support personnel.

The California Retirement Coalition, whose members include the California Teachers Association, United Teachers Los Angeles, the California Retired Teachers Association, the Association of California School Administrators, the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges, the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, the Small School Districts’ Association, and Delta Kappa Gamma, told lawmakers that they support Gov. Jerry Brown’s vision of a strong retirement system.  At the same time, the group expressed concerns about
the governor’s pension proposals.

Coalition members want to ensure that any changes made to the California State Teachers’
Retirement System do not diminish the state’s ability to recruit teachers to our communities’ schools.

Photo and Story by Len Feldman

The number of California public high school graduates participating in AP has nearly doubled in the last decade, and more than 90,000 students of the graduating class scored a 3 (denoting “qualified”) or higher on at least one AP exam – nearly double the number in 2001.

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Budget Expert John Mockler tells participants at the State PTA’s lobbying conference Monday night in Sacramento that despite being fed a starvation diet, public schools are helping an ever-more diverse student body make significant academic improvement. Mockler derided what he called an “industry” that has profited by declaring that public schools are failing and that public education students are not making sufficient academic progress.

 (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 7 February 2012 – The California financial and education expert who helped California Teachers Association craft the constitutional minimum funding guarantee for schools said Monday night that the state’s public schools are making great academic achievements, despite receiving $60,000 less per classroom than the national average.

John Mockler, whose professional positions have included executive director of the California State Board of Education and aide to former Speaker Willie L. Brown, charged that an “industry” has sprung up to profit by making the public believe the state’s education system is failing.

Speaking to the annual legislative meeting of the California State PTA (CAPTA), Mocker detailed what he called a “surge in California school activity” that the standard media is not reporting.

Mockler called the gains remarkable, given the fact the state has an increasingly diverse student population with ever-greater needs.

The fiscal expert noted that the state’s student body is shaped by 353% increase in the number of English Language Learners since 1980, while the overall student population has gone up by only 52%.

The number of students with special needs – who are costly to educate – has risen by 88%, Mockler said, 70% faster than the non-Special Education population.

He noted that California’s large class sizes would require the state to hire another 150,000 teachers to have similar teacher to student ratios like those found in Montana.

Mockler pointed to the drop in funding for schools as a percentage of per capita income.  He said the fall from 4.5% to 3.3% in 2010 has resulted in an annual loss to schools of $18 billion.

“We don’t spend very much [on public education], we don’t spend as much as we used to, and we don’t spend as much a percentage of personal income as other states,” Mockler stated.

“We’re doing better with less resources….the deepness of learning is not measured by test scores.  We have no art in our schools, we have no music, there are some many things we don’t have, it’s hard to understand it,” Mockler mused.

The budget expert cited a real and calculable cost to society of eliminating these elective courses.  “Students can join the chess club gang, the glee club gang, or a real gang, which ever you would you prefer,” he noted.

Mockler also commended Gov. Jerry Brown on the “best budget for schools in 47 years….If that budget passes and the governor’s initiative passes, California will be spending $14-16 billion more in  2015-2016,” Mockler figured.

 Photo and story by Len Feldman

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Despite objections from the San Francisco Unified School District, the State Board of Education at its January 11-12 meeting in Sacramento approved a charter for the Rocketship Charter School.

According to CTA Liaisons who attended the meeting, Rocketship is planning to open at least 30 charter schools in the Santa Clara area in the near future.

At the same meeting, the Board reportedly gave a five-year approval to the both the Aspire Public Charter and the High Tech High Statewide Benefit Charter.  The High Tech charter school offers a teacher credentialing program.

The State Board also voted to approve funding for a recommended list of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools that have applied for sub-grants under the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.

While the Board approved waiving for four school districts parts of the state Education Code governing Highly Qualified Teachers, the Board denied a request to allow API waivers for Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) schools.

(blog.cta.org thanks CTA Liaison Sandra Thorton for her report on the Board meeting.)

We found this GREAT blog post by David Reber, a biology teacher and union advocate in Kansas:

What other profession is legally held to PERFECTION by 2014? Are police required to eliminate all crime? Are firefighters required to eliminate all fires? Are doctors required to cure all patients? Are lawyers required to win all cases? Are coaches required to win all games? Of course they aren’t.

Too right! Read more and let him know what you think of his article..

(At left) California Budget Project Executive Director Jean Ross answers a participant’s question following her Friday morning briefing on Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012-2013 budget proposal.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 3 February 2012 — A nonpartisan think tank has released a review of the governor’s budget that finds tax cuts approved by the legislature since 1993 will cost the state more than $13 billion in 2012-13, more than the projected $9.2 billion budget deficit.

After years of budget cutting, state spending is nearly $40 billion below that of the 2007 baseline, according to the California Budget Project’s Measuring Up: The Social and Economic Context of the Governor’s Proposed 2012-13 Budget.

The publication notes that per-pupil spending would stabilize under the governor’s budget proposal, but it would remain lower than baseline years, after adjustments for inflation are made.

The report warns that if voters reject the governor’s tax initiative, $5.4 billion in proposed trigger cuts would reduce spending on schools, higher education, courts, resource programs, and public safety.

The trigger cuts would pare another $705 per student below the governor’s proposed level, allowing California to fall even further below other states in this important measure of commitment to educational excellence.

The publication can be found at

CBP’s Measuring Up Publication

Filed by Len Feldman

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 2 February 2012 – Two labor unions top the list of organizations that spent millions on lobbying the California legislature and other elected officials, but business and other interests outspent labor by a wide margin, according to California Common Cause.

The public interest group released its listing of big spenders whose expenses for lobbyists and related items amounted to a “record year” in 2011, Common Cause Policy Advocate Phillip Ung told reporters gathered at a capital news conference Thursday morning.

(At left) During a Thursday morning Sacramento news conference, Common Cause Policy Advocate Phillip Ung notes that business and governmental organizations vastly outspent labor unions on lobbying during 2011, a record year for lobbying spending,

California Teachers Association (CTA) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) led the 2011 lobbying spending at $6.57 million and $5.00 million respectively, according to Common Cause’s 2011 Campaign Finance and Lobbying Industry Report.

Western State Petroleum Association ($4.27 Million), the City of Vernon ($3.52M) and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. ($3.01 million) rounded out the top five.

Ung noted that in the aggregate, labor’s total spending of $133.3 million since the year 2000 was outstripped by that of industries including health ($306.4 million), manufacturing ($261.2 million) and finance/insurance ($199.3 million), among other industries.

Ung said Common Cause said that the lobbying expenditures support 1948 registered lobbyists, about 16 advocates for every legislator.  He said the volume of their voices drown out the voices of the average voter, who feels unrepresented.

Under questioning by blog.cta.org, Ung conceded that unions represent hundreds of thousand  of the “average” voters about whom Common Cause is concerned.  The Common Cause report also found

• Interests have reported spending more than $2.6 billion on lobbying since the year 2000.
• Government entities, including tribal interests, counties, and cities, spent more than $451.9 million on lobbying since the year 2000.
• The top four incumbents in terms of contributions collected in the second half of 2011 were Gov. Jerry Brown ($1.46 million), Attorney General Kamala Harris ($731,000), Assembly Speaker John Perez ($646,260), and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg ($561,600).
• Contributions topped $113,265 per day.
• The State Democratic Party raised more than $11.04 million in 2011 and reported more than $9.26 million in its cash reserves.  The California Republican Party, by contrast, collected $.14 million, but has only $438,927 cash on hand.  Common Cause said the state GOP used much of its money in working against the voter-approved redistricting.

Filed by Len Feldman

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 1 February 2012 – The California Assembly has given overwhelming bipartisan support to a CTA-sponsored measure designed to enhance districts’ fiscal stability and local control relating to charter schools. 

AB 1172, by Assembly Member Tony Mendoza (D-Van Nuys),  will among other things give school districts the power to refuse charter petitions when charter costs will negatively affect
districts’ finances.  That situation has been exacerbated by state funding cuts that have pared more than $20 billion from public school budgets in recent years.

The bill is co-authored by Assembly member Susan Bonilla and cosponsored by United Teachers Los Angeles.

The 45-28 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where it could see its first hearing in that house’s Education Committee.

 The action on AB 1172 came as the California Research Bureau released a long-awaited study that determined that charter school oversight is uneven around the state.  The CRB, a unit of the California Library system, issued specific recommendations for more charter accountability.

 For more information about the charter school study, use this link: CRB charter
school accountability study.

Filed by Len Feldman