The state Senate and Assembly today passed AB 110, the legislature’s budget bill that will make a historic change in how schools are funded. The new budget, which is on its way to the governor for his signature, also provides more than $2 billion to begin repaying school districts funding they are owed after years of drastic cuts. It provides additional funding to ensure that virtually all districts get back to their 2007-08 state funding levels. It also targets more funding to help the state’s neediest students.

“While it will take years for our schools to fully recover, this budget is a big step in the right direction. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a state budget proposal with a significant increase in education funding,” said CTA President Dean E. Vogel. “The governor’s Local Control Funding Formula that is part of the final budget adds up to renewed opportunities for our schools. We are also encouraged by the $1.25 billion for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These new standards will dramatically impact teaching and learning. Educators must have the resources they need to help students succeed.”

New language regarding school district accountability provisions in the final budget protects collective bargaining and limits the oversight of County Offices of Education. This agreement holds the promise of a better future for our students. Take a closer look at details of the agreed-upon budget.

The legislature approved the spending bill a day before the June 15 deadline for sending the measure to the governor.  The governor has until June 30 to sign the budget into law to take effect on July 1, the start of the state’s new fiscal year.

Lawmakers are also debating and approving several “budget trailer measures” that help implement the new spending plan.

We are extremely encouraged by the historic state budget agreement in Sacramento to overhaul education funding for K-12 schools. Thanks to the hard work of educators and parents to pass Proposition 30, the new spending plan provides all schools with more resources, begins repaying schools the money they are owed from years of budget cuts, recognizes the need for smaller class sizes and helps meet the needs of school districts serving at-risk students. As school doors close for the year this month, new doors are opening with the new funding plan. Additional funding  for our students of greatest need will help more dreams become realities.

While it will take years for our schools to fully recover, this budget agreement is a big step in the right direction. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a state budget proposal with a significant increase in education funding. We call on all lawmakers to support this compromise on the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula as part of the final budget because the numbers add up to renewed opportunities for our schools. We are also encouraged by the $1.25 billion for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These new standards will dramatically impact teaching and learning and educators must have the resources they need to help students succeed. CTA is still reviewing school district accountability provisions, but this agreement holds the promise of a better future for our students.

More about the State Budget

Proposal Would Allocate $1.25 Billion to Implement Common Core

A newly approved budget proposal would give all districts in California the most funding since 2007-08, the last year before $20 billion in cuts devastated public schools.

The proposal, sent back to both the Senate and the Assembly by an eight-member joint conference committee, would also over two years provide $1.25 billion in one-time funding to help implement the Common Core State Standards.  These funds are much needed for professional development for educators and textbooks and supplies for students.

The agreed-upon budget also provides funding for an amended version of Gov. Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).  That proposal would make school funding less complicated and more transparent.  The plan would also provide additional moneys to help districts with high numbers and concentrations of students who are more costly to educate.  These students include English learners and students who qualify for free and reduced price lunches.

CTA has supported the goals of the governor’s LCFF and has been negotiating with the governor and the legislature over the details and timeline for implementation. CTA has been especially concerned that all districts receive payback of funds owed to them from prior years and that nothing in the accountability provisions of the LCFF negatively impact chapters’ ability to negotiate over funding decisions through the collective bargaining process.

CTA has also been discussing its others concerns with the governor and lawmakers, including concerns about adult education and class size reduction programs.

The compromise budget must be approved by both houses before it is sent to the governor.  Lawmakers have until June 15 to send the governor their final plan, and the governor has until June 30 to sign it into law.

Ignoring the myriad challenges confronting California public schools, including budget cuts of more than $20 billion over the last few years, massive layoffs, and skyrocketing class sizes, Orange County Register columnist and self-professed school reformer Gloria Romero is once again taking aim at what she claims are the biggest problems facing our schools: teachers who should be fired and the California Teachers Association.

Last month Romero wrote a column erroneously accusing CTA of coming late to the party in supporting a teacher dismissal bill, AB 375. This week she resurrected her concerns about that bill. Apparently, she doesn’t like it simply because we do, or because in her view it doesn’t go far enough.

While current law removes anyone who is a potential threat to children from the classroom immediately, AB 375 streamlines the dismissal process for teachers accused of immoral conduct and gives school districts more flexibility in both timeline issues and the type of evidence allowed. It’s a strong bill that fixes some problems with the current system.

What Romero objects to is that AB 375 includes an adequate appeal process for a teacher unfairly or wrongly accused. She would prefer a system where the employee has little recourse when an employer moves to dismiss them for the wrong reasons.

The simplistic types of reforms Romero supports, including her own sloppily written “parent trigger” law, were roundly denounced by the California Democratic Party earlier this year, which objected to her using the name “Democrats” in her Democrats for Education Reform, a front group for corporations and others that would like to privatize public education.

The focus on teacher dismissal is a reaction to the LAUSD’s botched administrative handling of Miramonte Elementary and other abuse cases. It’s a focus on the wrong issue. California teachers do an excellent job in the face of sometimes daunting obstacles, despite California’s being near or at the bottom in education investment by nearly every measure. If Romero really wants to be a reformer, she’ll work with us on removing or mitigating those obstacles, instead of thinking she’ll fix our schools by taking away basic rights from all teachers.

US Senator Tom Harkin took a step toward reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) today. Commonly known as No Child Left Behind and last reauthorized in 2001, ESEA defines the federal role in K-12 education. For more than a decade, educators have been sounding the alarm about the law’s unintended consequences and its over-reliance on test scores to label and punish students and schools.

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel issued the following statement:

“Schools around America are winding down for the summer but Congressional efforts to rewrite the federal education law are just getting underway in Washington. We welcome this renewed effort. Students, parents, and educators know the law isn’t working. That’s why there’s been such strong push back—from Seattle to Rhode Island to Florida —against high-stakes standardized testing schemes ushered in by the law. The time has come for Congress to craft a fair, flexible, and innovative K-12 law that leads to real sustainable change for our children, while keeping the ESEA goals of equity and shared responsibility front and center.

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This weekend, the CTA State Council of Education paid tribute to CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett who is retiring after 18 years as CTA’s top executive.

With the assistance of the Public Employee Relations Board’s General Counsel and Regional Attorney, the Ramona Teachers Association reached a tentative contract agreement with the Ramona School District’s negotiations team late Wednesday evening, May 29, 2013.

The specific terms of the agreement will not be released until RTA’s membership has had an opportunity to review them. RTA’s negotiations team and leadership will recommend that RTA members vote to ratify the tentative agreement in the near future at a meeting for which a date has not yet been determined.

“Reaching the tentative agreement has avoided costly litigation over the district’s imposition and the trauma of a strike on students, the community and RTA members,” said RTA President Donna Braye-Romero. “This tentative agreement brings a settlement that is within the realm of reason for both parties.”

The Assembly Appropriations Committee rejected AB 806. The CTA-opposed bill by Assembly Member Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) would have undermined the current law requiring community college districts to spend at least 50 percent of their budgets on classroom instruction.

It would also have allowed community college districts to use more of their money on administration and management. The bill would have, for the first time, counted librarians and counselors as “classroom” expenditures. Currently, expenditures for important library and counseling positions are not considered classroom spending.

Assembly Member Wilk said the bill would help librarians and counselors.  Opponents – including CTA’s Community College Association (CCA) and other labor organizations – said the bill’s real purpose was to allow more funds to be used for management positions by changing the 50 percent requirement.

The Senate Health Committee on a 7-2 vote approved CTA-supported SB 746 by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) to implement a state review of health insurance rates in the large employer market.

SB 746 aims to expose insurance companies that take advantage of the system to maximize profits.  CTA believes that employers should provide health insurance to employees, but skyrocketing health insurance costs have funneled funds away from the classroom. SB 746 will help control these costs.

Presidents’ Lobby Day a Success

More than 200 educators and CTA members met with their local lawmakers at the state Capitol Wednesday to discuss many issues related to the state budget — Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), class size reduction, funding to implement the Common Core State Standards, and the real need to pay back money that is owed to school districts after years of cuts totaling more than $20 billion.

In a press conference in Sacramento on May 22, CTA President Dean E. Vogel said CTA supports the goals of the LCFF as it addresses education funding on the basis of  equity among all of California’s students and provides equal funding for students most in need. Funding must be based on student enrollment, using quantifiable data that is consistently applied and publicly available. Districts must be held accountable for spending the money appropriately.

“Our association’s State Budget Principles call for equitable funding for students most in need, a repayment of what our schools are owed, an annual cost-of-living adjustment for all schools while the formula is being implemented over a period of several years, and full funding for the state’s K-3 Class Size Reduction Program. We will continue to advocate for those changes to the current proposal,” said Vogel.

“After years of drastic cuts, it is necessary for the future of our children and the future of California that the state begins restoring money owed to students and public education,” emphasized Vogel. “It’s time our students had a chance to focus on learning instead of facing threats of larger class sizes, fewer classes to choose from, higher tuition, and fewer teachers in the classroom.”

CTA’s other concerns with the proposed LCFF include:

- Funding for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is of paramount importance to CTA.

- CTA supports the Class Size Reduction program for grades K-3 within the LCFF, but maintains K-3 class sizes should return to the ratio of 20 students to one teacher, as it was prior to 2007-08.

- The accountability plan must give some assurance that the supplemental dollars allocated to school districts are spent as intended, that LCFF funding is based on enrollment and distributed to local districts, and that quantifiable data is consistently applied.

- CTA supports keeping Adult Education, ROC/ROP, Home-to-School Transportation and the Targeted Instructional Improvement Program (TIIG) as stand-alone programs with their own dedicated source of funding.

CTA will continue to work with the Legislature and the governor to pass a state budget that supports all students, educators, schools and colleges.