(Chart above – Proposition 30 and the improving economy lead the LAO to conclude schools will see an estimated $4.3 billion in new funds by 2013-2014.)

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has released figures that reveal California public schools are likely to see an additional $4.3 billion over two years.

The LAO charts reflect a change from a projected grim reality – before the passage of CTA-backed Proposition 30 and the economic rebound – to one where the state’s revenues are expected to rise by more than $5.5 billion over three years.

The full LAO presentation shows originally projected annual operating shortfalls of more than $5 billion annually for 2012-2013 out to 2016-2017 morphing into annual operating surpluses of more than $8 billion by 2016-2017.

What was bad news – state revenue operating shortfalls through 2016-2017 – has become much better news, thanks to Proposition 30’s approval by voters in November 2012 and an improving state economy.

The LAO’s updated forecasts show the state running an operating surplus of more than $8 billion by 2017-2018.

At the urging of educators, the Senate Education Committee  on Wednesday again defeated two measures that would have respectively undermined effective teacher evaluations and undercut educators’ right to a fair hearing on misconduct allegations.  At the same time, despite educators’ objections, the panel approved an opposed measure that would privatize higher education online coursework.

All three bills were slated for “vote only” proceedings, but the author of one, Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), offered some amendments and testimony aimed at moving his CTA-opposed  SB 441.

Continued objections by representatives of Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, CTA and other employee organizations led Senators to defeat the measure.  That action came despite extraordinary efforts by StudentsFirst – the so-called “education reform” group started by disgraced former Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee – which brought dozens of witnesses to the Capitol in hopes of swaying lawmakers.

The defeat of SB 441, a flagship bill for StudentsFirst, is widely viewed as a rebuff to the organization, which has been reported to rely heavily on anti-union groups for funding.  Recent news reports have uncovered the fact StudentsFirst has received millions of dollars from the Walton family, founders of the non-union WalMart superstore chain.

The panel also defeated SB 531, by Sen. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale).  That bill would have rolled back  due-process protections for certificated faculty and eliminated the May 15 deadline for layoff notifications related to reductions in force.  The bill would also have let school boards ignore the rulings of impartial panels reviewing their personnel actions.

The panel’s approval of SB 520, the CTA-opposed higher education measure by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), sends the online privatization measure to the  Senate Appropriations Committee.

Educators will seek to defeat the bill there.

AERA panel titled “What Role Does the Teachers Union Have in School Reform?”, featuring from left Terry Moe, Katharine Strunk, Susan Moore Johnson, Richard Carranza, and Eric Heins.

On Tuesday, CTA Vice President Eric Heins represented the union perspective on a panel titled “What Role Does the Teachers Union Play in School Reform?” at the annual conference of the American Educational Researchers Association held in San Francisco.

As expected, Stanford professor Terry Moe suggested that teachers unions are a roadblock to reforming education because of our support for seniority. Heins responded, “Education reform isn’t just about firing teachers. Our union believes it’s about helping all students and educators succeed.”

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified Richard Carranza explained how his district and teachers union came together to address the achievement gap by finding schools that are doing it right and emulating that. “Too often we’re too quick to draw lines of demarcation instead of collaborating,” said Carranza.

We agree. CTA’s Institute for Teaching believes that the best strategy for school improvement is to investigate what’s working, not what’s broken. By focusing on what works in our schools, we are more likely to have success.

USC professor Katharine Strunk talked about her research into an LAUSD innovation project where she found that Collective Bargaining Agreements done well help shape positive district education reforms.

“Collaborative bargaining, as opposed to adversarial approaches to negotiation, generate more positive reforms,” added Harvard professor Susan Moore Johnson. “In order for reforms to succeed, teachers have to have a meaningful role in creating and tailoring policies.”

(Photo above) Sen. Tom Berryhill (R-Twain-Harte) reviews information on key education bill presented to him by a team of area teachers as part of the Capital/Delta visit to legislators at the state Capitol.

Educators from schools in the area around Sacramento and the river delta came to the Capitol on April 30 to talk to their lawmakers about key measures pending in the legislature.

The educators spoke with legislators on two measures dealing with teacher dismissal and evaluation and one providing for privatization of higher education coursework.

The three measures are pending in the Senate Education Committee, which has them on a vote-only agenda for Wednesday, May 1.  Educators testified against the measures during an earlier committee hearing on April 24.

Specifically, the educators are seeking to defeat:

SB 441, the CTA-opposed measure by Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello).  Heavily backed by StudentsFirst and founder Michelle Rhee, the bill seeks to drastically change teacher evaluations. Instead of improving the teacher evaluation system, this bill would limit evaluations to four measurements. It would also eliminate their input on evaluation processes by eliminating the subject as an item with the scope of local collective bargaining. In the view of educators, the measure would do nothing to provide them with the useful and effective feedback that would help them become even better teachers.

The bill failed to gain the five votes needed for passage during the April 24 hearing, but the author was able to gain “reconsideration,” paving the way for the May 1 revote.

SB 531, the CTA-opposed bill by Sen. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale). This bill would make onerous changes to the laws governing discipline and dismissal of certificated employees.  It would eliminate employee input about a fair process by eliminating these items from the scope of bargaining.

SB 520, the CTA-opposed measure by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). This measure would privatize community college and higher education on-line courses that should be taught by college faculty.

You can help win these important votes by getting in touch with members of the Senate Education Committee through CTA’s Legislative Action Center.

The educators were also seeking legislators’ support for CTA-supported AB 375, by Assembly Member Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo).  That measure streamlines and improves the state’s dismissal process to help protect children and the profession.  The measure was on its way to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

A team of teachers from the Sacramento – Delta areas speaks with a staff member of Sen. Gaines on key issues.  Team Member Dana Dillon, an elementary teacher from Weed, urges support for AB 375, a teacher dismissal bill by Assembly Member Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo) and a “no” vote on SB 441, by Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), an opposed measure that would undermine effective evaluation for educators.  Other team members include area teachers Nik Fertitta (out of frame), Lysa Sassman, Alek Ustaszewski, and John Halvorsen.

A staff member for Sen. Lois Wolk , Michael Erke (c.) talks with (r.) Rob Rogers, who teaches in Woodland, and Howard Blair, who teaches in Davis.

Sets Vote for May 1

On Wednesday, April 24th, he Assembly Education Committee heard testimony about a CTA-supported bill designed to help protect the state’s vital Class Size Reduction Program.

Desa Bushnell, a first-grade teacher at Sierra Oaks K-8 school for 17 years, told lawmakers that smaller class sizes are vital to helping students achieve excellence.  Bushnell testified in support of CTA-backed AB 558, by Assemblymember Ken Cooley (D-Carmichael), a measure that encourages school districts to maintain their class size reduction programs despite more than five years of devastating funding cuts.

The Cooley bill eases the financial penalties districts pay when they allow class sizes to rize above the 20:1 target in Grades K-3 and core academic subjects.

Without the Cooley bill’s passage, financial penalties levied when class size exceeds that number in any room could lead districts to abandon all limits as a way of saving money. Instead, the measure would maintain at least partial fiscal incentives for districts that preserve their efforts by keeping their average class size below certain limits.

Cooley recognizes that funding cuts have made it more difficult for districts to achieve the objective of about 20 students per classroom, so the bill would reduce the maximum number of students and still receive the monetary incentive, while gradually increasing the penalty on the incentive for every student over 20.

The April 24th hearing was a designated “testimony-only” opportunity, with lawmakers expected to vote on this and other measures during the panel’s May 1st hearing.

Legislators “Rhee-ject” CTA-opposed measure

A week after lawmakers soundly defeated two parent trigger bills supported by corporate reformer Michelle Rhee and her StudentsFirst organization, they were back at the state Capitol on April 24th.  This time, they were pressing legislators to undermine effective evaluations of educators and to eliminate experience as a key determinant of teacher quality.

On Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee, the disgraced former chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools and her staff members lobbied lawmakers to approve SB 441, a CTA-opposed evaluation measure by Sen. Ron Calderon (D- Montebello).

Calderon is pushing a bad teacher evaluation bill (SB 441) supported by StudentsFirst. We stopped it this week but Senator Calderon has asked for reconsideration of this bill on Wednesday, May 1 in the Senate Education Committee. This bill would negatively impact you and the students you teach.

Only YOU can kill this bill!  Please contact your senator and urge him/her to VOTE NO on SB 441. It’s easy to do! Enroll in our text alert system: text CTA ACTION to 69866 and get the updates on legislation!  Sign up today and you will be alerted on SB 441.  The text alerts will connect you to your legislators automatically.

In a second battle in the Senate Education Committee, lawmakers refused to pass CTA-opposed SB 453 that would have given school management the right to lay off educators without reference to seniority. Sen. Bob Huff (R-Arcadia) was seeking to keep those educators who are “less costly” because their relative lack of experience places them lower on the salary schedule.

The Rhee forces tagged their bill LIFO – using an accounting term that refers to last-in, first-out profit/cost calculations.  The measure would have left students – many facing difficult hurdles – with less-experienced educators to help them.

SB 453 was a StudentFirst’s flagship bill, one they have been pushing in many states and talking about in California for more than three years.

CTA-opposed bills defeated in committee last week are up for reconsideration. Senate Education Committee on April 24 gave only four votes to CTA-opposed SB 441 (Calderon) and just two votes to SB 531 (Knight).  Both measures needed five votes to pass out of the committee.  But the authors requested and received permission for a “reconsideration,” which means the measures will come up for another vote in the same Senate Education Committee on May 1.

Generally, reconsideration is granted to an author as a courtesy, but the close 4-4 vote on SB 441 – and the pressure being exerted by Michelle Rhee, the disgraced former chancellor of the Washington D.C. school system, and her StudentsFirst organization – means educators need to re-double efforts to contact senators to make sure the bill doesn’t get the votes to pass.

While Sen. Knight’s SB 531 garnered fewer votes (only two) last week, educators should remain vigilant.

Teachers and other school supporters are contacting members of Senate Education to make sure the bills do not get out of committee, even on a second try.

Members of the Senate Education Committee are:

Senator Carol Liu (Chair): (916) 651-4025 and (818) 409-0400
Senator Mark Wyland (Vice Chair): (916) 651-4038 and (949) 489-9838
Senator Marty Block: (916) 651-4039 and (619) 645-3133
Senator Lou Correa: (916) 651-4034 and (714) 558-4400
Senator Loni Hancock: (916) 651-4009 and (510) 286-1333
Senator Ben Hueso: (916) 651-4040 and (619) 409-7690
Senator Bob Huff: (916) 651-4029 and (714) 671-9474
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson: (916) 651-4019 and (805) 965-0862
Senator Bill Monning: (916) 651-4017and (831) 425-0401

Briefly, here’s some information and links for more information about the two bills:

CTA-opposed SB 441 (Calderon) would require all permanent certificated educators to be evaluated every three years against four standards, including student test scores.  The measure fails to address weaknesses in the current evaluation systems and eliminates teachers’ voices in the process by removing evaluations from the scope of collective bargaining.  CTA believes in a comprehensive and effective evaluation system that helps practitioners get even better.  SB 441 fails to pass the test.  For more information, see SB 441 documents at cta.org.

SB 531 (Knight) – This bill would roll back the due-process protections for certificated faculty and eliminate the May 15 deadline for layoff notifications related to reductions in force.  Among its major provisions, the bill would make the outcome of an impartial commission’s investigation of charges simply advisory. That means the district can dismiss a teacher even if an impartial panel has found the charges to be without merit.  The measure includes other equally onerous provisions.

The Orange County Register published this response from CTA President Dean Vogel to an earlier column by former Sen. Gloria Romero:

Protecting our teachers

DAVIS, Dean Vogel, president, California Teachers Association: Former state Sen. Gloria Romero’s column questioning the California Teachers Association’s motivations for “suddenly” supporting a new teacher dismissal bill was short on facts and long on inaccurate speculation ["CTA goes Hollywood on teacher dismissal bills," Opinion, April 2]. The CTA wanted to support legislation by Sen. Alex Padilla last year [SB1530], and offered amendments we believed would correct some significant problems with his bill.

Far from jumping late onto any dismissal bandwagon, CTA has led support of efforts to expedite the dismissal process, maintain existing safeguards that remove teachers from classrooms immediately when charged with serious offenses and toughen penalties for districts and school personnel who fail to follow mandated abuse-reporting procedures. These are the facts, despite any claims from paid spokespersons for organizations founded and funded in part by outspoken, school-privatization proponents and hedge-fund managers who see dollar signs in public-school funding.

We are pleased now that Sen. Padilla has teamed with Assembly Member Joan Buchanan to craft just such legislation, AB1338 and AB375, bills that, while not perfect, eliminate the problematic potential for added expense and redundant hearings inherent in the earlier bill. CTA has taken an interim-support position on these new bills and will, in all likelihood, issue our final support later this month, coupled with our insistence that districts must be held accountable for following these laws.

We understand that some so-called “reform” groups will oppose any legislation supported by the teachers’ union. So, we applaud California lawmakers who are moving ahead with bills that keep children safe and streamline the process for removing people who don’t belong in our classrooms, while still maintaining safeguards against false allegations.

We hope Romero is also supportive of these goals.

Want to know more about CTA’s position on teacher evaluation?  It’s just a click away.

CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett learned her union ideals from her own father, a logger who suffered a head injury on the job. When he was able to return to work two years later, he tried to organize the logging industry and continued to fight for salaries, benefits and safe working conditions.

“Armed with those beliefs, when I took a teaching job in Alaska at the age of 23 in 1969, I immediately got involved in the union as my school’s site rep,” she told State Council during her Sunday morning comments. Her union activity only escalated from there.

When she was later elected president of her local chapter, the headline in the Anchorage newspaper read: “Teachers Elect Woman.” She noted, “I guess you could say I’ve been an outspoken education activist, feminist and union organizer ever since.”

Doggett, who is retiring in June, has faced her own challenges as the first female to serve as CTA’s executive director. She recalls meeting then Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle shortly after her appointment in 1995.

“He looked at me kind of puzzled, and the first words out of his mouth were, ‘But you’re a girl.’ I took a deep breath and said, ‘You’re a boy. Now that we’ve clarified that, let’s talk about what’s important for educators and our public schools.’ ”

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