Recognizing that the achievement gap is one of the biggest problems public education faces in California, CTA has secured passage of a bill that will target resources where they’re needed most.
“This program is our opportunity to take the many ideas that we as educators know will improve student learning and make them happen,” says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr.
Passed in the final days of the last legislative session, the Quality Education Investment Act provides $3 billion over the next seven years to support students and teachers in the state’s schools of greatest need. CTA will be working with the California Department of Education and local chapters to implement its provisions.
“We’ve been talking for years about putting our money where our hearts are,” says Kerr. “We want to see if lowering class sizes, providing quality teachers and securing quality materials can make a difference. We believe that it will.”
The bill also provides for quality training and collaboration time for teachers, additional resources for community colleges to expand vocational and technical training, and flexibility in how local districts target the money to best meet their students’ needs.
Kerr expects it will prove to everyone that it takes real money to accomplish high priorities.
The $3 billion to implement the Quality Education Investment Act is money the governor is being forced to repay schools after CTA sued him for borrowing funds from public education to balance the budget two years ago and then refusing to pay it back. Once the governor realized he was not going to win the suit, he agreed to a settlement with CTA last August. The recovered Prop. 98 funds will be paid back in the form of grants to up to 500 of California’s lowest-performing schools over the next seven years.
The Quality Education Investment Act targets up to 500 of the more than 1,400 public schools ranked in the two lowest deciles, as measured by the state’s Academic Performance Index (API). These lower-performing schools have higher percentages of students living in poverty, more English language learners, fewer fully credentialed teachers and more students on year-round schedules.
The list of schools eligible to apply for funds is expected to be posted on the California Department of Education website[www.cde.ca.gov].
The Quality Education Investment Act, signed into law as Senate Bill 1133 by Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), will:
- Maintain a class size maximum of 20 in grades K-3.
- Reduce class sizes to an average of 25 in grades 4-12.
- Provide a credentialed counselor for every 300 high school students.
- Establish a teacher quality index to ensure the average teaching experience at these schools is equal to or exceeds the district average.
- Provide all instructional staff and administrators with high-quality professional development aligned to the state standards (including collaboration time for teachers to work together to develop curriculum, analyze student data, mentor new teachers or improve teaching practices).
- Provide more resources for rigorous vocational training at high schools and community colleges.
As Kerr sees it, “This new law is the classic example of how we can do great things through politics and transform the lives of our students for the better.”
