Urgent! Legislative Coordinators: Mobilize to Help L.A. Implement Good School Reforms
More than 50,000 Los Angeles teachers and other education professionals need your help right now to win lawmakers' approval for a LAUSD school reform proposal. AB 1381, by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), will empower teachers, parents, community groups, and local mayors to make positive changes that will help improve education for the district's more than 700,000 students and particularly for those students in lower-performing schools.
AB 1831 is scheduled to come before the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 14. The bill must clear the committee and the whole Senate, and then pass a concurrence vote in the Assembly prior to August 31.
The bill's opponents are attempting to kill the CTA-backed proposal either during the Senate Appropriations hearing and or during any other crucial hearing - including hearings on the Senate and Assembly floors. With your help and the support of teachers throughout the state, CTA will secure AB 1381's enactment.
Background:
Los Angeles teachers - represented by our local, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) -- and a coalition of education, parent, community and business groups are supporting this package of reforms for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
This coalition is urging lawmakers to approve AB1381 to improve L.A. schools, cut bureaucracy in the district, and empower parents and educators.
AB 1381 will create an opportunity to help improve some of L.A.'s lowest-performing schools through a partnership with teachers, parents, the mayor and the community.
The bill creates a Council of Mayors, composed of mayors from the 27 cities that make up the LAUSD. This Council would be able to ratify the Board of Education's selection of the district's superintendent and would advise the school board on matters of government support services to children in the district, including coordinating school safety with municipalities. The Council would also have an advisory role by reviewing and commenting on the district's budget, with the Board of Education making final budget decisions.
AB 1381 also provides that the L.A. Mayor would lead three clusters of the district's lowest performing schools in partnership with parents, teachers, other school employees, the district, and community groups.
AB 1381 provides that the LAUSD Board of Education would continue to set policy for the city's schools and the LAUSD superintendent would continue to carry out the policy.
Coordinators:
Mobilize CTA members and other education supporters to contact all State Senators and all Assembly Members. Ask CTA members to urge lawmakers to vote for AB 1381 (Nunez) when it comes before them.
Contacts who work with legislative members of the Senate from the Los Angeles area should work especially hard seeking their support for AB 1381.
Efforts are being made by opponents of the bill to persuade members of the LA delegation not to support the bill even though it will help more than 700,000 students in their district.
The next link below will take you to the Legislative Action Center, where you can send faxes and e-mails directly to your state lawmakers.
Email link to your local lawmaker.
For more information, contact CTA Legislative Advocate Sharon Scott Dow or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325.1500.
