Sacramento City Teachers Association President Linda Tuttle shares with Assembly Member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) information about how proposed cuts will devastate public schools in his district.
The Assembly Member denounced the cuts as terrible and pledged his continuing support for public education.
The visit to the Capitol on June 18 by SCTA Pres. Tuttle to lawmakers’ offices was part of ongoing efforts by CTA and its Education Coalition partners to persuade legislators to reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed education slashes.
The legislative budget adjustment package proposed by a joint house conference committee and endorsed by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) rejects $700 million of the governor’s education cuts and ensures schools some $9.3 billion in paybacks to Proposition 98 in coming years. The legislative adjustment package would also suspend the requirement that students pass the California High School Exit Examination in order to graduate. Assembly Speaker Bass told reporters at a Wednesday news conference that it is unconscionable to demand that students meet that requirement without the funding necessary to help schools prepare them for the test.