Secretary-Treasurer

Daniel R. Vaughn’s deep family roots in the teaching profession, his 28 years of classroom experience and his knowledge of school finance issues add up to a strong foundation for serving as CTA secretary-treasurer.

Vaughn’s statewide and local advocacy for teachers and public schools is a matter of record.

He served six years on the CTA Board of Directors, representing thousands of teachers in southeastern Los Angeles County, before being elected secretary-treasurer in 2007. He honed his school finance skills as the Board’s liaison to the Financing Public Education Committee of the CTA State Council of Education, the union’s top governing body.

In 2005, Vaughn was often called upon to represent the Alliance for a Better California in debates and community forums. One of the governor’s three ill-fated ballot measures was Proposition 76, which would have cut billions from our schools and destroyed the state’s minimum education funding law, Proposition 98. Vaughn successfully debated the governor’s top pitchman for Prop. 76 – former Stanford University law professor Tom Campbell – in two televised showdowns.

In other statewide work, Vaughn chaired the CTA panel that oversees the union’s program involving teachers monitoring state agencies to ensure that educators’ voices are heard in the halls of the state Capitol. He also served as CTA Board liaison to State Council’s Special Education Committee, which tackled many issues concerning students with disabilities.

Vaughn is an English/language arts teacher at West Middle School in the Downey Unified School District in Los Angeles County, where he earned an honorary lifetime membership award from the local PTA for working with students in a service club promoting school and community service ideals. He also served on an advisory group that determined how the district targeted its special education funding.

He is past president of the Downey Education Association, where he has been on the CTA chapter’s bargaining team for the past 20 years.
Without exaggeration, teaching really is all in the family for Vaughn.

His wife, Kathy, his oldest daughter, Christy, and a cousin all teach at the same school in Paramount Unified School District in Los Angeles County. His brother also teaches in that district, as did his father for more than 37 years. In addition, the Vaughns’ youngest daughter, Carrie, teaches in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District.

Vaughn holds a bachelor’s in liberal studies and a master’s in school administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu. He lives in Downey.

Contacting Daniel R. Vaughn

California Teachers Association
P.O. Box 921
1705 Murchison Drive
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
Phone: (650) 552-5306
FAX: (650) 552-5007
E-mail: dvaughn@cta.org