Urgent! Legislative Coordinators:
Urge Senators to Defeat School Board Seizure Bill
CTA is battling to defeat a recently amended bill that in its new form would rob local voters of their power to select school board members. SB 767, the CTA-opposed measure by Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), would empower the current or future mayor of Los Angeles to usurp voters' rights by appointing hand-picked replacements to fill any vacant school board seats – including those coming vacant at the end of a term – if the mayor makes a finding that the school district is an "educational failure."
Upon this finding, the bill would also expand the school board membership to nine from the current seven. In addition, the measure would allow the mayor to appoint a new superintendent, simply with the approval of the local city council.
Background
While SB 767 in its current form would affect only the Los Angeles Unified District with its more than 50,000 teachers and largest student body in the state, the bill could form a template that could be used to affect all schools in the state that are deemed to be in trouble.
CTA believes school districts in California are best run by locally elected school boards. CTA opposes any attempt to take over and run school districts by city councils, city mayors, or any other elected officials who were not specifically elected by the school districts' voters to oversee their schools.
CTA also believes that urban school districts – and all California's school districts for that matter – have a problem with adequacy of funding that must be recognized. Removing voter selection of school board members is an excuse for not providing adequate resources for our schools. In the 1960s and early '70s, California's per-pupil spending was near the top of the states' ranking list, as was the its academic ranking. Today, the state is near the bottom in funding and academic ranking. The two are related.
Make These Points to State Senators
- SB 767 would usurp the power of voters to elect their local school board and make the board unaccountable to them by granting appointment powers to the city mayor under certain conditions.
- SB 767 would not help troubled schools gain the additional resources they need because the mayor has no authority to raise funds for schools.
- Contrary to SB 767, the mayor should play a key role in schools by forging working relationships with the school board and superintendent and by using mayoral powers to support educational excellence efforts.
- Studies consistently show that keeping decision-making close to the classroom – and not in far-away administrative or mayoral offices – is key to effective education. SB 767 would move that decision-making further from the classroom.
Here's What Coordinators Should Do
Coordinators should encourage all CTA members and other school supporters to call and write their own state Senators immediately, c/o The State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814, in opposition to SB 767 (Romero). Lawmakers could begin acting on the bill very soon.
For more information, contact CTA Legislative Advocate Sharon Scott Dow or GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at 916.325.1500.