Contact: Sandra Jackson at (916) 325-1550
Burlingame -- The California Teachers Association and its 340,000 members strongly oppose SB 98 that provides more than $500 million in tax breaks to big businesses and oil companies. The bill, which was passed by Assembly members in the middle of the night as part of a last-minute state budget deal, would reduce future funding for California public schools.
“With the state budget still showing a deficit, this is the wrong time to be offering tax breaks to big businesses and oil companies – especially at the expense of our children and our public schools,” said CTA President David A. Sanchez. “These tax breaks will reduce the minimum school funding guarantee and will mean future cuts to education programs that directly impact students. These cuts would undermine the progress our students have made.”
“We are very concerned that with this bill the Assembly has pulled the rug out from underneath public education while rolling out the red carpet to oil companies, banks and big businesses,” said Sanchez. “Educators urge the State Senate to reject this bill and to pass a state budget that fully funds education and protects our schools from unnecessary reductions down the road. If lawmakers are looking for a place to save money, they should not re-instate funding for standardized testing in the second grade. California is one of only nine states in the country that tests second graders. That’s a common-sense budget cut that will actually help our youngest students focus on classroom instruction, rather than filling in test bubbles.”
CTA supports a state budget package that fully funds Proposition 98 and provides full cost-of-living-increases to all schools and education programs.