Contact: Claudia Briggs at 916-325-1550 or Dina Martin at 650-552-5491
SACRAMENTO – Following more than $20 billion in budget cuts to California’s public schools and colleges, several California teachers are taking to the airwaves to remind voters that Proposition 30 is the only funding initiative on the November ballot that will prevent midyear cuts and begin to restore vital school funding.
Airing statewide, the ads feature classroom teachers who have seen the harmful effects of budget cuts on their students and are urging the public to vote Yes on Prop. 30, the Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012, supported by Governor Jerry Brown.
Among the teachers is Newark Junior High School science teacher Tom Collett, a 2012 California Teacher of the Year.
“As teachers, the last four years have been devastating for our schools and colleges. Thirty thousand teachers laid off, music and art programs gone, double-digit tuition hikes. Prop. 30 stops the cuts. With strict accountability, money must go to the classroom and can’t be touched by Sacramento politicians,” Collett says in the ad.
The ad includes teachers ranging from elementary to community college who testify to the changes they’ve seen in their classrooms and the impact the cuts have had on students. Rounding out the ads are TV spots featuring Gov. Brown and state Controller John Chiang, who also speak to the accountability protections for taxpayers.
“If we don’t begin to reinvest in our schools, we can’t prepare the next generation for the jobs of the future,” said CTA President Dean E. Vogel. “We support Proposition 30 because it’s the only initiative that will prevent $6 billion in budget cuts this year and will begin to invest billions in new funding for our schools down the road.”
The ads can be viewed at http://www.cta.org/About-CTA/News-Room/Media-Center.aspx . Ad scripts
and supporting facts can be found here: http://yesonprop30.com/images/YesOnProp30AdSideBySide.pdf.
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The 325,000-member CTA is affiliated with the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.