Volume 15 Issue3
CTA members and resources made the difference in scores of local and state races, showing that the election was a vote for public schools and those candidates who support them.
In the races for Congress and the state Legislature, CTA had a success rate of 70 percent, based on unofficial election results at press time.
CTA also helped pass Proposition 25, a major victory that means the state will now join 47 others in the nation requiring only a simple majority vote in the Legislature to pass a state budget.
Local CTA chapters won 66 percent of the candidates and local measures they endorsed and fought for with phone banking, precinct walking and community mobilization.
Statewide, a healthy 46 of 63 school bond measures were approved by voters, providing $3.6 billion for school construction and modernization, the California Department of Education reported.
The ongoing recession hurt the chances of teachers seeking the two-thirds supermajority vote needed to pass parcel taxes, with only two of 18 securing passage. Eleven more parcel taxes would have passed if the threshold for approval had been 55 percent, the same as for school bonds, an overdue change that is supported by CTA and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.
Members of the Fremont Unified District Teachers Association in the Bay Area were ecstatic that their modest $53 parcel tax was one that mustered enough votes to pass, with 69.4 percent. It will provide up to $3.3 million a year for five years to keep class sizes small in the Fremont Unified School District, and restore at least some of the cuts in programs, said an elated FUDTA President Brannin Dorsey.
“This is a huge win for us,” Dorsey said. “It is not a silver bullet, but the funds will help stop the bleeding.”