SAN DIEGO - During a news conference at a San Diego middle school today, CTA President Wayne Johnson kicked off a statewide advertising campaign to support CTA-sponsored legislation that gives teachers the right to negotiate professional issues affecting their classrooms. Johnson and CTA Secretary-Treasurer, David A. Sanchez are featured in 60-second radio spots airing in both English and Spanish on 45 stations across the state.
Assembly bill 2160, which will herald a new era in California's public schools, was introduced in the state Assembly last month. In the radio ad Johnson says, "Children aren't widgets, and a classroom is not an assembly line. Yet, too many school decisions are made by top-down bureaucrats who leave few decisions in the hands of teachers. This hurts a kid's chance to learn, and it results in great frustration for teachers."
Currently, frustration with lack of control in their classroom causes many teachers to leave the profession. In fact, in the first five years, half of all new teachers do not return to teaching. The news conference was held at Monroe Clark Middle School because of its unique governance system, which allows teachers and community members to work with school administrators as equal partners in determining educational goals, course curriculum, and school policies.
"Monroe Clark is a good example of what can happen when teachers are involved in the decision-making process. Test scores are on the way up, and teachers feel they have a real say in what goes on in their classrooms," said Johnson.
AB 2160 would expand the state's Education Employment Relations Act - which now confines the scope of bargaining to wages, hours and working conditions - to allow teachers to negotiate, for the first time, the decision-making procedures for critical areas such as developing and implementing any program to enhance student academic performance, developing education objectives and course content, selecting textbooks and instructional materials, developing additional teacher training, and selecting evaluators and intervention teams for under-performing schools.
The bill would not overturn any state or federal law. For example, the state's mandated testing program and new academic standards are not affected. Only issues under the jurisdiction of the local school board could be negotiated.