FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BURLINGAME – Barbara E. Kerr, president of the 335,000-member California Teachers Association, issued this statement about Governor Schwarzenegger's announcement today that he is dropping his flawed plan to privatize the pensions of teachers, firefighters, police and all public employees:
“The only surprise about today’s announcement is that it took the governor this long to dump his poorly crafted initiative. This plan put the secure retirement of all educators at risk and would have made it even harder to retain and recruit teachers across California.
"Now he needs to truly follow the will of the people and abandon the entire special election, which will cost California taxpayers $70 million. The governor should also drop his other flawed schemes and get back to work on the real issues that Californians care about, like proposing a budget that protects school funding instead of breaking his promise to our schools and our kids.
"The governor's other reform schemes do nothing to improve student learning or to resolve the underfunding of California public education. Teachers and parents will continue to speak out against his plan to weaken the voter-approved law, Proposition 98, that provides minimum-funding for our schools."