FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BURLINGAME – After breaking his promise to fully fund our schools, how can Californians trust Governor Schwarzenegger and his special election initiative to give him unilateral power to cut school funding.
That's the question an award-winning Bay Area teacher asks in a new television ad from the 335,000-member California Teachers Association that begins airing across the state today.
"You borrowed $2 billion from the education budget and refused to pay it back," Liane Cismowski, a former Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year who is also National Board certified, says in the spot. "Now, you want taxpayers to pay $80 million for a special election that gives you more power to cut school funding without consulting anyone else."
The ad refers to the governor's ballot initiative that would destroy minimum school-funding guarantees in voter-approved Proposition 98, and to the governor reneging on his promise last year to restore funding cuts if state revenues improved. The governor's initiative would also allow him to make multiple, midyear cuts to education funding, making it nearly impossible for school districts to maintain quality education programs.
"Educators don't trust this governor and neither do a growing number of parents and voters," said CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. "He's wasting $80 million of taxpayers' money on a special election to push an agenda that won't help our students and schools one bit and will, in fact, reduce school funding even more."
Reflecting the growing statewide concerns of voters with the governor's special election and poor handling of education issues, Cismowski stands in a classroom with parents and teachers and concludes in the TV ad: "Governor, how can we trust you with more power, if you can't keep your promises to our schools and our kids."
The ad can be viewed on the CTA website's TV section.