Think of it as a class on good government taught by 8,000 or more teachers all at once.
Teachers and education supporters will be streaming into Sacramento from all parts of the state May 8 to make their voices heard during CTA's Action Day for Schools rally at the state Capitol.
'There is no stronger statement about our commitment to students than putting our bodies at the door of the governor and the Legislature,' says CTA President Wayne Johnson.
Teachers know all too well the toll poor funding has taken on schools over the decades. They also know that now is the time to mobilize because the state surplus is running in the billions and final decisions on the state budget will be made in May.
"We are organizing the largest rally for improving the public schools the state has ever seen," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "There is no stronger statement about our commitment to students than putting our bodies at the door of the governor and the Legislature."
The rally's goal is to tell legislators to bring funding up to at least the national average. In 1967, California ranked sixth in per-pupil funding. Today, it ranks 40th - the money California allocates is more than $1,000 below the national average. California ranks last in the number of teachers, counselors, librarians and instructional computers per student.
What little funding there is comes to districts with too many strings attached, says Johnson. Nearly half of the governor's proposed education spending plan is earmarked for state-mandated programs.
"It's time for California to get serious about investing in our public schools," says Johnson. "Our teachers deserve the help, and our students need it to reach the even higher levels of achievement we know they can reach."
Sheila Quintana, president of the 3,700-member Oakland Education Association, is encouraging rally participants from her area to board a five-car Amtrak train chartered by CTA to help get funding back on track.
"I think we owe it to our children to get on that train," Quintana says. "Anybody interested in supporting public education should be getting on that train."
Ron Myren, a fourth-grade teacher in Ventura County, plans to be there when the rally begins at 4 p.m. on the west steps of the Capitol. He's helping to organize a five-bus caravan to bring teachers from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
"The teachers here are getting really excited about this," Myren says. "We were really disappointed about the loss of Proposition 26 and teachers look at this rally as a way of getting what we need for our schools. Teachers are really pulling together to make this work."
Caught up in the momentum driving the May 8 rally, school administrators are cooperating with teachers wishing to take release time to go to Sacramento. The Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) has voted to back the CTA rally officially.
"Educators, parents and students from every county in the state will be participating," ACSA President Sandy Clifton-Bacon wrote in a March 14 letter to administrators statewide. "Providing release time for teachers and encouraging attendance are just two direct ways ACSA members can help."
In some school districts, teacher leaders and superintendents are talking about closing schools on May 8 and tacking the lost day onto the end of the school calendar. Others are discussing releasing a large number of teachers for the rally with remaining staff covering their classes.
In addition to making plans to attend the rally, teachers statewide are keeping the heat on the governor and lawmakers by writing letters to newspapers about the funding crisis.
Gov. Gray Davis claims that education is his top priority but says he will oppose CTA's school funding initiative, notes Larry Haenel, president of the Santa Rosa Teachers Association, in an opinion piece that ran in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
"But he will continue to support his spin doctors who churn out (education) reform headlines. You can bet on that."
Chapters are also scheduling regional events to draw attention to school funding needs and conducting signature drives to get CTA's Reinvesting in California Schools initiative on the November ballot.
CTA added fuel to the fire by launching a $2.5 million ad campaign in late March calling attention to the crying need for more public education funding. The radio and television spots encouraged the public to call (888) BEST-641 for a free guide that invites them to the May 8 rally and provides postcards to lobby lawmakers for more school funding.
Suddenly, the media is reporting what CTA members have known for a long time - that many teachers can't even think about affording their own home or even renting a decent one. They're reporting that teachers are tired of lawmakers' neglect - and tired of meager salaries.
For more information on participating in the rally or related activities, contact your local CTA chapter or CTA regional organizers: Region 1 (Bay Area and north coast): (650) 552-9950; Region 2 (Central Valley to the Oregon border): (916) 969-4700; Region 3 (Los Angeles and central coast): (562) 942-7979; Region 4 (San Bernardino County area to Mexico): (714) 978-8861.
The latest rally information can be found on the CTA Web site [www.cta.org]. Also available for downloading is the Action Day for Schools logo that chapters are using on T-shirts and signs for the rally.
Mike Myslinski
Jan F. Anderson
