In addition to the usual electricity in the air, the first State Council of Education meeting of the year was full of frenzied election activity as delegates used every free moment to get their campaign message out.
CTA Vice President Barbara E. Kerr, Secretary-Treasurer David A. Sanchez and President Wayne Johnson (facing page) are designated official "Prop Busters" by delegates from Grossmont, La Mesa and Spring Valley.
Quickly caught up in the spirit, delegates volunteered to make more than 8,000 voter calls from several makeshift phone banks during the meeting. Stickers were given out for every 10 phone calls a delegate made, and, by the end of the weekend, the chests of many delegates were emblazoned with proof of their dedication to the cause.
Governor Gray Davis (left) gets a warm welcome from CTA Board member Donnell Jordan and fellow delegates.
In addition, State Council's Political Involvement Committee included on its agenda time for its 65 members to pick up cell phones and contact likely voters right in the meeting room. "We wanted to set an example," says PIC Chair Jan Hopkins, a member of the Garden Grove Education Association.
Terry Race from Paramount work a makeshift phone bank.
Multimillionaire voucher supporter Tim Draper may be able to outspend CTA on Prop. 38, but "he can't outwork us, he can't out-organize us, and he can't beat us," said CTA President Wayne Johnson in his Saturday morning address. "Let's send him back to the Silicon Valley licking his wounds and $40 million poorer."
Sheila Quintana from Oakland work a makeshift phone bank.
"Draper has already spent $31.5 million on Prop. 38, we are told, 97 percent of which is his own money. He has vowed to spend $40 million to break the public school monopoly and end the last bastion of socialism in America. With his wealth, he could turn this election around in the last 10 days. That is why we must work to the very end!"
Former Texas Governor Ann Richards reveals presidential candidate George Bush's questionable record on education issues.
With little more than a week before the Nov. 7 election, Johnson urged the Council delegates to continue the same work to defeat Prop. 38 that also resulted this year in a $1.84 billion addition to the budget, double-digit salary increases in many parts of the state, major retirement improvements for teachers and a recent special education settlement that will bring more dollars into the classroom.
"The power of 300,000 teachers in California was the force that made this happen," said Johnson.
CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett confessed that she always gets a bit crazed some 45 days out from any election and stays that way until the voting is over. During these times, she said, some truths become clear.
CTA's Political Involvement Committee members (left to right) Christine Redding-Lowder from Los Angeles, Carol Reinbolt from Anaheim, Lisa Alvarez from Saddleback, Penny Robinson from Rialto, Sal Zendejas from Stockton (back row), Don Taylor from San Bernardino and Christopher Kakimi from Montebello call voters during their meeting.
"Here we are, in the battle of our lives, with a pied piper named Tim Draper... trying to lead the voters of California down a garden path." Whether it's because Draper has plans to run for governor or because he wants to make public schools and teachers look bad, Doggett was uncertain.
"I do know that he has a battle on his hands - because CTA has been around a very long time, and we march to a different drummer. … We march because we believe that every child, every student, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, learning style or sexual orientation, deserves and has the absolute right to a free, quality public education."
Despite having right on CTA's side, however, Doggett said CTA members must continue to work feverishly right up to and including Nov. 7.
Norma Creech from Hayward, Timothy Nichols from Fremont and Constance James Youens from Murrieta (left to right) make voter calls during the Political Involvement Committee meeting.
"I don't want us to become overconfident," she said, referring to the polls that show Prop. 38 failing. "I must remind you that the only poll that counts is the one that takes place on Nov. 7."
Gov. Gray Davis appeared before State Council for the first time since he took office. Although his plan for providing bonuses to teachers who have worked to improve test scores in their schools was met with a less than enthusiastic response from the delegates, he was given a standing ovation for other efforts, including his role in increasing the minimum teacher salary from $28,000 to $34,000, raising education spending in California from $5,700 to $6,800 per pupil and significantly expanding the Cal Grant program that will enable more low-income students to attend college.
Of his relationship with CTA, he said, "We haven't always agreed, but we have always talked. I think you know that in the end, I will always do what I think is right for the people of the state of California."
He reminded delegates that he was the first politician to go on the air against Prop. 38. He said he did so because the way to improve schools is to invest in them, reduce class sizes and offer better salaries, not desert them as a voucher plan would.
Davis also urged teachers to get out the vote for Al Gore in the presidential election. After enumerating the reasons to vote for Gore, including upcoming Supreme Court appointments, Davis quipped, "I have a personal stake in this election. I'm his charisma advisor."
If anyone can criticize Texas Gov. George W. Bush's record on education, it's Ann Richards, his Democratic predecessor.
In a keynote speech at Council, she soundly criticized Bush for taking credit for education reform in Texas, reform that she said was begun in the 1980s. "Education reform is like giving your cat a bath. You can do it, but it takes a long time."
Bush's Texas testing miracle, she said, is all smoke and mirrors. "All Bush is doing is getting districts to teach the test so he can claim improvement in education."
She said she doesn't want to see him get a platform to do something similar on the national level.
The real danger in electing Bush as president, Richards said, is his support of vouchers. "I've heard Gov. Bush say, 'Give the money to parents and let them shop around for schools.'… This is a serious but thinly veiled plan to put tax dollars into religious schools."
Richards urged CTA members to be vigilant in their campaigning and to continue their phone banking.
"Don't slack off. Stay on that phone…. I know you are going to deliver California."
Dale Martin
