CTA representatives have been urging members of a joint legislative committee to listen to teachers as they create a new blueprint for the state's education system. To date, some concerns expressed by teachers have been addressed, but many have not.
Recently, the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education - Kindergarten Through University, chaired by Senator Dede Alpert (D-San Diego) and co-chaired by Assembly Members Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose) and Virginia Strom-Martin (D-Santa Rosa), issued its latest draft of the California Master Plan.
While revisions have been made in key areas spotlighted by CTA representatives during months of testimony, newly surfaced provisions could threaten public oversight of education and teachers' right to have their voices heard on a range of issues, including wages, hours and working conditions.
CTA opposes the portion of the report that calls for consolidating power over all aspects of public education in the governor's office. CTA also opposes the recommendation to transfer most of the powers of the current superintendent of public instruction to an education advisor appointed by the governor. The reconfigured superintendent's position would serve as a public advocate for schools without any real power to translate advocacy into action.
At the same time, the report recommends "a yearlong review of all aspects of collective bargaining between local school districts and their employee unions, with particular attention to its impact on student learning." Given recent attacks on collective bargaining in California and nationally, CTA representatives are concerned that such a review could become a forum for more orchestrated onslaughts on bargaining laws.
In recent months, extremist groups have released their own purportedly "objective" studies of collective bargaining. These are little more than polemics against hard-won state laws that require school boards and school administrators to heed - and not ignore - the input from their own educational experts, the classroom teachers.
Lawmakers have been holding public hearings over the past several months on the proposal.
A final version of the Master Plan was expected to go to lawmakers by Aug. 31. It's anticipated that it will spark legislation affecting all levels of public education in coming years.
Len Feldman