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Candidate Howard Dean (top, center) meets with CTA officers Vogel, Kerr, Johnson and Sanchez and looks presidential in his address to Council. Johnson welcomes State Treasurer Phil Angelides (right) to the podium. |
CTA's State Council of Education has voted to oppose the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis.
"CTA has not always agreed with the policies of Governor Davis, but this recall effort is bad public policy," said CTA President Wayne Johnson at the June meeting. "The recall provision was put in the state constitution in order to remove leaders guilty of malfeasance and criminal acts." To recall an elected official for any other reason, he explained, would set a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the government.
Johnson, who taught history and government at the high school level for 25 years, said teachers oppose the recall "in the interest of good state government" and warned that the state budget crisis must remain the public's top concern.
Since education gets 40 percent of the state budget, schools could have been asked to absorb 40 percent ($14 billion) of the state's anticipated $35 billion to $39 billion deficit, Johnson told delegates. The good news is, the proposal on the table is to cut only $1.5 billion from education next year. The bad news is, a $1.5 billion cut in education will be extremely painful.
Despite the fact that the proposal would allow districts to use the $4 billion they have in reserves to cover most of the cuts that the state will be imposing, Johnson predicted, "districts will go into the-sky-is-falling mode." Claiming poverty bordering on bankruptcy, they will try to raise class size, demand salary take-backs, and demand caps and cuts in medical benefits, just as they have this year.
"Just remember that, on average, only 36.7 percent of a California school district's budget goes toward teacher salaries," he said, quoting statistics from Stanford University researcher Linda Darling Hammond. EdSource, he added, reported that California has one administrator for every 11.6 teachers.
"If districts want to make cuts next year, I have some suggestions: Cut those paper shufflers and coffee carriers at the district office."
State Council was the scene of one of the opening acts of the next U.S. presidential campaign as candidate Howard Dean discussed his education platform in a speech Sunday afternoon.
Calling the federal ESEA one of the biggest unfunded mandates in education history, Dean said it sets "standards that are so high and has consequences that are so big that every single school in America will be a failing school by 2012," thereby opening the door to vouchers.
Before the meeting ended, Council enacted procedures for making a recommendation in the presidential election as NEA will be leaving it up to the states to decide who to back. Viable candidates will be invited to complete a written questionaire on national issues of concern to teachers, to be followed by interviews. The final recommendation will go to the Board of Directors in time for it to be considered at the upcoming October Council meeting.
Council also adopted procedures for making recommendations in other races in 2004.
Dean's appearance at Council was preceded by a visit from State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who described his ideas for securing a more stable source of funds for education.
Along those lines, Council voted to authorize the CTA Board of Directors to submit an initiative for the November 2004 ballot that would produce at least $2.2 billion in additional funding support for K-12 classrooms. Use of the funds would be restricted to class size reduction, textbooks, instructional materials and supplies, teacher training and compensation.
In other business, Council:
- Elected Larry Allen (District A) and Bonnie Shatun (District I) to the CTA Board of Directors; VirginiaAnn G. Shadwick (District 17) to the NEA Board of Directors; and Steve Savage (District B) to the CTA/ABC Committee.
- Adopted a budget for CTA.
- Voted to sponsor legislation to provide permanent status for certificated support staff working for county superintendents.
- Decided to let the CTA Board of Directors elect the teacher representatives on the STRS Board for the first term, given the tight timelines for the election.
- Took the position that minimum days for students should be based on the number of minutes students attend, not the number of periods.
- Took the position that the exploitation of workers - in the form of poor working conditions, subpar wages, extraordinarily long hours and unsafe workplaces - is inhumane and unjust, especially when the workers are underage.
- Took the position that school districts must coordinate with parents and law enforcement to combat child abduction and employ the fast and effective release of life-saving information on the identity of missing children.
