The 800 delegates to CTA's State Council of Education juggled several weighty issues during the October meeting. Tops among them were whether to launch a campaign to pass a major funding initiative and whether to make a recommendation for the March presidential primary.
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Discussing Howard Dean's endorsement is Joseph Johnson from San Mateo. |
Both decisions required a larger than normal majority in order to pass - two-thirds on the initiative and 60 percent on the endorsement. The initiative vote was nearly unanimous, and Howard Dean won 81 percent of the votes cast.
Four Council committees - Political Involvement, Early Childhood Education, Financing Public Education, and Negotiations - met in a joint session to learn the particulars about the proposed initiative, the development of which Council had mandated at a previous meeting. They then broke into separate sessions to debate moving forward with the measure, which will generate additional resources for California classrooms and provide voluntary universal preschool.
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Discussing CTA's initiative to generate more funding for public education are Community College Association President Cathy Crane-McCoy...
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Their joint recommendation to Council was unanimously in favor of the massive undertaking. The rationale was that the initiative is necessary to ensure adequate funding for California's public schools and to provide the resources needed to close the achievement gap.
The Council body approved submitting the proposal for the November 2004 ballot on a floor vote and went on to allocate $12 million from CTA's Initiative Fund to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
Delegates went to the voting booth to decide whether to back a candidate for the March presidential primary election.
Five candidates had responded to CTA's invitation to participate in the endorsement process. Democratic candidate Howard Dean was the interview team's unanimous recommendation, according to CTA Board member Mignon Jackson.
Dean, who had addressed Council at its June meeting and received an enthusiastic response, will "clean up the ESEA fiasco," she said.
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...and Mark D. York from Evergreen TA.
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Delegates voted overwhelmingly to give Dean the nod.
His responses to the committee's questions indicate he shares teachers' concerns about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 - President Bush's so-called No Child Left Behind Act - and the unfair and unfunded mandates it imposes on public schools across the nation, says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. He opposes the law's rigid and unrealistic penalties, and will work with teachers to overturn its reliance on standardized tests.
"Dean understands the dangers we face from the federal government's growing influence over our classrooms and how we teach," she told the news media after the vote. "This primary election is too important to ignore. Our voices must be heard in this critical race."
