Legislative session produces many gains for education

Despite a legislative session marked by a record budget deficit and unprecedented political upheaval, CTA was able to protect schools from debilitating funding cuts, secure the enactment of important bills and block the passage of bad legislation.

Thanks to the efforts of CTA and its allies, the $4 billion in funding cuts suffered by public education was implemented as far from the classroom as possible. Such efforts shielded students, teachers and schools from much more massive funding reductions in the face of a record $38 billion revenue shortfall.

At the same time, CTA secured passage of many bills sponsored or supported by CTA, including:

• AB 1207 by Assembly Member Ellen Corbett, which allows school districts to purchase two years of service credit and two years of age credit from the State Teachers' Retirement System as an incentive for senior bargaining unit members to retire. (see below)
• AB 954 by Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg, which allows districts, with teachers' consent, to evaluate teachers with 10 years of experience every four or five years instead of annually if they "meet or exceed standards" in their evaluation.
• Several measures providing additional financial and educational accountability for the state's charter schools. CTA's advocacy for the charter school measures was bolstered by detailed media accounts of financial irregularities and academic failures at some charter institutions that were allowed by existing laws to escape needed oversight.
• Assembly Joint Resolution 29 by Assembly Member Fran Pavley, which urges Congress to eliminate the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The laws reduce Social Security benefits to public employees in 15 states, including California, even though they have earned the additional pension money through work they or their spouses have performed in jobs covered by Social Security.

Many of CTA's victories came in preventing the passage of opposed legislation. One such bill would have doubled the probationary period for new teachers from the current two years to four. Four others would have gutted the state's successful class size reduction program. A fifth class size measure made it to the governor only after substantial revisions led CTA to change its "oppose" position to a "watch."

Five CTA-sponsored bills moved within striking distance of enactment, but are being held over for the second year of the current legislative session, which starts in January. Among them is AB 356 by Assembly Member Loni Hancock, which would make improvements in the state's student testing and assessment system. Among other things, it would eliminate duplication of testing efforts and preserve vital instructional time.