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Barbara E. Kerr
CTA President |
Well, 2004 is off to a roaring start. The state's budget woes continue, we are facing a critical March primary election, and giant corporations are trying to destroy health care benefits for thousands of California workers.
First, I want to talk about the state's ongoing budget crisis and how CTA is working with the governor and the Legislature to make our students and public education a top priority.
At this time last year, our schools were facing some of the largest state budget cuts ever proposed to education. We spoke up, we mobilized, and we fought back. And thanks to our efforts, CTA was able to limit the cuts to our schools and keep them as far away from the classroom as possible.
With a $15 billion deficit, the state's fiscal picture isn't any rosier this year, but this time the governor called us first and asked for our input before putting the state budget together. I give Governor Schwarzenegger a lot of credit for that. I believe it is always better to be at the table than yelling from the sidelines.
The governor and I met and talked several times over the past two months. In early January, we joined other education groups to announce a 2004-05 education budget agreement that would protect our schools from any devastating midyear cuts, provide funding for the cost-of-living adjustment and enrollment growth for all programs, and ensure that any money taken from our schools to help balance the budget is restored in subsequent years.
This doesn't mean that there won't be some sacrifices, and we are still fighting for some important issues, like ensuring student access to higher education and making sure all children receive adequate health care. But I believe it is a good and fair proposal. Our public schools could have faced cuts of up to $6 billion.
Throughout our negotiations with the governor, I knew we would have to compromise, but I also knew we would not capitulate. We kept our core values always in mind: protect our members, protect our students, and save our public schools.
We must now work with the Legislature to get this proposed budget implemented.
Our schools are facing a very critical election on March 2. We must pass Propositions 55, 56, 57 and 58.
The statewide school bond, Proposition 55, will help local school districts and colleges get the state matching funds they need to repair dilapidated schools and build new classrooms to relieve overcrowding. Proposition 56 will make sure the state budget gets passed on time. Propositions 57 and 58 are crucial to paying off the state's budget deficit. In addition, I encourage Democrats to vote for Governor Howard Dean in the presidential primary. Dean is our best chance at getting rid of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and all of its ridiculous requirements. California could be the turning point in this primary.
And finally, I want to ask you to please support the more than 70,000 members of United Food and Commercial Workers who have been on strike for the past several months. These workers are part of our communities and our union family. Their children attend our schools.
They are on strike because the big grocery corporations are trying to destroy their health care by cutting benefits and raising premiums. Remember, the medical bills they can't pay raise costs for everyone. This is not only an attack against affordable health care, but also an attempt to weaken the labor movement. If these companies succeed, our bargaining tables will be next.
Support these workers by not crossing the picket line and refusing to shop at Albertsons, Ralphs, Safeway, Vons or Pavilions.
After all, we are truly all in this together.
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It's the little things
We are all adults. In fact, many of us teachers are over the age of 45. We know how to work a heating and air-conditioning unit. We know how to conserve energy, and we know when it is too hot or too cold in our classrooms. Yet, too many teachers can't control the temperature in their own classrooms. Districts control the heating and air-conditioning units, and even worse, lock the controls in the front office.
There's nothing like arriving at work early on a Monday morning when the heat has been off all weekend and the outside temperature is 35 degrees. Teachers are forced to work in that cold room until the district decides the heat should come on. There's also nothing like working in the desert in August in a room without windows and with no way to get a cross breeze, or any breeze at all. I've heard of some resourceful teachers who use little reading lamps to trick the thermostat to turn on the air conditioning. We should not have to resort to such tactics.
We are adults working with children - not children. You can bet when the superintendent comes in early or for some reason actually works late, he or she is adjusting the thermostat in his or her private office.
'It's the little things' will appear periodically in the Educator . If you have a suggestion or an example, e-mail me at barbara@cta.org.
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