Many teachers today may not realize that rights taken for granted only happened as a result of hard-fought battles waged by CTA - including winning tenure, creating the retirement system and winning more money for the classroom.
- CTA, which was founded in 1863, lobbied for - and won - the establishment of public high schools at a time when most states ended public education in eighth grade.
- CTA campaigned for - and won - the establishment of the University of California, our community college system and the "state teachers colleges" that became the California State University system. CTA led the effort to provide minimum funding levels for each of these components of higher education.
- CTA was the first teachers organization in the country to protest against the racial segregation of children in public schools - and one of the few "mainstream" organizations that protested against the internment of Japanese-Americans at the beginning of World War II.
- CTA led efforts to enact compulsory attendance laws.
- CTA proposed and won voter approval for Proposition 98, which provides a minimum funding guarantee of 40 percent of the state budget, gives schools first crack at any extra money and protects education against disproportionate budget cuts when the state faces a revenue shortfall. CTA members collected more than 700,000 signatures, contributed more than $7 million, and put in tens of thousands of volunteer hours to qualify and enact the 1988 initiative.
- CTA was the driving force behind the state's class size reduction program, which provides extra money to K-3 classrooms that don't exceed a student-teacher ratio of 20 to 1.
- More recently, CTA achieved a 10-year goal to win significant bond funds to upgrade and renovate school facilities and build new schools. With the passage of Prop. 1A in 1998, Prop. 47 in 2002 and Prop. 55 in March, CTA has now brought more than $34 billion to improve the conditions of teaching and learning in California.
- CTA, through its nonprofit Institute for Teaching, has raised over $430,000 toward a total goal of $5 million to provide extra services to Schools of Greatest Need and pilot efforts to show how teachers' ideas can make a difference in the state's neediest schools. With Associated Pomona Teachers taking the lead, the first pilot program is already under way in three schools in Pomona. The IFT is also in conversation with CTA leadership in districts in both Northern and Southern California for additional pilot programs.