"Organizing for change" offers the best hope for California's teachers and students, said CTA President Barbara E. Kerr, as she urged CTA State Council of Education delegates to look beyond the November election and contemplate the future.
"Let's face it, the economy is still struggling, the state budget still needs balancing, the health care crisis continues, and so-called education reformers are coming up with new ideas every day to 'help' us do our jobs. Usually those ideas include some form of testing or a scripted lesson plan — and less creative thinking and real teaching."
"We need to have hope," she said. "With 335,000 members — with outstanding staff — together we can and we will organize to meet any challenge."
CTA still hopes to seize the initiative for educational reform and come up with a way to increase education funding, she said. "We need to have our own agenda. We are still working on a way to dramatically change — dramatically increase — school funding."
Calling herself an "action president," Kerr vowed that CTA will undertake real action for change only after hearing from thousands of members and assessing what they perceive to be the real needs of the teaching profession. To involve members in establishing priorities for change, CTA is involving teachers around the state in focus groups and discussions. Council delegates will get a chance to offer their ideas at the January meeting.
Change was also on the mind of CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett, who said CTA must change and adapt to meet the needs of the growing number of young teachers.
With one out of every five teachers in California new to their job this year, and 60 percent of all new CTA members in the 20-40 age bracket, the union must rethink how it serves its 335,000 members, she said.
"It is an old organizing truth that people don't change to fit organizations, so organizations must change to fit people. We must be willing to look at our organization through the eyes of these new teachers and give them as strong a reason to belong as we had."
The fastest-growing age groups in CTA are those between 20 and 29 and between 50 and 59.
Young educators want what all teachers desire — respect, freedom to be creative, a supportive school environment and the security of a good job with good pay and benefits, Doggett noted.
"But at the same time, most young teachers today do not view teaching as a career. It's their first job — the job they got out of college — not the job they'll have for the rest of their lives. They see teaching as an adventure that probably won't last."
Explaining that she started teaching high school English in 1969 in Anchorage, Alaska, she said her generation was on a mission to build a better world. "For many of our new teachers, our profession is not a social mission, it is a personal quest."
Knowing that 40 percent of CTA members are over age 50, and another 40 percent are under age 40, CTA understands that "these new members are the key to the long-term survival of our organization."
