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CTA officers Barbara E. Kerr, David A. Sanchez and Dean E. Vogel brief chapter presidents like Leticia Gutierrez (below) from Alum Rock on the governor's proposals |
Still reeling from what they perceive as slaps in the face delivered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his State of the State speech, teachers are organizing on all fronts to fight proposals that lay siege to public education and public employee unions.
In addition to calling teachers a "special interest" that the state must rise up and battle against, the governor is introducing legislation and/or considering initiatives to repeal portions of Prop. 98; to privatize the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) and Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS); to redraw legislative boundaries; to make it more difficult for public employee unions to get involved in politics; and to undercut collective bargaining agreements.
Earlier, the governor unveiled his budget proposal in which he broke his promise to protect school funding. Schools had given up $2 billion to help balance the budget last year on the promise that the money would be repaid and they would get their fair share of any increase in revenues. Schwarzenegger now proposes not paying the $2.3 billion schools are owed, thus compounding the pain wrought by $9.8 billion in cuts over the last four years.
CTA and the Education Coalition are not taking any of this lying down, says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. "We're busy organizing on all fronts."
As she told CTA's State Council of Education, "Children are our special interest."
The governor may have "star power, but we have the force of 335,000 members in every community, and the force is with us."