By Len Feldman
As CTA and its allies combat the governor's efforts to qualify ballot initiatives that would extend the teacher probationary period to five years, gut Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantee to schools, and decimate public employee retirement systems, they have also been working on another front to keep legislative versions of those proposals from moving any closer to passage.
Three of the CTA-opposed bills that make up the governor's so-called reform package are pending in their Special Session legislative committees.
ACAX1 4 by Assembly Member Rick Keene (R-Chico) has been the subject of three weeks' worth of hearings in the Assembly Special Session Budget Process Committee. The bill would gut Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantee and let the administration cut public education and state programs twice in a given year.
ACAX1 1 by Assembly Member Keith Richman (R-Northridge) is in the Assembly Public Sector Committee, where CTA-Retired Secretary-Treasurer Beverly Carlson and CTA advocates testified March 2 about the bill's negative impact. They explained that it would undermine public employee retirements by converting the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) and the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) from defined benefit plans into risky 401(k)-style plans without a guaranteed benefit. When Richman claimed the bill would let retirees become millionaires, CTA countered with testimony that teachers would have to work 40 years and start out with a salary of $45,000 annually to come even close. No vote was taken.
ACAX1 3 by Assembly Member Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) still has not had a hearing in the Assembly District Representation Committee. This measure would allow unelected bureaucrats to redraw legislative district lines. Currently, these lines are drawn by legislators who are accountable to the voters.
CTA members can help win the fight by getting in touch with their Assembly members and senators in the state Capitol and urging them to vote against these measures. For more information, visit the Politics and Legislation section.
