The Yes on Proposition 75 Campaign violated the state Education Code when it sent political e-mail to teachers in their classrooms via school district e-mail systems.
"Ed Code is very clear," says CTA Chief Counsel Beverly Tucker. "It prohibits the use of school district e-mail systems by any person or campaign for the purpose of urging 'the support or defeat of any ballot measure.'"
Violations are punishable by imprisonment for as long as three years and/or by a fine of as much as $1,000.
"My phone has been ringing nonstop with calls from teachers who were shocked to have received such e-mail in their classrooms," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr.
"They were quick to notice that the deceptive e-mail didn't really come from classroom teachers, as the message claimed, but was written and paid for by two millionaires who are the lead contributors to the Yes on 75 campaign."
The political disclaimer on the message says it is official political campaign material from "Yes on 75, A Coalition of Taxpayer Associations with funding by Robin P. Arkley II and Frank E. Baxter." Both are school voucher supporters.
"Spamming educators with political propaganda is plain counterproductive," says Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators. "California teachers, school leaders and the entire education community deserve politicians' and campaigns' respect in order to focus on education's top priority: our students."
"Staff time should not be diverted from the important work that goes on in our schools' classrooms," says Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.
"School board members are always concerned about the use of the district-owned e-mail system for campaign purposes."
Plotkin says CSBA welcomes the resolution of the matter by the courts.
The Yes on 75 campaign has publicly acknowledged that it has sent approximately 90,000 e-mail messages to school district employees via their school e-mail addresses.
At a news conference organized by Bay Area teachers, Union City teacher Don Heinsohn, a former president of the New Haven Teachers Association, told the news media he was appalled at receiving the e-mail in his classroom.
When he tried to respond to the writers — ostensibly fellow teachers — and "engage them in a dialogue" about the campaign, his e-mail was rejected by a spam blocker.
"This clogs an e-mail system that's owned by the public, and is supposed to be used for educational purposes," says Heinsohn. "This is completely inappropriate. I believe this is a violation of law as well as full of inaccurate statements.
"Who are these people purporting to be teachers putting out factually inaccurate information?" CTA, he says, is a democratic organization. "When you hear Barbara Kerr stand up and speak, there are a third of a million people behind her. We stand behind the people who represent us."
Before the campaign was over, even more teachers received more than one such mailing.
On Nov. 3, Janice Lombardi, a member of the Ukiah Teachers Association, forwarded another example to Kerr.
"I feel that using my district mail for union bashing, especially when the people writing the e-mail do not work in my district, is a great intrusion into my life and my work place," says Lombardi. "They have absolutely no idea about the union situation in my district."
The e-mails she received were "totally political and, I believe, illegal."
Union members do not have that same right to send political e-mails to their members using district services, she adds.
The financial consequence of this action should be "to repay districts for the use of their servers in transmitting this garbage.
"It was not appropriate nor appreciated."
