Acting on its strong commitment to providing more support and resources for students and teachers in the state’s schools of greatest need, CTA is sponsoring the Quality Education Investment Act. The legislation would invest nearly $3 billion over seven years to help close the achievement gap at schools serving low-income and minority students and English language learners.
The bill, which has passed the Legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, would settle the lawsuit filed by CTA against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after he took public education funding in 2005 and refused to pay it back. The state’s repayment of the $2.9 billion in Proposition 98 funding owed to schools would be used to help targeted schools reduce class size, improve teacher and principal training, and add counselors, while also giving local school districts the flexibility to support programs that best fit the needs of their students.
“This legislation is about giving students and teachers in our lowest-performing schools the resources they desperately need to succeed,” says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. “Targeting these schools with smaller class sizes, more counselors and quality teachers will create a better learning environment and improve student achievement.”
The legislation — SB 1133 by state Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) — got its first hearing in Sacramento Aug. 29 in the Assembly Education Committee. Testifying on its behalf, Kerr said the program will target 500 to 600 of the more than 1,600 public schools ranked in the two lowest deciles of the state’s Academic Performance Index.
According to CTA research, schools in Deciles 1 and 2 have the highest percentages of students living in poverty, learning English, and facing other challenges. When compared with other schools in the state, they have 134 percent more English learners; 98 percent more students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program; 270 percent more students on a year-round schedule; and 167 percent more students whose parents did not graduate from high school. Compounding these numbers is the fact that schools in higher deciles have 8 percent more teachers who are fully credentialed.
Research shows that reducing class sizes and providing a quality teacher in every classroom are two of the most significant ways to improve student achievement. With that in mind, the legislation would:
- Maintain a class size maximum of 20 in grades K-3, reduce class sizes to an average of 25 in grades 4-12, and provide a credentialed counselor for every 300 high school students.
- Require schools to have highly qualified teachers in all core academic subjects at the end of the third year in the program, and establish California’s first teacher quality index to ensure the average teaching experience at these schools is equal to or exceeds the district average.
- Provide all instructional staff, including paraprofessionals and administrators, with high-quality professional development that is aligned to state standards, and require the development of exemplary practices to create working conditions and learning environments that will attract and retain highly qualified teachers, administrators and staff.
- Provide district flexibility to encourage school-level innovations that will advance learning excellence.
For community colleges, the money would go to expanding career education programs that integrate the curriculum of high schools and community colleges to give students four years of rigorous vocational training. Resources would be provided for instructional equipment and materials, technology and facility improvements at community colleges.
As Kerr told legislators, “This important legislation is not a quick fix, which classroom teachers know is not the answer. It’s really about building the framework for lasting change for generations of students.”