We're in this Together

The joy of teaching and learning. It’s why we chose our profession. It’s what our job is all about. And it’s what we in CTA fight to preserve and enhance every day.

We’ve had two long years of elections and campaigns, and in the heat of political battle it’s easy to forget all the good that is happening in our public schools every day. That’s what this issue of the Educator is about. It’s about taking time to celebrate all of our hard work and the learning that is taking place in preschool, elementary, middle, high school and college classrooms across the state.

Too often we get caught up in the struggle and forget to celebrate the victories. There have been many this past year.

Thanks to a healthy cost-of-living adjustment and additional money fought for by CTA in the state budget, local chapters are bargaining contracts with significant salary increases, as well as provisions for smaller class sizes.

CTA ensured passage of the Quality Education Investment Act, which settled the lawsuit against the governor and brings nearly $3 billion over seven years to those schools that need help the most. About 500 schools will be funded next year. The application process will be finalized in January. The money will help reduce class sizes in upper grades, hire additional school counselors, and provide quality training programs for teachers and principals.

Teachers have continued to work hard to improve student achievement. State test scores increased for the sixth year in a row. Since 2003, when all tests were aligned to state standards, the percentage of California students who scored at a proficient level or higher in English-language arts has grown by 7 points, and in mathematics by 5 points. In addition, a record number of California students are taking the SAT and going on to college.

As mentioned last month, California voters approved Proposition 1D, which will help local school districts continue to fix and renovate run-down facilities and build new classrooms to reduce overcrowding.

And in a program that is now entering its fifth year, CTA continued to work with the California Association of Health Plans to enroll children in low or no-cost health insurance. More than 150,000 students have received health care coverage through the Teachers for Healthy Kids program.

There will be new challenges as we start 2007, and there will be new opportunities to improve the conditions of teaching and learning as well.

We have a brand-new Legislature, in which a third of the seats have changed faces. David, Dean and I attended the swearing-in ceremony in Sacramento. It was encouraging to see so many legislators who support public education, including CTA member Tony Mendoza and CTA staff Kevin de Leon, taking the oath of office.

One of the first orders of education business in the new year will be the report of more than 20 studies on California’s school finance system. We will have the opportunity to look at what it really takes to educate a child in California, to guarantee that all students have the resources they need to meet the state’s high academic standards, and to ensure that school funds are distributed equitably across the state.

We will also have the opportunity to focus on education policies that truly help our schools and improve student learning. It’s going to take all of us to keep our schools improving. That means teachers, education support professionals, parents, administrators, elected officials and business leaders — working together to make our public schools the best they can be.

And finally, our biggest opportunity to change the conditions of teaching and learning will come in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. With a new Congress, we will have the chance to bring some common sense back to ESEA, and to give struggling schools assistance, rather than sanctions.

Happy holidays! I look forward to working together with all of you in 2007.