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| First-year teacher Ashley Lucey in Redwood City with her mother, retired local teacher Jean Lucey, and pregnant sister Taylor White, a teacher at Sequoia High School, with her 2-year-old daughter Peyton. |
By Mike Myslinski
Like thousands of passionate educators across the state, Ashley Lucey celebrated California’s 26th annual Day of the Teacher on May 14 by carrying a picket sign to a boisterous protest rally to fight state budget cuts and teacher layoffs in public schools.
But for Lucey, 26, the protest was more personal, as the eighth-grade history teacher’s job is now history.
A first-year teacher in Redwood City in the Bay Area who comes from a family of educators, she is being laid off by the Redwood City School District. Still, she wanted to greet the CTA “Cuts Hurt” school bus at its stop at a shopping center in San Mateo County.
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| Parents, students and teachers greet the CTA bus in Redwood City. |
“It was a great job,” she said of her Roy Cloud School position, “and a great way to make a difference in the lives of so many students. I wanted to come out and support my colleagues, and I wanted to send a message to the governor that the cuts to our schools are not fair.”
Her protest — part of a symbolic 40-mile picket line along El Camino Real in the Bay Area — was one of scores of Day of the Teacher demonstrations across the state that attracted media coverage and showed the power of union solidarity. The protests ranged from a “Rally in the Valley” in downtown Merced to a Burbank City Hall demonstration to huge gatherings and rallies in San Bernardino and San Diego. Everywhere, teachers mobilized against state budget cuts.
Along with Lucey at the bus tour stop in Redwood City were her mother, retired local teacher Jean Lucey, and her pregnant sister Taylor White, a teacher at Sequoia High School in Redwood City.
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| CTA President David A. Sanchez speaks at a Day of the Teacher news conference in San Francisco about the budget cuts, accompanied by (left to right) CTA Vice President Dean Vogel, United Educators of San Francisco President Dennis Kelly and CTA Secretary-Treasurer Dan Vaughn. |
The bus was greeted by more than 200 teachers, students and parents as it arrived to great fanfare and waves of picket signs. CTA President David A. Sanchez disembarked to lead the crowd in a chant: “Cuts hurt! Stop the cuts!” He announced to the crowd the breaking news of the day — that the governor’s newly revised state budget plan would not require gutting Proposition 98, but that the plan still contained education cuts which total $4.3 billion.
“The governor’s decision to avoid suspension of Proposition 98, the minimum school funding law, is a step in the right direction,” Sanchez said later. “His proposed budget revision shows that the organizing by members, parents and community supporters since January is having an impact. But any cut to education hurts our students and schools — and let’s be clear, this revised budget proposal still cuts billions of dollars from public education.”
Sanchez criticized the governor’s May Revision spending plan for proposing to cut the state’s Class Size Reduction program, which means squeezing even more students into already overcrowded classrooms. It also cuts programs that target low-income students and those schools that need help the most. “With this budget plan, California continues to rank 46th in per-pupil funding and dead last in teachers, librarians and counselors per student,” said Sanchez.
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| Father and son protest the cuts in Redwood City. |
Kicking off Day of the Teacher, Sanchez arrived at a 7 a.m. news conference at Leonard Flynn Elementary in San Francisco, walking off the yellow CTA “Cuts Hurt” school bus to speak before a bank of TV cameras, along with two formerly pink-slipped teachers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, and United Educators of San Francisco President Dennis Kelly.
Kelly reminded the media that, while San Francisco’s rainy day fund led to rescinding all layoff notices in San Francisco Unified, the district still faces about $13 million in program cuts, and dozens of paraprofessionals could still lose their jobs.
Sanchez then rode the yellow bus with Vice President Dean E. Vogel and Secretary-Treasurer Daniel R. Vaughn to an 11 a.m. news conference in a Walnut Creek park next to the local district office of Assembly Member Guy Houston (R-Livermore). They called on all Republicans and Democrats to do the right thing and protect schools during the ongoing state budget battle.
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| Oakland Education Association members (left to right) Sharon Thomas and Joy McKinney-Harrison. |
Sanchez was joined by several local CTA chapter leaders, including Mike Noce, president of the Mt. Diablo Education Association, who pointed out that Mt. Diablo Unified School District has already made $14 million in cuts based on the governor’s drastic proposal. The cuts included eliminating smaller kindergarten classes and doing away with nearly 100 teaching positions.
“I want Mr. Houston to be part of a bipartisan solution for our budget crisis,” said Noce. “We need a balanced approach to solving our problem. Cuts alone won’t work.”
As the CTA bus traversed the Bay Area, teachers across the state took to the streets or consoled one another about the cuts.
In San Diego, somber members of the San Diego Education Association packed the Marina Village Conference Center after getting shattering news from the school board the night before: San Diego Unified was making final 617 of the 903 preliminary pink slips it issued in March — the most layoffs of any school district in the state.
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| South Fortuna teachers march in Eureka. |
“Our members are absolutely outraged by these layoffs,” said SDEA President Camille Zombro. “We are fighting for zero layoffs. We are urging our school board to call an emergency meeting and start rehiring these people back.”
In San Bernardino, more than 1,500 people attended a lively rally staged by the education coalition of public school stakeholders in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Teachers, superintendents, State Superintendent of Pub lic Instruction Jack O’Connell, local PTA officials, school board members and parents all called on lawmakers to stop the cuts to our schools, said Fontana Teachers Association President Linda Young, who emceed the rally.
“It was tremendous,” said Young. “Our message was that the public needs to understand that our schools have taken many cuts over many years. We just can’t keep doing more with less.”
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| Superintendent Jack O’Connell speaks before a crowd of 1,500 attendees at a San Bernardino Day of the Teacher rally. |
In Bakersfield, nearly 3,000 teachers and supporters joined the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association (BETA) in a mobilization party and dinner at Yokuts Park. Local elected officials, teachers from 17 CTA chapters in Kern County, parents and others packed five stations set up in the park to call and write postcards to legislators and letters to the editor containing the CTA “Cuts Hurt” message.
“We spent the day doing what teachers do best — protecting our students and schools,” said BETA President Carol Reichert. “The event led to all kinds of pressure being put on the Legislature to fight education cuts.”
In Hayward, the Angry, Tired Teachers Band, a musical group of Hayward High School teachers, played at the Hayward Education Association’s protest rally at the corner of Mission and Jackson streets. Teachers from New Haven, San Lorenzo and Newark school districts attended, and local lawmakers offered their support.
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| At a Whittier Day of the Teacher rally members amass from East Whittier Education Association, Little Lake Education Association, Los Nietos Teachers Association, South Whittier Teachers Association, Whittier Elementary Teachers Association, and Whittier Secondary Education Association. |
In Whittier, hundreds of area school district employees rallied with gusto. Teachers from East Whittier, Little Lake City, Los Nietos, South Whittier, Whittier City and Whittier Union school districts joined forces.
In Sacramento, the Sacramento City Teachers Association used digital cameras to film teachers filling out postcards against education cuts on the north steps of the state Capitol. Teachers then delivered their postcards to the governor and to their legislators, and posted the videos online.
Meanwhile, teachers from Merced and surrounding areas held a “Rally in the Valley” in Merced’s Bob Hart Square. Joining them was Lily Eskelsen, secretary-treasurer of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association. The rally gave educators, education support professionals and the community an opportunity to send CTA’s message to local lawmakers that cuts really do hurt and must be prevented.
Statewide, the event was a great success and sent a strong message to the governor. “Respect our teachers and all school employees,” said Sanchez. “Find new sources of revenue to avoid damaging cuts to our schools and classrooms. Honor our commitment as a society to provide every child with the quality public education they deserve.”
