Media Event Speakers Include Thurmond, 2018 Teacher of Year, Ethnic Media Focus – Local Educators Who Speak Spanish, Vietnamese, Other Languages; Educators Oppose Prop. 5, Back Prop. 10

***Saturday, October 27, 2018***

LOS ANGELES – With the future of California’s public schools at stake on Election Day Nov. 6, hundreds of California educators will be getting out the vote for Assembly Member Tony Thurmond for state superintendent, who will join nearly 800 delegates at the CTA State Council of Education meeting in downtown Los Angeles Saturday.

“We’ve done our homework, and that’s why California’s educators are getting out the vote for Tony Thurmond for state superintendent of public instruction this weekend,” said Eric C. Heins, president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association. “Teachers and parents support Tony’s vision of our education system being about quality neighborhood public schools, and not about the kind of charter school proliferation supported by his opponent Marshall Tuck, who is bankrolled by pro-charter billionaires. Tony Thurmond believes in the potential of all students – especially immigrant students – and respects teachers. His priorities include investing more in educators and our classrooms to provide the quality education all students want and deserve.”

Thurmond is endorsed by the Californians for Human Immigrant Rights Leadership Action (CHIRLA) Fund for “being a strong advocate for immigrants in California.” Most recently, the governor signed Thurmond’s bill, AB 2514, to expand dual language education in preschool and K-12. His newspaper endorsements also include La Opinión, the Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee.

Educators will also discuss how Thurmond’s plan to improve schools and his proven record of support for all students contrasts with his flawed opponent Tuck, a corporate charter school champion and former Wall Street banker who is criticized for cancelling ethnic studies classes and dual language immersion programs at schools he once managed. Billionaires are trying to buy the election for Tuck, who is outspending Thurmond by wide margins. And teachers, the NAACP, the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus Chair and the Southern Chair, and other groups are demanding that Tuck disavow misleading TV ads that smear Thurmond. Educators’ strong concerns about Tuck are spelled out at www.cta.org/spi.

Educators oppose Proposition 5 and support Proposition 10 and will be discussing each.

WHAT:  Media event with California Teacher of the Year and hundreds of educators who will be getting out the vote for Tony Thurmond for state superintendent of public instruction. The event is during the quarterly meeting of CTA’s top governing body, the State Council, of nearly 800 democratically-elected teacher delegates from Los Angeles and across the state who will be texting and calling colleagues and voters.

WHO:  Tony Thurmond will speak. The hundreds of teacher delegates – including Spanish and Chinese speakers – will be joined by CTA President Eric C. Heins and a 2018 California Teacher of the Year, Brian McDaniel of Palm Springs Unified; all five Teachers of the Year have endorsed Thurmond.

WHEN:  4:00-5:00 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27.

WHERE:  In the California Ballroom (between the red and yellow towers) on the second floor of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, 404 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 90071.

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