California Educator

April/May 2023

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Recipients of The Chapter-in-Politics Award: Rookie Chapter — Farmersville Teachers Association FTA in the Central Valley, where the population is predominately conserva- tive, has 143 members. FTA was able to mobilize about 80 percent of them to form a chapter PAC in 2022 for the purpose of winning local school board elections. Members participated in community events and precinct walk- ing and managed to speak with half of the voting population in their area. All FTA-endorsed candidates won their elections and successfully flipped the board into a teacher-friendly board. Small Chapter — Nevada Joint Union High School Teachers Association NJUHSTA has 149 members. Roughly 75 percent of them were politically active in 2022, when two of five school board trustee seats were up for election plus a third was vacated. The previous board had engaged in a series of escalating anti-association actions, targeting union leadership and undermining the chapter 's nego- tiations with the district. NJUHSTA actively recruited and endorsed candi- dates and was very engaged in social media, meet-and-greet events, and precinct walking. All three endorsed candidates won their elections. Medium Chapter — Capistrano Unified Education Association CUEA has over 2 ,000 members and is located on the Orange County coast. The political volatility in South Orange County is well known, and in 2022 , CUEA used CTA/ABC funding to support activities such as mailers and a social media campaign. Mem- bers were engaged throughout the district ; the chapter mobilized almost 400 volunteers. Chapter-endorsed candidates won three out of four school board seats. Large Chapter — Sacramento City Teachers Association Coming out of tough bargaining cam- paigns, SCTA's 3,000 members voted to increase their PAC contributions from $5 to $95 annually. This made SCTA-endorsed candidates competitive in races that up until 2022 were domi- nated by business-friendly candidates. The funding helped support direct mail and digital campaigns. SCTA called 75,000 likely voters during phone banks and visited 90 percent of likely voter households during precinct walks. Over 3,500 educators hand-wrote letters to key voters highlighting why they supported SCTA-endorsed candidates. SCTA-endorsed candidates now hold five of seven seats on the district school board. For more information about these and other CTA awards, visit cta.org/awards. 51 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 3 For more information on the Lottery's contributions to California public schools, please visit: www.calottery.com/who-benefits With the support from players, retail partners and our local communities, the California Lottery has contributed over $41 billion to California public schools since 1985. Lottery funding goes to K-12 public schools, community colleges, the California State University, the University of California, and other school jurisdictions. Years of Supporting California Public Education

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