Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1533049
Top photo, CTA Vice President Leslie Littman (far left), board member Kisha Borden (middle) and San Diego Education Assn. President Kyle Weinberg (far right) at the SDEA We Can't Wait launch. Bottom photo: Sacramento City Teachers Assn. President Nikki Milevsky speaks at the We Can't Wait press conference in Sacramento. The State of Our Public Schools In January, CTA released " The State of California's Public Schools," a survey of TK–12 educators conducted by GBAO Strategies. Top-line findings: Despite recent investments, schools remain underfunded and educators face increasing economic precarity. Almost two-thirds of educators consider financial insecurity — including the ability to afford everyday goods and services such as groceries and childcare — to be a big concern, and almost 70% say health care costs are eating into their paychecks. While many cite serious struggles, the majority expressed job satisfaction and a deep commitment to public education. Despite its tremendous wealth, California continues to rank well below national averages for student funding and staff ratios. The state is in the bottom five in the U.S. for class size ratio and 48th for access to school counselors. Persistent threats of layoffs and school closures disrupt thousands of students and educators each year but fail to fix the underlying issues. Read details of our findings on page 23. " Whenever we're able to improve our working conditions as teachers, we're able to improve our students' learning conditions," said Sacramento City Teachers Association President Nikki Milevsky at the press conference. At the campaign rally in Oakland, Parent Voices Oakland Executive Director Clarissa Doutherd said that the unified action of "We Can't Wait" will benefit students and schools. "We unite across California to demand that districts prioritize spending that directly impacts our children and our schools, so that our kids have stability, so that our kids have fully staffed schools that aren't in threat of closure every single other year," Doutherd said. Quality public education — and our very democracy — is at stake. " We're hoping that this campaign … will bring a light to the circumstances that we work under to achieve what is the foundation of our democratic society every day, said Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco, at the UESF campaign launch, "and what it needs to survive moving forward and how that represents what [California] families and citizens should really be expecting in public schools." " It's unacceptable that in the "Golden State," with its vast wealth and resources, our communities struggle with fully staffing our neighborhood schools." —CTA President David Goldberg 15 M A R C H 2 0 2 5