Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1544915
W H A T A P O W E R F U L T I M E for our union, as educators orga- nize and fight across our state for the safe, stable and fully staffed schools all California students deserve. I'm excited to share that we reached an important milestone in our mission to permanently extend Proposition 55, submitting more than 1.6 million signatures last month — far exceeding the approximately 875,000 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. is is because of all of you! We had more than 100 chapters with 85% of members signing a petition — there's nothing we can't do if we have ambitious goals, a plan and a commitment to win together. We'll be in touch with ways you can be a part of our campaign to win and prevent a $15 billion cut to our public schools. We're also rising together and winning bold contract fights this school year — from six historic strikes for our students and families in Richmond, San Francisco, Dublin, Twin Rivers, Nato- mas and Little Lake to massive victories in many other locals, where our members won major improvements to teaching and learning conditions by building the power they needed to present a credible strike threat. And all of this has been with the backdrop of a Trump Admin- istration and Republican Congress slashing education funding and attacking our public schools and other institutions — when corporate greed is at an all-time high. Despite all the obstacles, our solidarity is unstoppable. is is what it looks like to be a union in motion and what it feels like to build a movement. Just one month ago, the idea that every public education worker deserves and should have fully funded family health care was a dream for so many but today, after these powerful strikes, it is a standard that every educator now has the leverage and the roadmap to achieve. Our fight continues in Sacramento against a gover- nor who thinks it's OK to take almost $6 billion from our schools and students. Prop. 98 funding isn't a piggy bank you get to borrow from. It's the voter-approved law that guarantees our students have the funding they need to learn, and we will not allow it to be undermined. Another important part of our bold agenda is to elect a State Superintendent who is both pro-teacher and pro-union. Richard Barrera has decades of expe- rience in public education and as an adv o cat e for working people. He understands the challenges we face at the district and state levels and has a vision to work alongside us to demand better schools for our students and communities. I hope you' ll join me in supporting his campaign to victory. I also hope you'll vote for Tom Steyer for Governor in June and November. Steyer has come out in support of reforming Prop. 13 and is a strong adv o cat e for more re venu es for education , which aligns with our values to protect and strengthen school funding. He has joined educators on the picket line. His positions and actions are exactly what it takes to earn the support of educators. ese times are challenging and the stakes are high, and our union is positioned to lead the fight back and fight forward. I'm so proud to be in this fight with all of you — we truly are the ones we've been waiting for. David B. Goldberg C T A P R E S I D E N T We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting for! 5 S P R I N G 2 0 26 P R E S I D E N T ' S M E S S A G E