California Educator

ACTION CTA photos by Dave Earl Carpenter LEFT: Jack Foreman (second from left), president of the Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Association, with the three CTA officers, accepts the Joyce Fadem Chapter-in-Politics Award for Small Chapter. RIGHT: Folsom Cordova member Mark Schultz addresses Council. Sanchez tells Council CTA will keep fighting I n his address to State Coun cil in May, CTA President David A. Sanchez said that CTA will do everything in its power to protect students and schools during this economic crisis. That includes taking legal action to recover $9.3 billion in education funding diverted during the state budget battles, and working to change the state's twothirds vote require ment to pass a state budget. "We will continue to lead the fight to guarantee that our schools and colleges get the resources they need, deserve, and are owed under law," said Sanchez. In his speech just four days before the May 19 special elec tion, Sanchez warned that if the budgetrelated Propositions 1A 1E failed — as they did — public schools would face cuts of huge proportions. He praised Council 22-40 June.09.indd 30 for endorsing all the ballot prop ositions, and for a successful phone banking campaign — reaching more than 135,000 vot ers around the state. He criticized the Legislature's "illegal manipulation" of Propo sition 98, the state's minimum education funding law, to divert $9.3 billion owed to schools. CTA has prevailed in court twice in the past 15 years when similar di versions occurred, and its attor neys have been working since January to prepare a possible law suit, he said. Sanchez told Council that the lawsuit filed during the campaign by two other unions was prema ture. "Our attorneys are working with other members of the Edu cation Coalition to ensure we have the best legal case possible when we file in court," he said. Meanwhile, it's time to change the twothirds budget vote rule that only perpetuates the state's broken system, Sanchez said. "California's budget process re mains fatally flawed. It's one of the things that have brought us to the brink of disaster in the first place. As long as a small minority can hold our state budget and our schools hostage, we're not going to be able to fix the problem." A new CTA fact sheet dis tributed at State Council noted that tax breaks only require a simple majority vote — and that tax cuts enacted since 1993 will cost California $11.7 billion in the fiscal year ending July 1. The fact sheet notes the twothirds vote has allowed "a small mi nority of lawmakers to hold the budget hostage to personal phil osophical agendas that are not shared by the vast majority of Californians." Sanchez announced that CTA is reaching out on this effort to overturn the twothirds vote. Cal ifornia is one of only three states (Arkansas and Rhode Island are the others) that require a two thirds vote of legislators to pass the state budget, and one of only 12 states that require a twothirds vote or higher to increase taxes. "CTA is working with a group of labor unions and other organiza tions to end this ridiculous require ment," Sanchez said. "It's time to bring democracy back to Califor nia and eliminate this unfair road block that puts our schools and our state in turmoil year after year." Executive Director Carolyn Doggett said in her speech to Council that the ability of CTA members to rise to the occasion again and again, to push back New phone-banking technology At State Council in May members used a new phonebanking system while placing calls in support of Props. 1A-1F. The system was set up to automatically dial preprogrammed phone numbers of voters across the state, allowing Council members to place more calls in a shorter time span. 6/4/09 2:01:35 PM

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