Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/9051
said, so the march was meaningful for her on several levels. Elsewhere, CTA Board member Eric Heins and Pittsburg Education As- sociation President Chris Coan did informational picketing before school in Pittsburg Unified and rallied after school. In ABOVE: CTA Vice President Dean Vogel rallies members on the steps of Kofman Auditorium in Alameda. of that flatbed truck was tremendous.” In San Jose, Janice Allen — who has taught since 1972 and is president of the San Jose Teachers Association — marched against cuts downtown with her son Daniel Allen, 28, who is working on his master’s in U.S. History at San Jose State University. Cuts there have threatened many of the classes at the college. Allen spoke out against state cuts in a noontime rally at SJSU with members of the California Faculty Association. Her San Jose Unified members are sacrific- ing five furlough days next school year to help the district cope with cuts, she Sonoma County, educators spent part of the day calling local legislators to demand a stop to education cuts — and worked on getting the community to sign the CTA- sponsored Repeal Corporate Tax Loop- holes ballot measure to reverse $2 billion in tax breaks given last year to large corpo- rations. Fremont Unified District Teachers Association President Brannin Dorsey joined scores of colleagues for a spirited af- ternoon rally against the laying off of up to 200 temporary teachers. In Monterey, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell joined local educators in a rally against school cuts at Colton Hall on Pacific Street in Monterey, where Monterey Bay Teachers Association President Jill Low also spoke. The day of action ended with an ex- traordinary education coalition town hall meeting at 6 p.m. attended by 300 parents and educators in the high-achieving Cu- pertino Union School District. It clearly showed that state cuts spare no district. Of the 10,000 public schools in Califor- nia, based on Academic Performance In- dex scores, 15 of Cupertino’s 25 schools are ranked in the top 150 in the state. And the district’s overall API ranks ninth highest of the state’s 1,000 school districts. Now, due to cuts, that success is threatened by pink slips being issued to more than 110 teach- ers and the district raising K-3 class sizes from 20 to 30 students, Cupertino Educa- tion Association President Dave Villafana told the hushed crowd in the gym of Law- son Middle School. “We are in an unprecedented financial crisis that has been forced upon us by the state of California,” he said. “In spite of be- ing one of the lowest-funded districts in the state, Cuperinto is one of the highest- performing.” As questions came from the audience on school funding, the sacrifices of Cuper- tino educators in recent years — no raises this year and their covering of the entire burden of increased health care premiums Continued on page 31 GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA “Stop Killing Public Ed- ucation” said a sign waved by student Susan Gonzalez. She was one of thou- sands who came to the Wilson High School gym to protest the death of public education as we know it, unless legislators switch course. “It’s unfair what is being done to our ed- ucation system,” said Gonzalez, a CSU Long Beach student. “The future is being LEFT: Educators and community members participate in a rally at Wilson High School in Long Beach. 10 California Educator | MARCH 2010 CTA photo by Mike Myslinski Photo by Scott Buschman