c a l i f o r n i a f e d e r a t i o n o f t e a c h e r s , a f t a f l - c i o

California Teacher September b October 2010Volume 64, Number 1

t h e v o i c e o f t h e u n i o n

CFT bill secures classroom doorsNew schools get security locksPage 5

CFT picks for the General Election Candidates and ballot propositions Pages 7 and 9

Educators slimed by L.A. TimesCFT calls out paper’s shame game Page 11

VOTE! Yes on 25End budget gridlock in Sacramento

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What we need today is some…

Talking Blues

Marty hittelman, CFT President

All-Union News 3General Election 6

Around CFT 10 Pre-K and K-12 11

Classified 13Community College 14

University 15Local Wire 16

For more news from the Federation, visit cft.org

< ON THE COVER

Elizabeth Shadish, an instructor of philosophy at El Camino College, reaches out to students about the importance of voting for Proposition 25 during weekly tabling held on the Torrance campus. Shadish is president of Local 1388, the El Camino Federation of Teachers, which represents the faculty.

PhoTo by bob rihA jr

The California Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-Cio. The CFT represents faculty and classified workers in public and private schools and colleges, from early childhood through higher education. The CFT is committed to raising the standards of the profession and to securing the conditions essential to provide the best service to California’s students.

PrEsidENT Marty hittelman

sECrETAry-TrEAsUrEr dennis smith

sENior ViCE-PrEsidENT Mary Alice Callahan

ExECUTiVE CoUNCiL Velma butler, Cathy Campbell, Kimberly Claytor, Melinda dart, Carl Friedlander, betty Forrester, Miki Goral, Marc houle, Carolyn ishida, sharon johnson, dennis Kelly, jim Mahler, Elaine Merriweather, Alissa Messer, dean Murakami, joshua Pechthalt, Gary ravani, Zwi reznik, Laura rico, Francisco rodri-guez, sam russo, bob samuels, Luukia smith, rosa María Torres, Kent Wong, david yancey

California Teacher (issN 0410-3556) is published four times a year in september/october, November/december, February/March and April/May by the California Federation of Teachers, 2550 N. hollywood Way, suite 400, burbank, CA 91505, and mailed to all CFT members and agency fee payers. Annual subscription price: $3 (included in membership dues). For others: $10 per year. Periodicals postage paid at burbank and additional mailing offices.

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Editor jane hundertmark

Contributors this issue Kenneth burt, Velma butler,Patty Cox, Carl Friedlander, Marty hittelman, Elaine johnson, Pat Lerman, judith Michaels, Mindy Pines, Gary ravani, bob samuels, Malcolm Terence

Graphic Design Kajun design, Graphic Artists Guild

UpFront

® 977-MIBT 853

California TeacherIn this issue

i was up in sacramento and all that I heard

was that unions were the problem with the evil they

stirred

they were looking for Superman to make things right

“firing teachers will make kids bright”

Reduce funding, increase competition, teach kids to fill

in the bubbles.

I looked at the TV and what did I see

It was Wall Street Whitman paying the fee

She said cuts in public service is the path to prosperity

and regulations are what cause disparity

She was claiming the unions are who make things bad

but it’s her outsourcing jobs that made me mad.

I looked at the newspaper and what did I see

They’ll expose our teachers if we don’t agree

To rank our teachers — any method will do

valid or invalid — use whatever’s new,

merit pay, value added, a business model

— miracles can happen.

So, if you want to fund education, let me tell you what

we need,

We have to get together and fight corporate greed.

We have to do all we can to pass 25

and even then we’ll only be half alive.

We have to slide right out of Whitman’s hand

and join the chorus in Jerry’s band.

It’s up to us, to make the fight

for better education and all that’s right

so don’t let the doomsayers put you down

and don’t leave the arguments to the media clown

and don’t let the big money defeat your goals

just get your voters out to the polls.

Because together we can win —

and we will.

Persevere

Marty HitttelmanCFT President

Marty hittelman accepted the Militancy Award from the AFT higher Education department. it was given to CFT for its inspi-rational March for California’s Future.

hittelman with Tom Torlakson, CFT-endorsed candidate for state schools chief.

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the engineers and Architects Association of Los Angeles took a his-toric step on September 2 when the union’s board of governors voted to affiliate with the AFT.

“It is a new beginning for EAA,” says the association’s president Sha-ron Johnson, a systems program-

mer at the Information Technology Agency. “We are now affiliated with a union that has represented profession-als since 1916. I look forward to work-ing with the board, stewards, EAA staff, CFT and AFT to improve our organization, communication with, and representation of EAA members.”

The 5,000-member EAA represents

if proposition 25 needed a poster child, this year’s budget fiasco is it. The stage was set for massive gridlock with a termed-out gover-nor demanding pension reform and a beefed-up rainy day fund, some legis-lators adamantly refusing to consider any new revenues, and others unwill-ing to consider more draconian cuts to public services.

around the union…

All-Union News

professionals in virtually every City of Los Angeles department and bureau. The affiliation provides EAA with more opportunities, resources and clout, says EAA Executive Director Joe Kahraman, adding that the affilia-tion also places EAA where it belongs, “among a larger group of profes-

sionals who have come together to improve public services.”

“We’re honored that the Engineers and Architects chose CFT/AFT to represent them,” says CFT President Marty Hittelman. “We will be working closely with EAA’s leadership to build member participation and strength, and to help fight, if necessary, in com-

This fiasco was driven by the need to find enough votes for the two-thirds required to pass a budget. The long delay in reaching a deal caused seri-ous cash shortfalls for community col-leges and state-supported preschools. A budget finally passed on October 8, 100 days after the legal deadline.

It calls for doubling the reserve, a measure that will go before voters in 2012 even though they rejected a simi-lar proposal in the 2005 Special Elec-tion. Thanks to strategic lobbying by CFT, classified school employees were spared at the last minute from pension rollbacks that will hit state employees hired after November 10.

Legislators suspended Proposition 98, shorting K-14 education to the tune of $4.3 billion this year, but the state must repay education when the

ing battles with City Hall. Their affili-ation further increases an already strong AFT presence in Los Angeles.”

The organization has a long history. Formed in 1894 as a professional

economy improves. The May Revi-sion called for drastic cuts so most dis-trict budgets are based on worst-case scenarios. Funding will be better than anticipated.

K-12 education will see one-time funds of approximately $275 per stu-dent and new funding for the Qual-ity Education Investment Act. To the relief of educators, legislators elimi-nated the permanent revenue limit reduction in the May Revision.

Community colleges will receive about $126 million for enrollment growth, funding for categoricals to partially replace last year’s fed-eral dollars, and increased funds for workforce development and career technology. There is also increased funding for UC and CSU.

Legislators did not eliminate Cal-

association, EAA grew into a full-ser-vice union over the years. The affilia-tion will go to a vote of the membership for affirmation.

— by AFT and CFT staff

WORKS (the state welfare program), state-supported preschool programs, or in-home care for low-income dis-abled and elderly. But the governor used his line item veto to cut $622 mil-lion from CalWORKS and childcare to increase the budget reserve.

As in past years, much of the budget solution relies on creative accounting, unlikely increases in federal funding, suspension of a corporate tax break, and cuts to salaries of state work-ers. An improved revenue projection helped close the budget gap.

Given the rosy assumptions, it’s likely the new governor will face the same cri-sis, and the 100-day-late budget simply kicks the can down the road again…unless we pass Proposition 25 and end the tyranny of the two-thirds vote.

— by Patty Cox, CFT research specialist

Members of the san diego AFT Guild have placed thousands of calls to its members.

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Los Angeles city engineers and architects affiliate with AFTNearly 5,000 public employees join our union of professionals

Latest state budget ever is Prop. 25 poster child

…the affiliation also places EAA where it belongs, “among a larger group of professionals who have come together to improve public services.” —joe Kahraman, executive director, Engineers and Architects Association

Sharon Johnson, a systems programmer and president of the Engineers and Architects Association, called affiliation with AFT and CFT a “new beginning” for the union of 5,000 Los Angeles city public employees.

lio, but equally concerned about the erosion of public support for public employee pensions.

Widener can weather the attacks on public pension funds by right-wing ideologues and repeated Chicken Little-style op-ed pieces. What truly bothers her is that progressive allies are suddenly asking why teachers,

classified workers, and other public employees have it so good with their defined benefit pensions.

“Our friends now attack teachers,” she exclaimed. “They tell me, ‘Our homes lost value, public programs are disappearing, all because the state has

calstrs ceo Jack Ehnes laid out bad news at the 2010 CFT Convention. The retirement fund took a 25 percent hit, due mostly to sinking real estate investment, and the portfolio is not likely to invest its way out of the deficit despite 2010 gains in the equity market.

Ehnes told delegates the CalSTRS

fund would need to substantially ratchet up the contribution from employees (now 8 percent), employ-ers (8.25 percent) and the state (2.017 percent). While the change might be incremental, he said the amounts will be more painful if delayed.

The CEO debunked the myth that CalSTRS had no money to pay cur-rent pensions, but said actuarial pro-jections show the portfolio running dry by 2044. The state, he said, is obli-gated to pay core pensions, but not the 2 percent annual COLA or adjust-ments for inflation. He questioned whether the state would foot an annual bill of $8 or 9 billion to sup-port retired teachers.

And that troubles Carolyn Wid-ener. The long-time activist in the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild, Local 1521, and nine-year member of the CalSTRS Board is concerned about the erosion of the CalSTRS portfo-

to pay your pensions.’ “It’s just not true,” Widener said.

“When you consider total compen-sation, public employees make less than workers in the private sector. So why are we being blamed? Because Americans depending on their 401ks and home equity are frightened they won’t have a secure retirement.”

In September, fiduciary lawyers told the CalSTRS Board that Cali-fornia’s strong contract law would not allow the state to alter the “core retirement benefit.” The employee contribution rate for current mem-bers can only be raised if benefits are improved.

Many public employees, such as police, fire, and city workers, negotiate retirement benefits with their employ-ers, so employee contribution rates and benefits can be changed through negotiations. California teachers do not negotiate retirement benefits with their employers. The state sponsors CalSTRS, and only the Legislature can increase employer contribution rates.

Adding to the puzzle, the CalSTRS Board may lower its assumed rate of return on investments from the cur-rent 8 percent. This would further increase the unfunded liability and bring closer the projected year when the CalSTRS well would run dry without increased contributions.

Pension critics have been promul-gating all kinds of solutions, mainly reduced benefits, older retirement ages, and creation of a new tier for future hires in which employees would no longer be part of a defined benefit plan like CalSTRS or CalPERS where pension amounts are deter-mined by an actuarial formula and last for life. Instead they would be part of a defined contribution plan, much like a 401k.

Widener said some fair-weather allies are now pushing a hybrid plan called a “cash balance plan” that has aspects of both defined benefit and defined con-tribution plans. “The bottom line,” she added, “is that we must improve retire-ment security for all Americans.”

— by Malcolm Terence, CFT reporter

Experts find public perceptions off the markCalSTRS chief officer and board member detail challenges ahead

Governor vetoes bill to give retirees voice on CalSTRS Board

community college teach-ers elect their representative on the CalSTRS Board. K-12 teach-ers elect two. But the governor

appoints the rep-resentative of retired teachers, and five others, to the power-ful 12-member board.

A CFT-sponsored bill to remedy this passed the Leg-islature, only to

be vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger on September 30. AB 1862 was carried by Mike Eng, an AFT member and Democrat from the Los Angeles area.

Speaking for the CFT Retirement Committee, Cliff Liehe, a part-time paralegal instructor at San Fran-cisco City College and member of Local 2121, said the bill would have “prevented an anti-public pension governor from appointing some-one sympathetic to his position or otherwise not concerned foremost about retirees.”

When the Legislature passed CFT-sponsored SB 1580 in 2002, three of the CalSTRS Board seats became elected rather than appointed. Even though this was a significant victory, the board mem-bers are elected by active members, leaving retirees, 30 percent of Cal-STRS members, without a voice.

Six board members, includ-ing this seat, are appointed by the governor. Three seats are held by elected state officers.

CFT member Carolyn Widener has held the community college seat since 2001. After 40 years of teaching English she has retired and is no longer eligible to run.

Widener warned that board membership could change radi-cally after the November elections. California’s new governor will have control over six appointments, half the CalSTRS board, during the next year or so. — Malcolm Terence

“Our friends now attack teachers. They tell me, ‘Our homes lost value, public programs are disappearing, all because the state has to pay your pensions.’ It’s just not true.”

Carolyn Widener, an English teacher from the Los Angeles community colleges, has held a seat on the CalSTRS Board for the past nine years.

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CalSTRS CEO Jack Ehnes talks retirement to delegates at CFT Convention this spring.

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To move this important legislation forward, CFT agreed to limit the scope of the bill to new school construc-tion and amended the bill so schools could charge the cost of the improved locks to construction grants contained in voter-approved Proposition 1D. Nonetheless, by the spring of 2009, AB 211 had stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Almost a year later, the Safe and Non-Violent Schools Committee set up a table at CFT Convention where members could pick up and try out the security locks. With increased member buy-in and lobbying, CFT urged Senate leaders and commit-tee members to send AB 211 to the Senate floor for a vote, where the measure passed easily in late August.

Classroom security locks were devel-oped in response to increased incidents of firearm violence in schools. The California Fire Code already contained requirements for school exit doors because occupants must be able to exit buildings or classrooms easily in the

event of a fire or earthquake. The exit doors must be operable from the inside without a key or any special knowledge or effort, and those doors cannot be locked, chained, bolted, barred, latched, or otherwise rendered unusable.

The new breed of classroom security lock allows educators to lock the doors to classrooms, offices, and other rooms quickly, from the inside.

Since teachers do not always carry their keys, the bill allows districts to decide whether the security locks should require a key or mechanisms such as a thumbturn or pushbutton that engage the lock without use of a key or any special knowledge.

School districts can choose the type of security locks they prefer, as long as the locks are approved by the Division of State Architects. For local unions, passage of AB 211 means that they can take more steps to protect educators and their students, and begin asserting their preferences at the collective bargaining table. — by judith Michaels, CFT Legislative director

CFT leads the way in bringing improved level of security to California classroomsInterior doors in new schools will be lockable from the inside

What happened to other CFT-sponsored bills this session?

AB 1807 Asked districts to negotiate rehire rights (Fong, D-San Jose) Would have put community college districts on notice about the need to negotiate the right of first refusal, commonly known as rehire rights, for part-time faculty. Passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee, but not the Assembly Appropriations Committee that said the cost of implementation was too great.

AB 1902 Cap number of charter schools ( Ammiano, D-San Francisco)sought a statewide cap of 1,450 charter schools, and prohibited charter school per-sonnel with hiring authority from employ-ing their relatives. Passed the Assembly, but not the Senate Education Committee. AB 1862 CalSTRS retiree board mem-ber election (Eng, D-El Monte) Would have changed the CalsTrs board member representing retired members from one being appointed by the governor to one being elected by the retired members. Passed the Legislature and was vetoed by the governor. >see story page 4.

AB 2482 CFT classified seat on Consultation Council (Furutani, D-Long Beach) sought membership of the Community College state Chancellor’s Consultation Council to include two clas-sified employees, each representing one of two different statewide collective bargain-ing organizations. Bill succeeded when Chancellor Jack Scott agreed and seated a classified representative from CFT without the legislation. >see full story page 13.

AB 2584 Evaluation of Personnel Commission director (Torlakson, D-Martinez) Would have required the per-sonnel commission in school and commu-nity college districts operating under the merit system for classified school employ-ees, to conduct a performance evaluation of the personnel commission director, and authorized inclusion of classified school employees in that process. Did not pass first house.

SB 1209 Death benefit equity (Romero, D-Los Angeles) sought to increase the postretirement death benefit paid to the beneficiary of a classified school member of CalPErs from $2,000 to $6,163. Did not pass first house.

Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, a former teacher, carried the successful CFT bill seeking classroom security locks.

the 1999 columbine high shootings left 12 students and a teacher dead

in their classrooms. Twenty-three were wounded. In such situations, schools

often lock down their facilities to keep students in and perpetrators out. But

within the building many doors can only be locked from the outside,

for action before CFT Convention in 2008. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Norwalk), a former Los Angeles teacher, agreed to introduce legislation.

As AB 211 moved through the Legislature, cost was a persistent issue. A security lock costs $30 to $60, and the Office of Public School Construction estimated that con-struction costs would increase by $160,000 to $320,000 per project.

For local unions, passage of AB 211 means that they can take more steps to protect educators and their students, and begin asserting their preferences at the collective bargaining table.

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placing students and educators in jeopardy if the adult must go into the hallway to lock the door.

On September 30, Gov. Schwarz-enegger signed into law a CFT-sponsored bill designed to address this dire threat. AB 211 requires all new school construction projects to include “classroom security locks” that allow classroom doors, as well as any rooms with occupancy of five or more persons, to be lockable from the inside.

Responding to the threat of violent or potentially violent inci-dents on school campuses and in their immediate neighborhoods, the CFT Safe and Nonviolent Schools Committee brought this proposal

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three states that require more than a majority legislative vote for their state budgets; the other 47 states have majority votes.

Proposition 25 will also dock legis-lator salaries and their per diem pay-ments if the budget is late, holding public officials accountable.

Prop. 25 does not change the law requiring a two-thirds vote to add taxes. When opponents challenged this asser-tion in court, the 3rd District Court of Appeal confirmed that Proposition 25 does not change the supermajority cur-rently needed to raise taxes.

How did Proposition 25 come

Over the past 20 years, the Legislature repeat-edly has failed to

pass a budget on time, cost-ing taxpayers hundreds of millions in interest payments and leaving schools, munici-palities and state workers holding the bag. The primary reason? The requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers approve the budget. The supermajority mandate turns democracy on its head, handing veto power to the minority,” says a San Jose Mercury News editorial on October 6.

The newspaper continues, “Propo-sition 25 should end budget gridlock by reducing the threshold to a simple majority.”

CFT couldn’t have said it better. When approved by voters on

November 2, CFT-initiated Proposi-tion 25 will be a first step in fixing California’s broken budgeting system by allowing a majority vote in the state Legislature to pass the annual state budget. California is one of only

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about? Frustrated by perennial budget deadlocks at a time of budget short-

ages, CFT set out to change the system. Working in concert with other unions, more than a mil-lion signatures were gathered,

qualifying the initiative for the November ballot.

The two-thirds vote mandate has promoted backroom deals, including a cut in corporate taxes for a hand-ful of the largest corporations in the state (Proposition 24 would wipe out that secret deal). In exchange for their budget votes, some legislators have demanded pork barrel spend-ing in their districts. Some have insisted upon corporate tax breaks, the elimination of the eight-hour day, or a rollback of environmental pro-tections. In 2009, then-Senator Abel Maldonado held the budget hostage for his personal career agenda.

Support for Proposition 25 is broad and growing daily (see below). Prop. 25 has also been endorsed by newspa-pers including the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The Times wrote, “Prop. 25 is the real deal.”

>For more information, go to endbudgetgridlock.com

Yes on Prop. 25: End two-thirds budget voteCFT-sponsored measure can put an end to state budget gridlock

At El Camino College, classified and faculty unions work together during campus out-reach. Luukia Smith, left, is president of the El Camino Classified Employees, and Elizabeth Shadish leads the faculty union.

At the Los Angeles Community Colleges, classified and faculty pitch in to contact members and distribute campaign materials.

General Election 2010

by Pat Lerman, CFT Field representative

What does Proposition 25 do?b�reduces the vote needed to pass the California state budget from a two-thirds to a

majority vote.b�brings California in line with the 47 states that require a simple majority for budget

passage.b�holds legislators accountable by docking their pay if the budget isn’t passed on time.b�Ends backroom deals made to get a supermajority to pass the budget.

Who supports Proposition 25?

jerry brown bCalifornia state PTA bAssociation of California school AdministratorsAFsME bCsEA bCalifornia Teachers Association bCommon Cause bLeague of Women Voters bLULAC bsierra Club bPeace officers research Association of California bscores of other public officials and unions.

Majority RulesIt’s Simple.

25YES on

ON NOVEMBER 2 THE uNiON RECOMMENDS

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When one state senator held up passage of the budget in 2009, Sacramento poli-

ticians and the largest corporations in the state cut a backroom deal. The ransom for a two-thirds budget vote was an annual $1.3 billion tax break for the state’s largest corporations.

Passage of Prop. 24 would stop these underhanded tax givebacks from becoming law, keeping corporate taxes at current levels. The targeted tax loopholes benefit less than 2 percent of California’s wealthiest corporations, not small businesses. In exchange for the tax breaks, these huge corpora-tions made no guarantee to create or

Proposition 26 has been called the Polluter Protection Act. The hidden backers of this ini-

tiative — oil, tobacco, and alcohol companies — have disguised their greedy motives by framing it as a con-sumer protection measure.

In fact, Prop. 26 would shift the

save one single job. If the tax breaks aren’t stopped, corporations could lit-erally take the money and run while sending jobs overseas or out of state.

Also, the more a corporation earns through interstate sales, the less taxes it pays. Almost no other state has this overly generous tax formula.

Since public education receives nearly half of state revenues, a tax cut of this size hurts. It shifts the tax bur-den from enormous corporations to ordinary Californians. At a time when education has lost more than $17 bil-lion, California can’t afford more rev-enue losses.>To learn more, go to yesprop24.org

burden of paying for environmen-tal and health damage from polluters to the rest of us. It is aimed at over-turning a unanimous 1997 California Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of a fee charged to paint producers for help to children at risk of lead-based paint poisoning.

Currently state and local taxes require a two-thirds vote for passage; fees need a majority vote. Proposition 26 would mandate a two-thirds vote for certain state and local fees.

Which fees would be affected? Not surprisingly, those that affect pollu-tion-causing industries. Passage of Proposition 26 would empower a minority in the Legislature to bring public protection to a halt. It would result in costly litigation to determine its legality. And it would shift public funds away from education and other public services into paying for damage caused by irresponsible industries.>Go to noonproposition26.com

Yes on 24: For tax fairnessHalts $1.3 billion in corporate tax breaks

No on 26: No new two-thirds voteDon’t protect oil, tobacco, and alcohol companies

Legalizes marijuana useAllows Californians 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use.

Stop Congressional redistricting schemeWould give a non-accountable 14-person commission power to redraw our state Congressional districts.

Preserve our state parksCreates funding to preserve our heritage state parks by adding $18 to the vehicle license fee, and gives California vehicles free park admission in return.

Restricts redirection of fundsProhibits the state from borrowing funds from cities and counties in times of crisis.

Don’t put the environment on holdSuspends implementation of AB 32, which limits emission of greenhouse gases known to cause global warming.

Repeal new corporate tax breaksRepeals $1.7 billion in corporate tax breaks passed during last year’s 2008 backroom budget deal.

End two-thirds vote to pass budgetChanges passage of the state budget from a two-thirds to a majority vote of each house.

No new two-thirds vote requirementsRedefines “fees” charged to oil, tobacco, and alcohol companies for harm to public health and the environment as “taxes,” which would require a two-thirds instead of a majority vote.

Return redistricting to the LegislatureEliminates the 14-person commission put in place by Proposition 11 in 2008, and returns Congressional redistricting power to the state Legislature.

NO POSITION19

NO 20

YES 21

NO POSITION22

NO 23

YES 24

YES 25

NO 26

YES 27

Vote

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Secretary Treasurer Dennis Smith speaks against Proposition 26 at a press conference.

On the ballot propositions…

How CFT makes recommendations>To learn about the candidates, CFT reviewed their records and campaign positions. some visited CFT meetings to make presentations and to answer questions from members.

The union’s endorsements and ballot proposition recommendations can be made by three CFT governance bodies, which one depends upon the timing necessary to impact the election. Votes can be cast by delegates to CFT Convention or state Council, to which all AFT local unions in California may send delegates, or by the CFT Executive Council.

ON NOVEMBER 2 THE uNiON RECOMMENDS

Members of the Early Childhood Federation, far left and far right, talk to their Los Angeles- area colleagues and urge a yes vote on Prop. 25. Carl Friedlander, second from right, from the L.A. College Faculty Guild does the same.

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groups, including CFT, CTA, Califor-nia School Employees Association, and California Faculty Association.

Aceves, who has been superinten-dent in a number of school districts, is backed by the Association of Cali-fornia School Administrators. tomtorlakson.com

she operates in the rarified corporate world of private jets. On Wall Street she engaged in an unethical practice that was later outlawed. After a disin-terest in California illustrated by her not voting for years, Whitman has spent $150 million of her money to buy the governorship.

Whitman has attacked teachers and other groups of unionized employ-ees, threatened to fire 40,000 state employees, and promised to slash public employee pensions in the first 12 months of her term.

She proposes $15 billion in cor-porate tax breaks that will likely cut $7 billion from schools and colleges. Because education is about half of the state budget, there is simply no way to dramatically shrink the state budget without hurting students and laying off educators. jerrybrown.org

The Superintendent advocates for adequate school funding from

the state Legislature and federal gov-ernment, serves as an ex-officio UC Regent, and is a member of the CSU Board of Trustees.

Two educators, Tom Torlakson and Larry Aceves, face off in this election. Both have valuable classroom experience.

Torlakson is a high school science teacher and community college fac-ulty member. He has retained his teacher orientation while learning how to get things done in Sacramento as a member of the Assembly.

Torlakson is endorsed by teacher, professor and classified employee

The governor’s race provides a clear contrast: one candidate sup-

ports public education, educators, public employees, and public services; the other does not.

As governor from 1975 to 1983, Jerry Brown increased financial sup-port for public education. He gave teachers, professors and classified employees a voice on the job by sign-ing landmark collective bargaining legislation for K-12, community col-lege, and university employees.

The iconoclastic Brown marched with Cesar Chavez, fed the hungry with Mother Teresa, and moved into a downtown loft to better understand the challenges facing people in urban Oakland.

Brown’s opponent, CEO Meg Whitman — a former Goldman Sachs board member — is out of touch with ordinary Californians as

Boxer was the featured speaker at the CFT Convention this spring.

She has supported bills to increase student aid for college students and to prevent teacher layoffs.

Her opponent, Carly Fiorina, is extremely conservative on social issues. Fiorina claims that she knows

how to create jobs as a former CEO. But her record as CEO of Hewlett Packard shows she doesn’t: She laid off thousands and shipped jobs over-sees. Hewlett Packard finally fired her for failing to produce results. barbaraboxer.com

PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES WHO MAKE THE GRADE

Tom Torlakson Superintendent of Public Instruction

Barbara Boxer U. S. Senator

Jerry Brown Governor

The 2010 General Election provides a clear choice for

California voters. As educators it is our responsibility to

learn about the candidates and the issues, and to vote —

either at the polls on November 2, or earlier using your

vote-by-mail ballot.

Knowing who our friends are is key to saving the future of pubic education

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by Kenneth burt, CFT Political director

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To Govern California…

Governor Edmund “jerry” brownLieutenant Governor Gavin NewsomSecretary of State debra bowen*Attorney General Kamala harrisController john Chiang*Treasurer bill Lockyer*

Insurance Commissioner dave jonesSupt. of Public Instruction Tom TorlaksonBoard of Equalization, #1 betty yee*Board of Equalization, #2 Chris ParkerBoard of Equalization, #3 No recommendationBoard of Equalization, #4 jerome horton*

California Senate(By district number)

2 Noreen Evans 4 Lathe Gill 6 darrell steinberg* 8 Leland yee*

10 Ellen Corbett* 12 Anna Caballero

14 Larry johnson 16 Michael rubio 18 Carter Pope 20 Alex Padilla *22 Kevin deLeon 24 Ed hernandez 26 Curren Price *

28 jenny oropeza* 30 ronald Calderon* 32 Gloria Negrete McLeod* 34 Lou Correa* 36 Paul Clay 40 juan Vargas

U.S. Senate barbara boxer*

U.S. House(By district number)

1 Mike Thompson*3 Amerish bera4 Clint Curtis5 doris Matsui*6 Lynn Woolsey*7 George Miller*8 Nancy Pelosi*9 barbara Lee*

10 john Garamendi*11 jerry McNerney*12 jackie speier*13 Fortney “Pete” stark*14 Anna G. Eshoo*15 Mike honda*

16 Zoe Lofgren*17 sam Farr*18 dennis Cardoza*20 jim Costa*23 Lois Capps*24 Timothy j. Allison26 russ Warner27 brad sherman*28 howard berman*29 Adam schiff*30 henry Waxman*31 xavier becerra*32 judy Chu*33 Karen bass 34 Lucille roybal-Allard*

35 Maxine Waters*37 Laura richardson*38 Grace Napolitano*39 Linda sanchez*40 Christina Avalos41 Patrick harold Meagher43 joe baca*44 William E. “bill” hedrick45 stephen P. Pougnet46 Kenneth Arnold47 Loretta sanchez*48 beth Krom50 Francine busby51 bob Filner*53 susan davis*

California Assembly(By district number)

1 Wes Chesbro* 3 Mickey harrington 4 dennis Campanale 5 richard Pan 6 jared huffman* 7 Michael Allen 8 Mariko yamada* 9 roger dickinson

10 Alyson huber* 11 susan bonilla 12 Fiona Ma* 13 Tom Ammiano* 14 Nancy skinner* 15 joan buchanan* 16 sandré swanson* 17 Cathleen Galgiani* 18 Mary hayashi* 19 jerry hill* 20 bob Wieckowski 21 rich Gordon 22 Paul Fong* 23 Nora Campos 24 jim beall jr.* 27 bill Monning*

28 Luis Alejo 29 Michael Esswein 30 Fran Florez 31 henry Perea 33 hilda Zacarias 34 Esmeralda Castro 35 das Williams 36 Linda jones 37 Ferial Masry 38 diana shaw 39 Felipe Fuentes* 40 bob blumenfield* 41 julia brownley* 42 Mike Feuer* 43 Mike Gatto *44 Anthony Portantino* 45 Gil Cedillo 46 john A. Pérez* 47 holly Mitchell 48 Mike davis* 49 Mike Eng* 50 ricardo Lara 51 steven bradford* 52 isadore hall iii* 53 betsy butler

54 bonnie Lowenthal* 55 Warren Furutani* 56 Tony Mendoza* 57 roger hernandez 58 Charles Calderon* 59 darcel Woods 60 Greg Fritchle 61 Norma Torres* 62 Wilmer Amina Carter* 63 renea Wickman 64 jose Medina 65 Carl Wood 66 douglas dye 67 rosalind Freeman 68 Phu Nguyen 69 jose solorio* 70 Melissa Fox 71 Gary Kephart 72 Esiquio Uballe 73 judy jones 74 Crystal Crawford 76 Toni Atkins 77 Mark hanson 78 Marty block* 79 ben hueso 80 V. Manuel Pérez*

STATEwIDE oFFICES

UNITED STATES CoNGRESS

*incumbent

Gavin Newsom Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom will focus on revitalizing the economy and serve as a UC regent.

As mayor of san Francisco, Newsom enacted universal

healthcare for all residents. he was the only California mayor to help fund city schools, partnering with the school district and the union, and he personally called parents of truant students.

his opponent, legislator Abel Maldonado, held the state budget hostage to advance his career. gavinnewsom.com

Dave Jones Insurance Commissioner The battle over who will regulate California’s insurance industry is a classic conflict between consumers and indus-try. This office directly affects your pocketbook.

As a state assemblyman jones led the effort to force health insurer Anthem blue Cross to roll back massive rate hikes. As Commissioner, he will require large insurers to prove the need to raise rates.

his opponent Mike Villines is financ-ing his campaign with insurance industry money. davejones2010.com

Debra Bowen Secretary of State secretary of state debra bowen put principles over politics by institut-ing safeguards to make California’s voting sys-tems accurate, secure, and accessible.

bowen received the prestigious john F. Kennedy Courage Award for her first-in-the-nation restrictions on flawed voting systems. she expanded voter education with creative new methods, including a voter-friendly Web site and the use of social media.

her opponent, damon dunn, a minister and former NFL athlete, lacks the know-ledge and experience necessary to perform the job. debrabowen.com

Bill Lockyer Treasurerstate Treasurer bill Lockyer, a stabilizing force in state finance, seeks to protect the integrity of employee pensions. he serves as a member of the CalsTrs

and CalPErs boards. A long-time advocate for education, Lockyer signed the ballot statement for CFT’s Proposition 25.

his opponent, Mimi Walters, a con-servative orange County state legislator, is running on public employee pension “reductions.” she touts her experience as an investment executive at a major bank-ing firm and her ties to Meg Whitman. lockyer2010.com

Kamala Harris Attorney GeneralThe attorney general is California’s chief pros-ecutor, responsible for enforcing consumer, civil rights, and environmental laws as well prosecuting violent offenders. The AG

also writes ballot language for state ballot propositions and enforces election laws.

san Francisco district Attorney Kamala harris understands the connection between education and crime prevention. she believes that strong educational opportuni-ties help prevent crime.

her opponent, L.A. district Attorney steve Cooley, would be a liability when writing ballot summaries. kamalaharris.org

John Chiang Controller “state Controller john Chiang has been a hero of sorts during California’s recent dis-tress,” stated California Municipal Bond Advisor in March, “conserving

cash flow to make sure California could cover top priority funding requirements such as education and debt service.”

Chiang serves on the CalsTrs and CalPErs boards, and has stood up for fis-cal responsibility and the rights of public employees.

his opponent, legislator Tony strickland, has a long record of opposing public employee pensions and minimum wage increases. johnchiang2010.com

PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES WHO MAKE THE GRADEKnowing who our friends are is key to saving the future of pubic education

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Frank Oppedisano joins CFT staff

the new field representative Frank Oppedisano brings CFT a wide range of experience.

Oppedisano served as executive director of the Newport-Mesa Fed-eration, representing K-12 educators, and worked in the same job with the Coast Federation, representing com-munity college faculty. He helped organize classified employees as an intern with AFT.

Son of an Italian immigrant stone-mason, he recalls childhood trips to the union hall. His mother has been an AFT member for decades, as a classified employee and a special edu-cation teacher. “I visited her special ed classroom when I was 14 years old,” he says. “I have had a tremendous respect for educators ever since.”

Based in the Costa Mesa office, Oppedisano fills the job held by Mary Millet, who retired after working with CFT the last six years of her career.

The last day to register to vote is october 18. if you aren’t a registered voter, now is the time to become one.

The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is october 26. if you have a hard time getting to the polls, this is the option for you. your ballot must be received at the registrar’s office or at any polling place by 8 P.M. on election day.

Vote in the General Election on November 2 at your local polling place. help get education back on track and stop the cuts to education funding. your vote will matter!

AFT Collective Bargaining Conference being held November 16-18 in California is the place to be for new and experienced union negotiators. This practical conference is being held at the hilton san diego beach resort. Learn more at aft.org.

Division Councils of K-12, classi-fied, and community colleges meet December 4 at the hilton oakland Airport.  

Application deadline for high school students to apply for a CFT Raoul Teilhet Scholarship is January 10.

Legislative reception for the new members of the California Legislature will be held in January 24 in sacramento.

Committees of the CFT meet January 29 at Los Angeles Valley College.

Mark your Calendar

IN JULy, THE CFT AwARDED 18 scholarships to continuing college students through its raoul Teilhet scholarship Program.

starting November 1, scholarship applications will be available for 2011. students enrolled in four-year courses of study are eligible for $3000; those enrolled in two-year courses of study are eligible for $1000. The deadline for high school seniors to apply is january 10.

Award selection is based on academic achievement, special talents and skills, participation in extracurricular activities, community service, financial need, and a 500-word essay on a social issue of the applicant’s choice. you can download an application at www.cft.org, or phone the CFT Costa Mesa office at 714-754-6638

to have one mailed to you.Continuing college students who

received $3000 scholarships are listed below with the names of their parents or guardians who are CFT members.

Alaric Chinn, son of jett Chinn, United Professors of Marin

Jennifer Dallape, daughter of Kimberly Fuerst-dallape, oxnard Federation of Teachers and school Employees

Julie Gantz, daughter of jeff Gantz, AFT Guild, san diego and Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Colleges

Amy Goedert, daughter of beverly reynolds-Goedert, Poway Federation of Teachers

Sara Gonzalez, daughter of jesse Gonzalez, oxnard Federation of Teachers and school Employees

Eva Herndon, daughter of Karla herndon, berkeley Federation of Teachers

Heather Houghton, daughter of Cara houghton, Lompoc Federation of Teachers

Smita Mascharak, daughter of Nandini bhattacharya, Faculty of UC santa Cruz

Erin McGowan, daughter of Cindy sheaks-McGowan, Ventura County Federation of College Teachers

Eric Navaroli, son of Gina Navaroli, santa Cruz Council of Classified Employees

Mallory Pickett, daughter of Meghan Pickett, Greater santa Cruz Federation of Teachers

Alexandra Quintela, daughter of Monica Castro, Turlock Federation of Classified Employees

Marcos Ruedas, son of Manual and sandra ruedas, Los rios College Federation of Teachers

James Rumenapp, son of sheila rumenapp, Ventura County Federation of College Teachers

Adlyn South, daughter of Anita south, jefferson AFT Federation of Teachers

Briana Stout, daughter of Lori stout, Carpinteria Association of United school Employees

Matthew wainwright, son of Caroline Wainwright, Novato Federation of Teachers

BriAnna webb-Almanza, daughter of jerri Webb, Poway Federation of Teachers

Dependents of CFT members receive union scholarships

Raoul Teilhetscholarships

CFT launches statewide Diversity Committee

delegates to the 2010 CFT Convention approved a resolu-tion to develop a program within the CFT that promotes participation and leadership development for peo-ple of color. As a result, a Diversity Committee has been formed to make recommendations to increase ethnic minority participation at the local, state, and national levels. The commit-tee will report its preliminary findings to delegates at next year’s convention.

Committee members include, standing left to right, Carl Williams, Lawndale; Velma J. Butler, Los Ange-les; Paula Phillips, Berkeley; Carol Richie, Compton; Frank Espinoza, San Jose; Gabriel Torres, Sacramento. Seated are Dolores Sanchez, CFT; Robert Perrone, Sacramento: Elaine Merriweather, San Francisco. Not pictured: Eduardo Arismendi-Pardi, Costa Mesa; Janet Eberhardt, San Francisco; Diana Ramon, Costa Mesa.

Tom Torlakson gives a hearty

welcome to CFT leaders at state Council on september 25

Around CFT

Get your CFT Pocket Calendar!IF yoU DID NoT get a CFT Pocket Calendar from your local union, it’s not too late to get the union’s award-winning 16-month academic year calendar. >To receive a calendar, send $1 for shipping and handling to the CFT bay Area office, 1201 Marina Village Pkwy., suite 115, Alameda, CA 94501.

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Pre-K and K-12UTLA members protested at the L.A. Times on september 14 for its irresponsible publication of rankings.

gary ravanicouncil president

Time to end reform and begin renewalIt is time to end what’s been called school reform and begin school renewal. reform in its current incarna-tion (and there have been innumerable incarnations in our country’s history) is related to ideas that are politically fash-ionable, that deal with predetermined outcomes, are underfunded, and mea-sure results in very narrow ways.

renewal will require a tremendous investment in human capacity. it will require a framework that facilitates collaboration and the ongoing search for improvement. it will not set forth goals and strategies in neat packages with linear implementations and sim-plistic measurements. Neither kids nor life come in neat, simple packages.

reform is always an effort to get someone to correct his or her deficien-cies. renewal is about making teach-ers responsible for their profession while giving them the support neces-sary to apply their own expertise and experience and maximize children’s opportunity to learn.

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los angeles teachers felt stunned, battered, abused and con-fused, as they started their school year. When focus should have been on organizing their classes and assess-ing new students, attention was on the Los Angeles Times publication of teacher rankings.

Based on a controversial “value-added-models” (VAM) analysis of standardized test scores over the last seven years, the paper assigned 6,000 second through fifth grade teachers a value in English and math that rated them against each other. They divided them into five equal categories from “least effective” to “most effective,” and published their findings on the Times’ Web site.

Throughout the country, debate ignited on VAM’s accuracy, the role of standardized testing in teacher evalu-ations, and how children and the pro-fession would be affected overall. What exactly is an effective teacher? How can we measure effectiveness? What will this mean for society in general?

laura ricard teaches second grade at Huntington Drive Elementary School in East Los Angeles. Of 523 students, 91 percent receive free and reduced-priced lunches; 94.3 percent

are Latino; 55.4 percent are English language learners (ELLs). The school’s Academic Performance Index (API) of 725 improved by 49 points in the last two years.

Ricard is angry and confused. In her 27 years with Los Angeles Unified, this veteran educator has received excellent evaluations. She finds it difficult to talk about her “least effective” ranking and

subjects not tested on the California Standards Test. “I am not suddenly going to do ‘kill and drill’ and spend the whole day focused on testing. If we focus on test preparation, we lose out on a content-rich curriculum.”

Leon admittedly spends time teaching testing strategies. Posted in the back of her room is a poster that reads, “How are you preparing for the CST?” California Teacher visited her class the first week of school during a lesson on multiplication. Using small cube manipulatives to demon-strate that multiplication is repeated addition, she explained to students how they could show 5 x 4 with four groups of five cubes. “But on the CST if you forget your times tables,” she pointed out, “you cannot use these cubes. What can you do instead?” She showed them how to use tally marks on scratch paper.

While Leon pays attention to test-ing, she lauds Ricard’s teaching. ELLs, she explains, need vocabulary devel-opment to do well on the CST. “Laura

Los Angeles Times unfairly names and shames district teachersEducators tell California Teacher about impact of discredited ranking system

says it’s unfair. Ricard continuously looks to build

upon her craft, to improve her tech-niques and curriculum. She welcomes advice on how to become a more ef-fective teacher. “I’m not saying go soft on me. But,” she says, “evaluate me

on meaningful and accurate criteria that really reflect my effect on my students’ learning.”

Victoria Leon is a “highly effective” third grade teacher at Huntington Drive. “I know Laura is a good teach-er,” she says. “I’ve seen her teach.”

Ricard says she wants her students to get a well-rounded education that includes art, music, science and other

has a way of getting children to love learning and grow in important areas that are not measured on any stan-dardized test. They will develop vo-cabulary and catch up because they love reading. I’m extremely happy to get her students in third grade.”

Leon was appalled by the publica-tion of teacher rankings and fears the result it will have on the profession in general. If her ratings are to be based largely on students’ CSTs, she says she will be less likely to work with student teachers because they would affect her VAM ranking. She adds that teachers will have no incentive to work with mainstreamed students or any other children whose test data are not directly linked to a teacher’s rating. She worries that VAM is

>Continued on next page

“Laura has a way of getting children to love learning and grow in important areas that are not measured on any standardized test. They will develop vocabulary and catch up because they love reading. I’m extremely happy to get her students in third grade.” — Victoria Leon, third grade teacher, huntington drive Elementary school

In her 27 years with Los Angeles Unified, second grade teacher Laura Ricard has received excellent evaluations, but the Los Angeles Times, using discredited and unfair “valued-added models,” placed her in the “least effective” category.

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tiveness. Audap has devoted her ca-reer to training teachers. She founded the Park Avenue Teachers Center in LAUSD in the 1980s, has been a principal and, currently is a United Educators of San Francisco member who serves on a district-union pro-fessional development committee.

Audap asks, “How do we know how children are progressing toward

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becoming thoughtful problem solvers and cooperative citizens? Does CST measure that? The term ‘multiple measures,’” she explains, “is in every piece of written policy, but it is conveniently ignored. The focus, instead, has been on easy and cheap-to-administer multiple choice tests.”

“VAM will deepen the educa-tion divide in this country,” says Josh Pechthalt, AFT vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles. “Parents in affluent communities will use their resources to make sure their children have enriched learning ex-periences. Schools and teachers in the poorest communities will be under enormous pressure to raise scores, as they already are, making the educa-tion experience drearier for children with the fewest resources.”

Pechthalt warned that the broader attack on public education will not go away soon. UTLA is developing a long-term strategy to engage mem-bers and parents on value-added and other key issues, he explained. “We won’t turn this around anytime soon, but eventually, students will be seen as multidimensional human beings, not widgets on an assembly line.”

— by Mindy Pines, CFT reporter

paving the way towards merit pay and that once instituted, “its effect will be chilling, marking the end of teacher collaboration and morale.”

farnaz mobasheri teaches highly gifted fifth graders at Carpenter Avenue Elementary School. Carpenter is a high-per-forming San Fernando Valley school in Studio City. Of 813 students, only seven percent receive free and reduced-priced lunches; 75.9 percent are white; 6.6 percent are ELL. Their API improved only slightly, by eight points since 2008, remaining at 912 in 2010 from 2009.

There was a parent backlash, says Mobasheri. Parents called the principal to request room changes. Mobasheri doesn’t oppose getting the VAM data per se, but “publishing it is irresponsible. The public doesn’t have all the data. They don’t understand the margin of error…that this is such a narrow focus of what teaching and student achievement are.”

Mobasheri explains that in her new class, only three students are “not advanced.” Two-thirds of her class

scored very high on their last CST, missing three or fewer problems. She asks, “If I am ranked by how much my students improve in test scores, how can I rate anything better than aver-age? There’s nowhere for them to go.”

An educator for four decades, Susan Audap believes the CST is an inappropriate measure of student achievement, let alone teacher effec-

Name and shame>Continued from previous page

Ricard’s colleague at Huntington Drive Elementary School in East Los Angeles, Victoria Leon, praises Ricard’s teaching and says, “I’m extremely happy to get her students in third grade.”

on september 14, approximately 1,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles closed down the street housing offices of the Los Angeles Times, marching and chanting in pro-test of the newspaper’s latest attacks on teachers, their unions, and public education in general.

Grace Marroquin, fifth grade teach-er at Miramonte Elementary joined the protest because “this system is unfair to children. A one-size-fits-all approach” to measuring success “stigmatizes children who need many types of support.”

Value-added ratings are unreliable, inconsistent and counterproduc-tive, according to a report of the Economic Policy Institute which recently gathered 20 experts, ranging from academia to the commercial

testing industry. EPI asserts that VAM should not be used to evaluate teach-ers as test-based teacher evaluations will narrow curriculum and eliminate incentives for teachers to work with the neediest students.

Gregory Sotir, an eighth grade English teacher at Virgil Middle School, sees the Times’ latest actions as part of a larger agenda. He says the Times “has an anti-union history and has targeted our union in particular. They’ve tried to manipulate the pub-lic into thinking teachers are over-paid, over-benefited, and not working hard in general.” He marched to support his union and wants “the Times to publish a retraction say-ing their research was shoddy and irresponsible.”

Even National Board Certified

Teachers give Los Angeles Times an “F” in journalismUTLA protests newspaper’s irresponsible and damaging publication of teacher rankings

teachers were ranked “least effective.” Board-certified Stacie Webster, one of two Times-rated “ineffective” teach-ers from West Vernon Elementary addressed the crowd in confused frustration. “The national standards rank me as excellent. But the Times says I’m ‘least effective.’”

Teachers do not oppose evalua-tions, UTLA President A.J. Duffy told the crowd. “We are for an evaluation system that is good for kids and accu-rate for teachers. We want to change the system…to make sure we have a Peer Assistance and Review process that gives us a say. It is not good enough to just evaluate the teachers,” he concluded. “You have to evaluate the administrators…the parents, and you must evaluate the school system.”

— Mindy Pines

One Los Angeles teacher gives the newpaper an overall grade of F, with U’s for Work Habits and Cooperation.

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Classified

CFT lands seat on Community College Consultation CouncilChancellor Jack Scott grants union the second classified seat on statewide advisory panel

when cft classified leaders wanted a seat at the table of advisers for the state’s community colleges, they launched a classic campaign. They lined up support in CFT and other unions, lobbied legislators, and had a friendly member of the California Assembly introduce legislation.

On August 6, their efforts paid off when Jack Scott, chancellor of the California Community Colleges, added a second classified seat on the council and filled it with a classified member of CFT.

Scott noted that CFT had initiated the request and has the second largest representation among classified em-ployees in the community college sys-tem. The largest representation is held by the California School Employees Association, which already holds a seat on the Consultation Council. CSEA supported the CFT proposal.

Velma Butler, the president of the CFT Council of Classified Employees, said CFT is working with CSEA be-cause both unions face the same issues. “The fight’s the same, and we look forward to working together.”

On a parallel track, Warren Furutani, a Democrat representing communi-ties south of Los Angeles, introduced legislation mandating the new seat.

Butler said supporters of the proposal staged a full court press to lobby the Legislature and Chancellor Scott. “We had senators calling Scott, assemblymen calling him, CFT of-ficers, and the California Federation of Labor. We had a connection with Scott before he was state chancellor, and we’re going to improve upon it.” Scott’s website lists high among his accomplishments that he was named Legislator of the Year by CFT when he

works as administrative secretary for the graphics and publications department.

“The challenge… was to overturn the belief of some Council members that classified workers lacked sophistication enough to understand high level policy issues.”— diana ramon, new CFT representative

on the Consultation Council

Ramon had lobbied the Consultation Council before the chancellor created the new seat. The challenge then, she explained, was to overturn the belief of some Council members that classified workers lacked sophistication enough to un-derstand high level policy issues. She defended classified workers’ grasp of the issues by pointing out that she has a bachelors degree in English from UC Berkeley, and that other classified employees have masters’ degrees.

In her new position, Ramon has already attended two meetings of the Consultation Council. She says the issues on the table often deeply affect the work of classified employees.

The initial plan to seek the new seat was proposed by the CCE and approved as a resolution at CFT Convention in 2009. Butler credited CFT officers for their support includ-ing Carl Friedlander, who heads the Community College Council, Marty Hittelman, CFT president, and Dennis Smith, secretary treasurer.

Smith called Chancellor Scott’s decision “a huge outcome” and said “strengthening the voice for the com-munity college classified staff in the chancellor’s office was the goal and we did it!”

— by Malcolm Terence, CFT reporter

El Camino’s Luukia smith explains the importance of passing Proposition 25.

was a state senator.The chancellor said the Classified

Senate had also competed to fill the new seat, but, “unlike the Academic Senate, the Classified Senate is not rec-

ognized in statute and does not exist on many college campuses. …This was a difficult decision. Both organizations are worthy…yet a choice had to be made, so CFT will add a representative to the Consultation Council.”

the consultation council is the product of reform legislation

requiring the Board of Governors to establish a statewide process that allows all local district stakeholders to partici-pate in systemwide policy decisions.

The Council, chaired by Scott, meets monthly to evaluate and develop proposals, appoint task forces, and offer advice on issues such as legisla-tion and budgeting. Though it is only an advisory body, the chancellor hears all views on issues firsthand so the Council is considered very influential.

To fill the new CFT seat, Butler appointed Diana Ramon, member of the Coast Federation of Classified Employees, and an effective advo-cate on classified issues. Ramon is the local’s elected vice president at Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley, where she

“…strengthening the voice for the community college classified staff in the chancellor’s office was the goal and we did it!” — dennis smith, CFT secretary treasurer

Diana Ramon from Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley now brings the voice of CFT classified employees to the statewide Community College Consultation Council.

The Consultation Council meets monthly to evaluate and develop proposals, appoint task forces, and offer advice on statewide issues such as legislation and budgeting. Though it is only an advisory body, the chancellor of the California community colleges hears all views on issues firsthand so the Council is considered very influential.

What is the Community College Consultation Council?

situation, and because resolutions do not require the governor’s signature to be codified. Given Gov. Schwar-zenegger’s track record on teachers’ rights during lay off, seniority, and collective bargaining, CFT doubted

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carl friedlandercouncil president

Challenges facing CalSTRSCommunity college faculty need to pay close attention to the big battles brewing over pension reform. CalsTrs shares the underfunding problem common to most major pen-sion plans but is relatively free of the features that rally the defined benefit critics — to maximize the multiplier, for example, you need to work until 63, not 50, 55 or 60.

but our retirement system faces some unique challenges: Unlike CalPErs, CalsTrs has no authority to raise employer contribution rates (only the Legislature can do so); unlike many other systems, contribution and benefit levels cannot be negotiated; and post-Medicare retiree medical coverage is the exception, not the norm, in community college and K-12 districts. so options are limited and the challenges are all too real.

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Community College

ago, in response to the national aca-demic staffing crisis, the AFT began this two-pronged approach to link collective bargaining with state leg-islative action. While collective bar-gaining remains the most effective way to bring about change for indi-vidual faculty at specific campuses, legislative pressure can set the tone at bargaining tables.

The national campaign is pre-mised upon two core beliefs. First, the higher education system benefits from having a full-time instructional workforce with job protections. Sec-ond, all faculty members, whether working full- or part-time, must be compensated fairly. The CFT contin-ues to phase in these goals through organizing, collective bargaining, and legislative advocacy.

Eleven states, including California, introduced ambitious FACE legis-lation in 2008, setting the stage for victory in Oregon last year and in California this year. As in Califor-nia, Oregon legislators stopped the bill on fiscal grounds until a working group proposed amendments allow-ing progress on a few issues.

Oregon’s new law not only puts the goals of FACE into Oregon stat-ute, but also gives faculty who teach at multiple colleges access to a health insurance benefit pool. It mandates that districts report the number of adjunct faculty employed, something

Phyllis Eckler, an adjunct dance instructor, phone banks in the evenings.

California achieved in AB 420, com-prehensive legislation for part-time faculty signed in 1999.

ACR 138 will be trans-mitted to the governing board of each commu-nity college district. The CFT Community College Council will push local governing boards to make FACE a reality.

To support AB 420, Gov. Gray Davis included a line item in his budget for part-time parity. More CFT-sponsored legislation passed in recent years created two budget line items to assist districts in fund-ing office hours and health benefits for adjuncts. These three categorical budget lines may be unique in the nation. The new statement of legisla-tive intent embodied in ACR 138 is another milestone for our state. — by judith Michaels, CFT Legislative director

On the Web>To learn more, go to face.aft.org. you can follow the campaign on Facebook at AFT’s FACE Campaign and on Twitter at AFT FACE.

The California Community Colleges canceled its controversial agreement that would have allowed students at some colleges to earn credit for discounted online courses at Kaplan University.

As reported in California Teacher last spring, the arrangement between the nation’s largest public community college system and for-profit Kaplan drew com-plaints from the CFT Community College Council and other faculty groups.

The CCC argued the system was using public funds to endorse Kaplan. in the end, Chancellor jack scott cancelled the agreement, effective september 16, saying the failure to secure UC and CsU transfer agreements for students to receive credit for Kaplan courses would harm students and the system.

Chancellor cancels bogus deal with for-profit Kaplan

Faculty move lawmakers toward just staffing and compensationLegislature passes Faculty and College Excellence resolution with bipartisan support

after two years and three pieces of CFT-sponsored legislation, the California Legislature has thrown its support to “Faculty And College Excellence.”

Assembly Concurrent Resolu-tion 138 expresses the intent of the California Legislature that the state’s community colleges provide part-time faculty with equitable pay and benefits, and that the colleges have 75 percent of their courses taught by faculty on the tenure track. It passed both houses on a bipartisan vote just before the legislative session ended August 31.

ACR 138 is part of the AFT Faculty And College Excellence campaign that aims to pass similar bills in state legislatures throughout the nation. This time around, CFT drafted FACE as a resolution rather than a bill because of California’s dire economic

his signature would be forthcoming.To gain support for ACR 138, col-

lege faculty rallied and marched in Sacramento, attended lobby days, tes-tified at hearings, and visited legisla-tors in their home offices.

ACR 138 will be transmitted to the governing board of each community college district. The CFT Community College Council will push local gov-erning boards to make FACE a real-ity. The resolution encourages more collaboration between administrators and faculty, who together can build equitable and sustainable staffing structures. California colleges need more full-time positions, additional support for part-time positions, and real opportunities for part-time fac-ulty who want to move into full-time positions.

Significantly, the Legislature’s approval of ACR 138 will serve as an incentive for other states to pass legislation, furthering the goals of AFT’s campaign. Nearly five years

s e p t e m b e r / o c to b e r 2 0 1 0 C a l i f o r n i a t e aC h e r 15

the university trumpeted a recent bond rating report issued Sep-tember 9 by Moody’s Investor Ser-vice that supported reshaping the UC pension plan. According to Moody’s, if the university wants to maintain its high credit rating, it must be willing to “curtail the benefits” or improve ongoing funding of the costs to “sus-tain its long-term credit quality.”

Moody’s says the university is fis-cally healthy because it remains one of the premier higher education systems in the world, serving over 220,000 students, conducting over $3.7 billion of research annually, and generating more than $5 billion of net patient revenue in 2009 at its five academic medical centers.

Moody’s does not mention that the medical centers do not want to share their profits, and the research grants may already be costing UC money. Instead, the bond raters stress how UC is rolling in unrestricted funds.

According to Moody’s, UC has a “sizeable balance sheet that remains highly liquid.” It lists $3.5 billion of unrestricted financial resources ($5.9 billion excluding post-retirement health liabilities) and short-term

investments exceeding $10 billion. Since the UC is only paying its retiree healthcare costs on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, the university has close to a combined $16 billion in unrestricted funds and short-term investments, which is not bad for an institution supposedly facing a fiscal crisis.

One thing helping the university increase its revenue is its ability to use low-interest rates to take on large amounts of debt. Moody’s reported that UC’s outstanding debt has grown from $8.3 billion in 2006 to more than $13.3 billion in 2009, a 61 per-

cent increase. While the university appears to

have unlimited access to cash, the bond raters warn that the system is plagued by the threat of regulatory changes “coupled with unique stresses on California healthcare, including unionized labor, and seismic require-ments.” According to this logic, the only thing holding the university back from making more profit and taking on more debt is the fact that there are regulations, unions, employee ben-efits, and earthquakes.

Moody’s also thinks the uni-versity can extract more money from students and says UC is likely to implement more substantial increases. They say increases will be politically driven and “the market drivers would likely allow the university to grow tuition revenues at high rates, especially if the university was willing to seek out a greater proportion of out-of-state students.”

One of the central demands of Moody’s, which is matched by the UC administration, is the need to wean the university off its reliance on public funds. The report said state

support accounted for 14 percent of operating revenues during 2009, a decline of $561 million or 18 percent. In 2010, the reduction is estimated to be an additional $637 million. While it looks like the university lost $1.2 billion dollars during the last two fis-cal years, most of this money was replaced by federal recovery money, which Moody’s acknowledged.

It’s virtually impossible to account for how much money the UC receives each year from the state because of the way California has been paying its bills. Moody’s detailed deferred pay-

Bob Samuels is a writing instructor at UCLA and president of the University Council-AFT. read his blog at changinguniversities.blogspot.com.

University

How the bond raters are shaping the UC agendaMoody’s says university awash in unrestricted funds despite plea of fiscal crisis

ments and said the university “has used its own liquidity and borrow-ings under taxable commercial paper to bridge this funding gap.” In other words, UC is involved in a compli-cated system of lending and borrow-ing state funds.

While we do not know exactly how much money the university has lost from the state, we do know that even during the fiscal crisis, which justi-fied furloughs and layoffs, the UC continued to increase its revenue and profits. Moody’s says UC financial resources grew from approximately $11 billion in 2002 to nearly $13 billion in 2009, including the rec-ognition of over $2.3 billion of post-retirement health obligations. Due to the diversified nature of its funding streams, the UC is able to claim pov-erty, while it brings in record profits.

While the university clearly does not face a fiscal crisis, it does have a To

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very high level of debt due mostly to ongoing construction projects. While the bond raters are pushing the UC to reduce its retiree liabilities by reduc-ing benefits, this report also shows that the unfunded liabilities are mostly an accounting figure used to justify further reductions in employee costs. If the university wants to reduce its debt and its reliance on the investment services, it is clear that it has to change its focus from con-struction to instruction. — by bob samuels

Thousands of members are volunteering time

in this critical election.

University of CaliforniaRolling in Dough?

If the university wants to reduce its debt and its reliance on the investment services, it is clear that it has to change its focus from construction to instruction.

Due to the diversified nature of its funding streams, the UC is able to claim poverty, while it brings in record profits.

Chancellor cancels bogus deal with for-profit Kaplan

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Local wire reporting local action around the State

Rank & Files

local 2199

eating pie for education… Faculty, students and staff gathered on the UC Santa Cruz campus Octo-ber 7 as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

To draw people to the rally a group of bikers made its way through campus in the morn-ing. They were fol-lowed by pom-pom waving “radical cheerlead-ers.” Then

came pale-faced zombies carrying signs such as, “Witness the death of public education.”

The event organized in part by Faculty of UC Santa Cruz concluded

with a faculty-enacted “Who’s Eat-ing Your Tuition Pie-Eating Contest” skit that dramatically illustrated how executive compensation is gobbling up UC funding.

local 1475

weingarten at l.a preschool…Emphasizing the need for universal access to early childhood education for disadvantaged children, AFT Pres-ident Randi Weingarten visited Los Angeles’ Kedren Nickerson Gardens Head Start Center on August 19.

The center serves low-income Afri-can-American and Hispanic students, most of whom reside in the adjoin-ing public housing development, and employees are represented by the Early Childhood Federation.

“Too many of our most disadvan-taged children are falling through the cracks and showing up to kindergar-ten already behind their peers,” Wein-garten said. “If we want to get serious

You are the union…

about closing the achievement gap between the haves and have-nots, we must start by addressing preschool and school readiness.”

local 1521

college students get political…Los Angeles community college stu-dents are interning in a Los Angeles College Faculty Guild program that immerses them in electoral politics.

The 54 interns learn organizing skills during 36-hour training ses-sions provided by the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute with the Los Angeles Trade Tech Center. Then they are off to register students to vote, organize rallies for school funding, meet with legislators, and work on labor orga-nizing campaigns.

locals 6192 and 1078

berkeley saves 20 jobs…Nearly 200 parents, children, staff, teachers, and government officials rallied at the Berkeley Unified district offices on August 5 after the school board authorized layoffs of preschool and child care staff.

Funding cuts proposed by the gov-ernor would have forced the closure of several early childhood programs that serve hundreds of children. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the Berkeley Classified Council of Employees rallied to shine a light on the victims, Berkeley children.

At the August 18 school board meeting, union members and parents successfully urged the board to save programs for low-income students. As a result 20 jobs were retained.

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local 61

uesf not waiting for superman…During screenings of the the con-troversial film Waiting for Superman, members of United Educators of San Francisco were out front, wearing vivid Super Teacher t-shirts.

They offered literature to audiences which explained, “You are about to watch a powerful film that will evoke strong emotions. Unfortunately, though heart-wrenching, this film offers a very limited view of the problems facing our schools.”

The leaflet listed questions for viewers to consider after seeing the movie, including, “Why didn’t the film show the successes of most of our public schools?” and, “What are you going to do to improve education for all?” The educators engaged audience members in conversations about innovative and successful programs in the city’s public schools through which the union has cooperated with the district to improve instruction for all students.

> Go to aft.org/notwaiting, for ideas and tools for discussion about how local unions are taking the lead in improving teaching and learning.

Berkeley Federation president Cathy Campbell leads a rally to save jobs.

Adrienne Zanini, an elementary teacher from the jefferson Elementary Federation of Teachers, Local 3267, was honored by the san Mateo County Labor Council for her 38 years of teaching and union activism. A long-time local presi-dent, she held many positions in her daly City-based union and sat on the labor council’s executive board.

Austin White, Valerie Sherer Mathes and Julia Bergman, members of san Francisco Community College Federation of Teachers, Local 2121, combined their talents to publish City College of San Francisco, part of the Campus history series by Arcadia Publish-ing. based on Austin’s re-search, historian Mathes and librarian bergman added stories and anecdotes. The book contains 204 photographs and images, most never seen before.

Aaron Braxton, a 14-year Los Ange-les teacher, member of United Teachers Los Angeles, Local 1021, and performer of a show called Did You Do Your Home-work? won in August the 2010 NAACP Theatre Award for best one-Man show. The show traces one substitute teacher’s journey through the bureaucracy of an inner-city school.

Dennis and Hene Kelly, career educators and union activist members of United Educators of san Francisco, Local 61, were honored by the san Francisco Central Labor Council on october 14 for their dedication to all things union. den-nis is now president of UEsF and a vice president of the AFT. hene is chair of the CFT retirement Committee and an elected member of the san Francisco County democratic Party Central Committee.