Source:California Teachers Association News
Educators, Businesses Form Joint Effort to Fund and Improve Public Education in California
August 4, 2005
Sacramento - Members of the education and business communities have joined together today in a historic effort to address long-term solutions for improving school funding and the quality of education in California's public schools for all students.
The partners in this effort, including the California Teachers Association (CTA), the California Business Properties Association (CBPA), the California Correctional Peace Officer Association (CCPOA) and the Association for California School Administrators (ACSA), have agreed to a common set of principles that will guide an education agenda with concrete results.
"We are joining together to announce an historic new joint effort to address long-term solutions for improving the quality of education in California's public schools for all students," said Barbara E. Kerr, president of the CTA. "This effort was formed out of a common purpose to invest in California's schoolchildren today so that our state's economy and quality of life is secured well into the future. And with this new effort, we have decided that it's no longer necessary to pursue our campaign to place the Tax Fairness Act on the June ballot."
"A cooperative, collaborative effort is the right way to pursue long term solutions for public education and we are happy to join with the California Teachers Association and others in pursuit of this important goal," said Rex Hime, president of the CBPA.
"There's no better crime prevention program than a good job that a quality education makes possible, so we're behind this effort a hundred percent," said Mike Jimenez, president of CCPOA. "Providing adequate funding for our schools will help end the budget debate that pits education against public safety. It's a win for everybody."
"An educated workforce is crucial to California's economic health, and businesses understand the importance of effective schools and a high-quality education for our public school students," said Dorothy Rothrock, senior vice president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association. "That is why the business community has championed many education reform efforts over the years. We're convinced the best way to achieve meaningful reform and to ensure our students have the education and the tools they need to succeed is by having all interested parties at the table where we can openly discuss and consider reforms."
"Our united efforts to address equity and adequate school funding are critical to meeting the needs of all students in an increasingly competitive global market," added Henry Bietz, ACSA President.
Below are the group's general principles:
Funding Adequacy and Equity: We believe that ALL of California's students should have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. In order to achieve high standards of learning, funding must be adequate and distributed in a way that provides all students the opportunity to do their best. Equity is equally important to ensure that funds are distributed to schools based on the needs of the students in those schools, not solely on the wealth of the school district.
Educator Development and Compensation: We believe that investing in our state's educators is a solid investment in our students. The quality of teaching is an important ingredient in good student learning. All educators should be given opportunities to learn new skills so that they may keep up with the ever-changing needs of students in an increasingly competitive global market. We also believe that in order to retain the best and the brightest teachers and entire education workforce, educators must earn competitive salaries.
Assistance to "Low Performing" Schools: We believe that those schools that have been labeled low or underperforming should be given assistance, rather than sanctions. Often, these schools face greater challenges such as a majority of students from low-income families or who need language assistance. We know that parental and community involvement is critical to the success of students and their schools. We will work to develop strategies that include all stakeholders in improving public schools.
Accountability in School Funding: We remain committed to ensuring that maximum education funding is directed to student learning and focused in the classroom. Students should see the direct results of improved school funding in the form of updated textbooks, classroom computers and other materials and resources.
CTA drops ballot issue
Teachers union abandons its commercial property tax initiative and will join other groups to submit legislative proposals
By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee, August 5, 2005
The California Teachers Association on Thursday announced that it was dropping a $2 million-plus effort to qualify a June 2006 ballot measure to hike commercial property taxes to fund education.
The announcement by CTA President Barbara Kerr, in a news conference with business leaders who had opposed the measure, averted what was shaping up as a particularly bruising and costly ballot fight next year.
But instead of preparing for battle, an unlikely set of political bedfellows - teachers, prison guards, commercial property owners and manufacturers - announced they would work together to submit new proposals to the state Legislature to help fund California schools.
"We've agreed that we're going to talk about adequate and equitable funding for our schools, and we have agreed to work together to make that happen," Kerr said, flanked by representatives of the California Business Properties Association and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, two ardent opponents of the proposed measure.
The so-called "California Tax Fairness Act," backed by the teachers union and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, would have rolled back protections under Proposition 13 - the 1978 property tax limitation measure - for commercial property owners. The initiative would have required annual assessments for commercial properties, triggering increased property taxes.
Proponents claimed the measure - if passed by voters - would have generated an additional $2.8 billion in state revenues, of which about 50 percent would have gone to K-12 schools and community colleges.
Rex Hime, president of the Business Properties Association, said the measure could have cost California commercial businesses "tens and tens of millions of dollars" from tax increases and lost revenues. The business association had already raised more than $500,000 and spent more than $425,000 to fight the initiative, according to state campaign spending reports.
Both Hime and Kerr denied that any deal had been worked out between opposing sides in exchange for dropping the initiative.
"It doesn't signal anything other than we're here and we're going to talk together," Hime said.
Kerr said teachers and business groups, as well as the correctional officers association, will hold a series of meetings in "an historic new joint effort" to address long-term education funding solutions and issues such as teacher training and class size. Hime and Kerr said they hope the discussions will produce consensus for a legislative package on school funding - instead of another divisive ballot measure.
"I want to applaud the decision by the CTA not to submit ... this measure," Hime said.
"We believe this initiative would have severely damaged business, costing jobs and threatening our economy."
The teachers association had raised more than $2 million, and Kerr said more than 900,000 signatures had been collected to date for the commercial property tax ballot measure. Meanwhile, the correctional officers union contributed another $250,000.
But both employee groups are already financially stretched by this November's special election.
The teachers association and the Alliance for a Better California, a coalition of Democrats and public employee labor unions, have raised about $22 million to fight Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda.
The union groups are fighting Proposition 75, which would make it harder for public unions to use members' dues for political campaigns, as well as Proposition 76, which would give the governor broad powers to make spending cuts, and Proposition 74, which would make it harder for public school teachers to get tenure.
Source:Education Intelligence Agency
Union Members Pay $2.1 Million for Dropped CTA Initiative
Education Intelligence Agency
, August 9, 2005
Who benefits the most from teachers' unions? Depending on whom you ask, the answers will be the schools, the teachers, the members, the union officers, the Democrats, et al. But surprisingly, the true answer to that question is Fred Kimball.
Who is Fred Kimball? He's the president of Kimball Petition Management in California, and every night he must say a prayer for the continued existence of the California Teachers Association. CTA keeps paying Kimball's firm to go out and gather signatures for the same ballot initiative, which it then drops once the signatures are gathered.
For the second time in 16 months, CTA spent millions in member money for signatures on a petition to place a commercial property tax hike on the state ballot “this time for June 2006“ only to ditch the idea with a lame cover story.
CTA President Barbara Kerr appeared at a news conference with representatives of the California Business Properties Association (CBPA) and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, who were opponents of the tax initiative. Kerr said these associations would work with CTA to lobby for more school funding, making the ballot initiative unnecessary.
Leave aside for a moment the fact that CBPA represents, among others, a little company known as Wal-Mart.
In April 2004, CTA dropped the same initiative after spending $3.4 million to qualify it for the ballot -- $1 million of which came from NEA's ballot initiative fund to which every NEA member in the country contributes. Most of that money went to 13 signature-gathering firms, with Kimball receiving the most -- $741,000.
This time, CTA spent $2.1 million to gather signatures, plus the contributions of the correctional officers' union and others. Kimball ended up with $2.3 million. How much of this came from NEA is an impossible question to answer. NEA donated $2.5 million to CTA's initiative fund, and CTA paid for signatures out of the same fund. But CTA also has its campaign against the governor's initiatives and the paycheck protection measure, so it's all mixed together.
The end result is that NEA members in California and across the nation have spent $5.5 million for signatures on petitions which were then thrown in the trash (state law does not allow the signatures on ballot initiatives to be used for any other purpose). And the stated reasons for doing so were a) the ballot was too crowded; and b) the representative of the Big Box companies promised to lobby the legislature for more school money.
If CTA wants to cut deals with CBPA and redistribute teachers' dues money to Fred Kimball, that's its business. The rest of us, however, can now feel free to ignore union talking points on the evils of Wal-Mart and the shame of underpaid teachers.
Why did the teachers union drop its tax hike plan?
By Daniel Weintraub, Sacramento Bee Columnist, August 11, 2005
Until they walked into a Sacramento conference room a block from the Capitol last week, Barbara Kerr and Rex Hime had never met. But the pair - representing some of the most powerful education and business interests in the state - announced a deal that day that could shape the future of public education in California.
Kerr is president of the California Teachers Association, the 300,000-member union that has lobbied persistently to raise taxes and spend the money on schools. Hime is president of the California Business Properties Association, a coalition of business owners, mostly big ones, that has fought to keep taxes low.
Kerr and Hime disclosed Aug. 4 that their two organizations had reached a limited nonaggression pact, agreeing to work together rather than fight each other in what was expected to be a hugely expensive battle next June over whether to raise business property taxes.
The immediate result was that the teachers association dropped plans for a ballot initiative that would have required the reassessment of nonresidential commercial property every year, rather than only when ownership changes hands.
The measure would have raised an estimated $2.8 billion annually and given half of that to the schools and the rest to senior citizen property tax relief, transportation and public safety.
Kerr claimed that the CTA and the coalition backing the measure had sufficient signatures to qualify it for the ballot. She said the group's private polling showed that the measure was popular with the voters. Why, then, back away?
Kerr's stated reason was that the chance to unite with the business property owners on a mission to reform education and increase funding for schools was too good to pass up.
"We believe working with the business community and other groups to find long-term solutions makes the most sense," she told me in an interview. "I really do believe we can work something out."
The idea is to get business leaders and education leaders in a room and hammer out a deal that moves toward defining what it costs to provide an adequate education for every child in California, then finding a way to pay that tab. If these diverse interests can agree on a solution, the thinking goes, they can get Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature to go along. If not, they could join forces on a new ballot measure that could go to the voters some time next year.
"Everything is on the table," Kerr said. "We're not just doing this for the fun of it."
But while Kerr might believe her new business allies will eventually endorse a tax increase, Hime told me that he has no plans to do so at the moment.
"First, we are going to look at how we get the best bang for the existing bucks," he said. "By changing some of the directives, changing where the emphasis is put, providing some flexibility, the funding could be moved around and go to some of the targeted areas. Then we'll look at seeing if there is a need for additional dollars."
Despite the public statements by Kerr and Hime, few in the Capitol seemed to believe last week that their agreement was simply an agreement to talk, and no more. One possibility is that the business lobby agreed to consider backing a proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy, since another ballot initiative headed toward the June ballot will likely do that anyway, directing the money toward universal subsidized preschool.
The most common line of speculation, though, was that the deal included an undisclosed element involving the Nov. 8 special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It's no secret that the CTA and other public employee unions, including the prison guards, are apoplectic over Proposition 75, a measure that would make it harder for public employee unions to collect political money from their members through paycheck deductions. The labor coalition also strongly opposes Schwarzenegger's Proposition 76, which would limit spending growth and change the minimum funding guarantee for education.
Did the business groups, in exchange for ducking the property tax hike headed their way, agree to abandon the governor in November and stop contributing to his favored measures?
Absolutely not, Hime said.
"That's not part of the deal," he said. "We're not going to turn our backs on the governor."
That will be clear soon enough, as Schwarzenegger's campaign gears up after Labor Day. Some of the biggest members of Hime's coalition have been major donors to the governor's campaigns. If they suddenly stop contributing, they will be conspicuous in their absence.
Maybe the real explanation is also the simplest: The teachers association knew it was going to have to spend tens of millions of dollars to pass a property tax increase next year, and even with that, there were no guarantees. The union wanted to pour all of its resources instead into a campaign this fall to stop Schwarzenegger's agenda. And once they thought about dropping their tax measure, they figured they would bring in some business leaders to give them political cover.
Hime and company were happy to oblige.
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