What happened to the CFT tax initiative?????

Gov. Jerry Brown

There are new developments in the number of tax initiatives that could be on the November state ballot in California. Governor Brown has come to an agreement with the California Federation of Teachers leadership on a tax initiative compromise to ensure that there will be only two competing tax initiatives on the ballot in November.  I was on a conference call as part of the CFT Executive Council to make a formal vote on the initiative compromise with Governor Brown for a future rewritten tax initiative. I will be honest and say that the decision to drop the Millionaires Tax was not an easy decision for the CFT Executive Board; however, I fully support the decision to move forward on a compromise initiative for reasons I will state below.

As part of that board I have stated locally throughout the last six months the need for clarity and discussion of CFT's desired political outcomes and possible exit strategies were crucial to gauging the success of the CFT initiative venture. I believe that the willingness and opportunity to work with the Governor for a tax compromise was just one of those initial possible outcomes.

The CFT in the Spring of 2011 reached out to the CTA (California Teachers Association) to work collaboratively on a tax initiative but the CTA were reluctant to work with

CFT President Josh Pechthalt

the CFT on any possible legislation. The newly elected CFT leadership of President Josh Pechthalt and Secretary Treasurer Jeff Freitas who were elected in March 2011 were left in the lurch with a desire to help education and crucial public services. Determined to not be shut out of the political process at such a critical moment in the educational/State history the CFT Executive Leadership decided to both support and research a tax initiative that would truly impact the critical education and public services and would NOT be used for the California General Fund. Regardless of the fact that the Millionaires' Tax polled exceedingly well it still did not gain the favor of other larger labor organizations who felt it was better to throw in with the Governor to protect their political capitol. Furthermore, the CFT Leadership found itself increasingly being attacked for having a separate tax initiative by the press and the CTA. To complicate matters CFT also faced a two front war by having to compete with the robustly funded thirty million dollar Munger tax initiative. Things were beginning to look like they resembled Sparta in the movie 300.

Like the little engine that could the CFT Leadership determinately moved forward and many of us were very hopeful of the growing interest in the Millionaires Tax. What to do? It was a hopeful moment for the CFT leadership when the Governor visited CFT President Josh Pechthalt at his home last month, the CFT had gained the political respect it deserved and with respect comes political capitol. It became aparent that a deal could be reached with dignity and CFT will gain political traction in a time where the policies of education in the state are dominated by the vast political machinery of CTA.

For some local union leaders and their members  the tax compromise came as a shock and has caused some unintended outcomes among members throughout California; however, they cannot deny that there were some serious concerns about the sustainability of the Millionaires Tax Innative Campaign. I will leave it to you to decide on the success of the compromise and if it was the right move. In my opinion I do see it as a success. There will be fewer taxes on those who cannot afford a sales tax increase, the bill will now generate a million more each year, and the length of the tax has been increased by two years over the previous version of the Governor's plan.

Tayna Golden a member of the ABCFT negotiating team and teacher at Carver Elementary has been the ABCFT point person on the California Federation of Teachers Millionaires Tax. The following is her report on an informational telephone conference yesterday.
She writes:

"Just listened to a conference call that explained a changed in the governor's initiative, which in turn has changed our initiative. The governor has reached an agreement with Courage Campaign (us) to rewrite his plan. The agreement means we drop ours and back his. Here are a few highlights of his new initiative;

1/4 cent sales tax (was 1/2) lasting 4 years, (was 7 years)
3% tax after $250k single/$500k couples lasting 7 years (was 2% after $250k)
Estimated to raise 9 billion annually.
No specific earmarks for educations, however, lawmakers claiming they will fund CSU and UC system so tuition fees are flat.
No specific reference to K-12 education, but the purpose of the initiative is to raise $$ for education.

 We were making strides in signature collecting, but lacked the ability to refute any challenges that were coming from the opposition.

So, what does this mean for us? Our initiative is still active. However, if the governor makes the promised modifications ours is dead. I suggest we put our efforts on hold until we get a clearer idea of how to proceed."

The ABCFT will keep you informed on the latest initiatives in the future. The link below is a newspaper article that has a few more details about the initiative compromise.

www.ocregister.com/news/tax-344629-plan-governor.html


In Solidarity,

Ray Gaer
President, ABC Federation of Teachers
CFT Vice President

I need a laugh...

Thanks Dawn for the picture! LOL

Mitt Rommey Message!

National Day of Action against Verizon

Thursday, March 22 1:00-3:00PM

Verizon Building

3965 Clark Avenue Long Beach, CA 90808

Contact: Glen Arnodo (213) 381-5611 x126

Last August, 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike, and they still don’t have a contract. Verizon continues to promote outsourcing and eliminating jobs while paying top corporate executives hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thursday, March 22 is a National Day of Action Against Verizon.

We will join Verizon workers in cities across the U.S. to save American middle-class jobs and stop Verizon's corporate greed!

Stand with Verizon workers and join us!CWA

CWA

www.StopVerizonGreed.org

_______________________________________________________________________________

In December, Pomona College fired 16 immigrant dining hall workers who were trying to form a union.

Save the Date!

In honor of Cesar Chavez Day, join us at Pomona College for a

Banquet in the Streets

Friday, March 30, 2012 at 12pm

Pomona College at the corner of 6th and College in Claremont, California

RSVP: Sylvia Carranza (213) 381-5611 x128 scarranza@launionaflcio.org

Sponsored by: Unite Here Local 11 Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1428 Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys Pomona Habla Latino Student Alliance CLUE-LA Pax Christi

Learning lessons from a father's pride in his son

Here is an Los Angeles Times article written about one of our very own in ABC. Congratulations to Patrick Gordon, a teacher at Gahr High School and the 2012 winner of the JaimeEscalante Advanced Placement Award. With the many attacks on teachers these days it was refreshing to hear Patrick's story. In a time where many of the day to day duties of teaching are scripted it was important that they quoted Patrick stating that, "There's no one teaching approach that works." 

A thanks to all teachers, who like Patrick toil day to day for their students' futures.

Article is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0304-lopez-teacher-20120304,0,4374764.column

In Solidarity,

Ray Gaer
President, ABC Federation of Teachers
Local #2317

ABC makes it look easy....HOW?

What is going on behind the curtain in ABC? Why does ABC make it look so easy?

I had a conversation today and someone made the comment that there is more than meets the eye in ABC. This person got to see the preparation going on behind the curtain and she was flabbergasted to suddenly realize how complicated the budget dance has become over the last five years. The union and district partnership has made all of the budget decisions and the impact of 30 million dollars over the last 4 years in budget cuts seem.....not so bad. I often wonder if the community aware of all the changes and sacrifices going on behind the scenes by both the unions and administrators? I just don't know.

I have been involved with education for 16 years and I have never seen so few people do so much for students and community. I do see that --

Administrators are drowning in testing expectations, shrinking school site budgets, cut programs, higher class sizes, fewer teachers to get the job done, organizing fundraiser after fundraiser to shore up against bigger and bigger budget cuts ...etc

Teachers are treading water as they have larger classes, fewer resources, continual testing demands, continuing trainings and state requirements to keep a credential, public character assignation's by those who will gut/cripple public education for their own profit and gain, pension attacks, salary cuts, and greater and greater expectations from the public during the worst recession in 60 years.

How do we make it look so easy?

The simple answer is communication, but the complex answer is a network of communication much like the many anchoring strings of a spiders web. In most places a school board meeting is an unknown, full of surprises and tense situations that leave the observer to wonder if there is any sense of unity on the school board or in the school district. What makes ABC different from all other districts is they way labor and management do business on a daily basis behind the scenes constantly communicating in an effort to create winners on both sides. For example, the local school site union representatives meet on a monthly basis with their principals to work on the school issues or concerns together and when there are no contract concerns they collaborate on a deeper level then your typical union labor relationship. Both parties use these "standing meetings" to work on creating a better school site that will address the ever changing needs of the student populations. This is VERY typical in ABC, working together, seeking solutions at the ground level of education in the schools and neighborhoods our district in collaboration with the community. Sadly this is not the "norm" for other school districts.

 ABC is also different because the observer often hears a universal message that shows an understanding at all levels in our school district. There are few surprises at ABC School Board meetings because of all the countless hours of preparation and communication between ALL STAKEHOLDERS prior to the meeting. A universal message is much easier to digest than a crazy multi-headed hydra of opinions that you get watching other districts' school board meetings. I think ABC makes it look easy and maybe that's why there are so few people at the school board meetings. When people know that they don't have to worry about what is happening at the schools where their children are being taught they can focus on other aspects of their life that satisfy their needs.

ABC makes it look so easy...

....and there lies the problem in ABC right now. How do we gain the attention of the parents and community during the most crucial time in our recent history. Our public schools cannot sustain the amount of improvement and quality of services without the help of the tax payers. I hear myself saying more often that "we are a victim of our success" and that we are struggling on how to engage the community so that we can gain support for schools on a Local, State and National level. Schools are not like a business where you file chapter 11 and you close up the store. Schools will continue to function but with fewer and fewer victories for students if WE as a community do not get involved in the future of public education.

Albert Shanker, one of the founding voices of the American Federation of Teachers had a vast vision about what a teacher union should represent and how it should work in junction with the community to create better schools. At the time of his tenure as AFT National President, Unions were focused on mainly "bread and butter issues" that only concerned the needs and wants of their union members. Shanker thought that the American Federation of teachers needed to be embedded in the community because without the support of the community there was little to shield public education from corporations and idividuals who would dismantale public education for profit. Sadly, this was the demise of many other unions in America. Shanker stated in his New York Times column in 1970 that "Now is the time to...bring together parent, teacher, supervisors, and community boards to work out plans and programs for change in our schools."  Today many of our school districts are loosely embedded in the community in a time where public education needs the full support of the community. Without the support of the communities we serve, public education as we've we know it will be dismantled in a deregulation profit grab of tax payers money. We need to save education for our future generations and preserve the one unifying institution that shapes all americans. Solidarity is key.

The ABC Federation of Teachers is having a general meeting on the budget, March 6th 3:30 at Artesia High School in Lakewood. This meeting will be attended by teachers in the ABC School District; however, I would like to give an open invitation to any member of the community who may want to know more about the state of the budget in California and its impact on ABC. Hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Ray Gaer
President, ABC Federation of Teachers

A message from Carol Kocivar, CA. PTA President

A note in the monthly publication from the California PTA organization from Carol Kocivar the California PTA President. The full magazine and articles found at www.capta.org

She states in her thank you letter:
" I appreciate their (teachers) work. We are living in a world where teachers have many more students in their classes and less support to help them. And while they are helping out children learn to read and comforting a struggling child, the political "noise" somehow blames our teacher for the havoc caused by massive budget cuts to education.


Our teachers have furlough days and less support to improve their practice. Yet, during this Great Recession, they are held accountable as if they live in Lake Wobegon, where 'all the children are above average'


I don't want to live in a world of 'us' versus 'them.' I want to live in a world of 'us' - a world where 'we' can work together."


I echo her sentiment and I am thankful for the cooperation we share in ABC where we don't let our each other fail in the name of solidarity for the students and community.

In Solidarity,

Ray