Despite fairly desperate times for public education, the CFT convention in Los Angeles over the March 19-21 weekend more than met expectations. In the words of one delegate, “I’ve never been to a CFT convention before.  I’ll definitely be coming back.”

The reasons were not hard to find.  All the five hundred delegates at the 68^th annual CFT convention needed to do was to look straight ahead at the screens flanking the stage.  In between camera shots of the speakers or pages of resolutions during the floor debates, the “Fighting for California’s Future” logo reminded everyone of the necessity to preserve public education against the horrific assaults being leveled by the governor and Legislature. And the convention offered hope and possible blueprints on how to be successful in that work.

The main work of the convention took place on the convention floor, where delegates argued and voted on dozens of resolutions to shape union policy over the coming year.  But workshops, videos, speeches and award ceremonies played their part in making the 68^th convention a memorable one.

March for California’s Future:  ray of light

Within the bad news about continuous budget deficits in the billions, and the obstacles to setting the state back on the right track, was a ray of light:  the March for California’s Future, with seven people, including five CFT members, making its slow way on foot through the Central Valley to Sacramento.  Its three themes—restore the promise of public education; government and economy that work for all; and fair taxes to fund California’s future—formed the outlines of a solution to this sea of troubles.

A couple of short videos on the march and its historic antecedent, the United Farm Workers march in 1966, brought the experiences of the seven core walkers before the convention.  In addition, a live video feed provided some real time connections to Jim Miller, Jenn Laskin, Gavin Riley and David Lyell, AFT members who briefly spoke from the road to the delegates, who gave them a standing ovation for their sacrifice and dedication to the cause of full funding for education and all social services.

Lyell, a substitute teacher and UTLA member, drew a laugh by putting his bare feet in front of the camera and noting proudly that after nearly a hundred miles he still has no blisters.  The marchers—along with fiery plenary speaker, AFSCME Political Action Director Willie Pelote—urged the delegates to turn out in force on April 21 in Sacramento for the conclusion of the march.

Star power

A battery of speakers brought some star power to the convention. Oregon legislator Michael Dembrow, a former AFT community college local president, told the delegates that the recent passage of ballot measures in his state raising tax rates on the richest Oregonians and corporations in order to prevent the gutting of public education and other services offered lessons for California. “If we can do it, you can do it too,” he said to cheers.

Senator Barbara Boxer received an ovation when she promised the full house of CFT members that she would do everything she could to make sure that the reauthorization of the ESEA would not contain the worst features of No Child Left Behind.

CFT president Marty Hittelman delivered his State of the Union address to a standing ovation.  He addressed the sorry state of state funding for public education and vital community services, analyzed the reasons why, and spoke forcefully about the need to engage in the fight for California’s future campaign.  He critiqued the “Race to the top” initiative of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, noting sharply that there were too many continuities between Bush and Obama administration views on public education:  “We have been slow in coming to the realization that President Obama seems determined to undermine confidence in the ability of teachers (and their unions) to work to the benefit of their students with his focused attack on "bad teachers"—rather than focusing his plan on improving the school climates that would actually help students learn and grow as human beings.”

Policies

The most spirited floor debate broke out over a resolution on the California Democracy Act, a proposed ballot measure in circulation for signatures that calls for majority vote on both taxes and budget in the state Legislature.  After prolonged discussion, the delegates decided to support urging members to sign the petitions, and have CFT endorse the measure if it reached the ballot. But there were intense arguments over many of the dozens of resolutions heard on the floor.  Click here for a complete set of passed resolutions (PDF).

Awards

The CFT bestowed several awards on members and friends of the CFT.  Legislator of the Year went to Julia Brownley (receiving the award from president Hittelman), who expressed her appreciation that the previous year the union withheld the award due to the legislature’s failure to find an alternative to massive state budget cuts.  The Ben Rust Award landed on the shoulders of Mark Newton, San Jose Evergreen Community College instructor, founding president of that local.

Running as a theme throughout the convention was support for the Budget Majority Act, in process of circulation en route to the November Ballot.  The Act would restore democracy in the state Legislature by reducing the two-thirds supermajority required to pass a budget to simple majority.  It would address the legislative gridlock in Sacramento by giving the majority the power to pass a state budget on time and without a minority of anti-education, anti-labor legislators holding up the process and extracting non-budget related concessions that they would not be able to achieve through the normal legislative process.

The delegates saw video footage of the core marchers circulating petitions for signature in the central valley.  They also signed petitions at a table staffed by CFT political staff Ken Burt and Jim Araby, and took stacks of the petitions with them from the convention.

Workshops on education and union topics gave delegates insight into those issues, and numerous evening receptions and parties provided some down time and space to get to know one another off the convention floor.  In all, the convention provided CFT members with some momentary shelter from the social and economic storms besetting their everyday work lives, and during its three days, demonstrated the truth of CFT president Hittelman’s conclusion to his State of the Union speech:  “We, in the union movement, are the major force in the creation of a civilized society.”

Communications Awards