The work of an education union does not begin and end at the bargaining table. Educators' ability to speak their minds freely depends on laws spelling out the rights implied by the term "academic freedom." Part-time community college instructors might be able to negotiate for paid office hours in one district, but not in another.

The ability of classified employees to work enough hours to qualify for health care or retirement benefits may depend on statewide laws if a local school district administration is unable or unwilling to provide those hours. And the enemies of public education have always attempted to undermine us through legislative action.

CFT members are often called on to discuss and pass resolutions dealing with policy matters in their local, and at the annual statewide CFT Convention. Some resolutions become legislative proposals. What moves these proposals before the Legislature and turns them into law?

The CFT maintains a lobbying office in Sacramento in order to bring the perspective of the classroom into the legislature. Our three full-time lobbyist make sure legislators hear  from K-12 teachers, classified employees, community college instructors, adult educators and University of California lecturers and librarians on the issues that concern us. It matters to legislators when CFT lobbyists talk with them, because lawmakers know they represent the collective voice of more than 75,000 educators across the state. And that voice is multiplied still further, since the CFT, affiliated with the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, also brings the weight of the organized labor movement to bear in its lobbying efforts.

With term limits, legislators often are just becoming conversant with educational issues when they are termed out. The role of the CFT as institutional memory in the Capitol is critical for helping lawmakers and their staff to understand what is important and what isn't, what works and what doesn't in public education, based on the actual accumulated experiences of educators.

CFT legislative advocates also work closely with the Training and Communications departments to give local activists and officers the tools to make effective presentations in their home legislative offices.

In addition, CFT works with our national union to involve members in AFT's Activists for Congressional Education (ACE) program to inform members of Congress, who act on federal legislation affecting public education.