• Education Agenda 2005 (pdf)
• Governor's STRS/PERS "reform" a bad idea
• Fixing the health care crisis after Prop 72
• What CFT members can do about the state budget crisis
• California Budget Project
• California Tax Reform Association
• Contact your state Senator
• Contact your state Assemblymember

CFT president Mary Bergan speaks before thousands of public employees and their friends on May 25.

Teachers, school support personnel, nurses, firefighters, other public employees and the unions that represent them converged on Sacramento, Los Angeles, and other spots around the state May 25 to show the governor and the people of California that his "special interests" are not California's interests.

The gathering in Los Angeles, called by the Alliance for a Better California, contained eight to ten thousand people, united in their resolve to stop the governor's assault on their pensions, on public education funding, and on the standard of living for working people in the state. CFT President Mary Bergan spoke on behalf of CFT. Referring to the governor's recent fund-raising trips outside the state, she told the enthusiastic crowd that "He said he couldn’t be bought. Well, he’s doing a pretty good job impersonating somebody who not only can be bought, but has been, over and over again."

Marty Hittelman, president of the CFT's Community College Council, also spoke at the Pershing Square rally in Los Angeles. He drew a big cheer when he said, "The billion dollars being spent every four days in Iraq could be used to eliminate all fees for public colleges and universities in the United States, or to address the health care crisis, or to address any number of other social needs."

While the ABC Federation of Teachers held its own well-attended local event south of Los Angeles, ABC members and elementary teachers Dana Lindsay and Rachel Santos chose to journey to the Pershing Square event. As a result, they were interviewed by a TV news team and stood on stage for a while behind the speakers, helping to provide a backdrop of the "special interests" the governor rails about, along with nurses, firefighters, and other public workers.

The rally in Sacramento was even bigger than the one in Los Angeles, with estimates from reliable sources of well over ten thousand people showing up to bake beneath the central valley sun. Ed Murray of AFT Local 2121 in the San Francisco Community College District said, "At a certain point, around 5:15, you simply couldn't move anymore. There was no where to go. It was all people." CFT was represented on the speaker's platform by CFT vice-presidents Gary Ravani, of the Petaluma Federation of Teachers, and Dennis Smith, of the Los Rios College Federation.

Meanwhile, in Morgan Hill, near San Jose, AFT Local 2022 joined with SEIU and other local public employee organizations for another successful local event that received extensive media coverage in the San Jose metropolitan area.

The purpose of the Action Day was to focus public attention on the damage—if Governor Arnold Schwazenegger's ill-conceived and dangerous proposals become law—to public education, to the programs provided to the people of California by state government, and to the retirement security of all public employees. The governor's ballot initiatives represent attacks on teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, and other public employees. Ultimately that means these are attacks on the people of California.

With enormous news coverage, and the great feeling that comes when a movement is building momentum, Action Day exceeded expectations. The governor, despite his disclaimers, was put on notice that his half-baked schemes will not be allowed to divert attention from his broken promise to public education. His war on educators and health care providers and public safety workers has boomeranged, and will continue to drag down his popularity along with his agenda.

• Click here for the text of Bergan's speech
• Click here for Marty Hittelman's speech
• and here for Dennis Smith's

Organizational members of the Alliance for a Better California, besides CFT, include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), California Faculty Association (CFA), California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO (CLF), California Professional Firefighters (CPF), California School Employees Association (CSEA), California Teachers Association (CTA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and SEIU Local 1000.