• 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

Text of Mary Bergan's speech at May 25 demonstration in Los Angeles:

Hello. What a beautiful crowd! I’m proud to stand before you as someone the governor calls “a special interest.” As president of the California Federation of Teachers, I can tell you that neither I nor my members are special interests. We’re just educators who try hard in a very under-funded public education system to get our jobs done. But while we’re not special interests, we do have a special interest: students are our special interest.

Up until just six months ago Arnold Schwarzenegger thought he had the script for his new movie, which he prematurely titled “The King of California.” Well, we don’t have kings here. Last I checked, this is a democracy. Democracy is about the will of the people. And as we can see by looking around us, the people are speaking now, loudly and clearly.

A lot of folks who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger thought they were getting someone who told the truth, and who couldn’t be bought. They thought they were getting someone with new ideas about government and making California a better place to live.

Instead, it turns out they elected a guy who doesn’t know how to govern in a representative democracy. He thinks it’s OK to hold costly, wasteful elections whenever you can’t convince the legislature that your half-baked ideas should become law. Is that right?

It turns out they elected someone who doesn’t feel compelled to tell the truth. Last year he borrowed two billion dollars from public education with a promise to pay it back as soon as the money was available. The money became available this year. Then he broke his promise. Meanwhile California has sunk to 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding—44th and falling. Is that right?

It also turns out they elected someone in great need of remedial education about who and what “special interests” are. He calls teachers, nurses, firefighters and their unions “special interests.” Meanwhile, he spends more time fundraising with his fat cat corporate friends than governing. He was out of the state doing that just this week. 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.

Arnold and his corporate and right wing friends say, “Let’s shred public employee pensions, and make public servants eat cat food when they retire.” We say, “No way.” They say, “Let’s punish new teachers by making them spend five years during which they can be fired with no reason at all, with no right of due process.” We say, “No way.” They say, “Let’s shrink public education, public health, and public safety.” Arnold says, “Starve the monster.” We say, “No way.”

Now the people of California can see whom they elected, and more and more of them don’t like what they see. First, we came out by the dozens to picket his fundraisers. Arnold started to duck in side doors. Then we came out by the hundreds. Arnold started to duck in back doors. Now we’re coming out by the thousands, and next, we’re going to shove him right out the front door.