CFT delegates debated resolutions on issues important to the union and its vision at the 2025 CFT Convention in San Diego. Topics the Resolution Committees cover are education and finance; health care, retirement and benefits; professional issues in both higher education and EC/TK-12; and social and political issues.
The resolutions included increasing educator pay, safeguarding positions and human interaction in an age of artificial intelligence, and one on supporting general education and special education students.
Among the most important resolutions was one articulating CFT’s commitment to “Fight Back and Fight Forward” amidst the chaos being wrought by the federal government in this moment of cuts to the social safety net, to Social Security, to Medicaid, and to the Department of Education.
Delegates championed this statement of unwavering support for the most vulnerable members of our communities, for the students we teach and the education professionals we represent, and the closing lines of the resolution make a statement about who CFT is as a union: “Therefore, be it finally resolved that CFT will fight to take this season of chaos to build a movement with our fellow workers and create a season of resistance to reclaim our country and build a future for all.”
Delegates had a spirited debate about classroom sizes, special education funding and providing adequate resources to special ed teachers as they discussed Resolution 1: Supporting General Education and Special Education Students. Carl Williams, President of the Lawndale Classified Professionals immediately rose and was the first speaker in strong support of the resolution for smaller class sizes and more individualized support.
Marcella Chagolla stated that inclusion models aim to eliminate critical programs for special education students. “This is about the learning conditions of our students.” The crowd cheered Chagolla and she continued that the districts should be focused on class sizes, including having a focus on special education students, that are pedagogically sound for the students and manageable for the educators. Resolution 1 passed by a vote of the delegates.
Other resolutions also passed, including one called “Progressive Taxes for Public Education and Resistance to Trump.” This resolution calls for a substantial tax on the wealthy, asks the California Federation of Labor Unions, the national AFT, and other organizations to sign on, and also calls for a letter demanding the implementation of the tax to go out to state legislators, news outlets, and Governor Newsom.
Kelly Mayhew, AFT Guild 1931, went to the mic to support the resolution. “We know what happens when oligarchs take power,” she said, “and they need to be stopped.”
Universities are laboratories of democracy, said Jim Miller, also with AFT Guild 1931, and a tax on the rich is necessary to keep it that way. The resolution passed with no nays.
In response to Oakland’s Mills College closing and the school now being owned by Northeastern University, which is not in California, there was a resolution to support private colleges facing a merger.
Katie Rodger, AFT 1474, supported the resolution, saying the types of layoffs that happen after a merger are coming for the public sector too. People who weren’t delegates, but worked at private institutions spoke in support as well. It passed unanimously.
A resolution opposing efforts to privatize Social Security, also passed easily.
Doug Orr, chair of retirement policy with AFT 2121, said Social Security, since it was established in 1935, has been the single most efficient federal program with 99 cents of every dollar getting paid out. Without getting this money that they’ve paid into, seniors would be easier to exploit, Orr said, and if Elon Musk gets his way and privatizes the department, nothing will be left in 10 years.
“Without Social Security, over 45 percent of people over 65 would be living in poverty,” Orr told the delegates. “It’s a very effective system that makes people a little less afraid of becoming old.”
Miller and Mayhew, both of 1931, again came to the mic to support a resolution that would end tax breaks for fossil fuels.
Miller talked about a friend of his who lost everything he owned in the recent fires in Los Angeles. Ending these subsidies would raise tens of millions of dollars a year to pay for climate initiatives, he said.
Mayhew called the news “a daily gut punch.”
“The head of the EPA is outlining the most egregious agenda to destroy the environment and the species on the planet,” she said, adding that Texas and Alaska tax oil and gas corporations and our state should too.
The resolution passed unanimously.