CFT United

On January 16, the State Board of Education adopted emergency spending regulations for the supplemental and concentration grant funds that Local Educational Agencies (districts, county offices of education and some charter schools) will receive under the Local Control Funding Formula.

CalSTRS reports that its unfunded liability grows by $22 million every day that nothing is done. While most California public pension funds can raise annual employer rates when they need more money, CalSTRS requires legislation to raise rates.

UC-AFT

Putting union passion to work. . . New UC-AFT Executive Director Amy Hines brings a passion for labor to the University Council. For the past several years she worked as an organizer for the California School Employees Association and coordinated the work of 10 labor relations professionals representing 14,000 classified employees in more than 125 districts. 
Hines has worked in unions since 2003, including UAW Local 2322, SEIU Local 1000, and AFSCME Local 3299. Proudly, she said, “I am honored to have been welcomed in all nine UC-AFT locals within my first three months working here.”

The CFT has established the Retiree Organizing Committee to help local unions take advantage of the experience, skills and commitment of retired union members.

The goal of this new standing committee is to organize AFT retiree chapters around the state so that retirees may continue to contribute to their unions — and have opportunities to connect with former colleagues.

Union-sponsored legislation inspired by labor-community vision

The CFT has launched an ambitious legislative initiative for K-12 schools called Healthy Kids, Healthy Minds, which is embodied in the new union-sponsored bill, AB 1955, carried by Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, a pediatrician with a track record of improving health in local neighborhoods.

Public school educators face a new threat in the form of the Vergara v. California lawsuit, which aims to declare unconstitutional five provisions of the Education Code that ensure seniority, due process and other rights for K-12 teachers.

Watts was still smoldering from the riots in 1965 when Kedren Head Start began serving local families. Today, about 350 Kedren employees care for more than 2,100 children at 32 sites from South Los Angeles and Koreatown to the Eastside.

“All of us work in low-income, dangerous areas,” said Margaret Garcia, a family service advocate at one of Kedren’s multiple Watts facilities. An undercurrent of violence runs through the neighborhoods.

City College of San Francisco started 2014 with some much-needed good news. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow ruled that the school’s accreditation cannot be revoked until a trial determines whether the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, or ACCJC, acted unlawfully in sanctioning the college. Karnow said in his ruling that closing the college would be “catastrophic.”

In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the controversial Assembly Bill 955, which allows six colleges to charge students out-of-state rates for high-demand classes, such as English and algebra, during the winter and summer sessions. This means about $200 a unit, as compared to the current $46.

Nothing better illustrates the theme of this fall’s Classified Conference, “Celebrating Our Role in Quality Education,” than the staff who go above and beyond the call of duty. 
The honorees were nominated by their unions and selected as Members of the Year because they are positive role models for workers and students, contribute to the success of the local, and are committed advocates of high-quality education.

Under the LCFF, the governing boards of districts, county offices of education and charter schools, known as Local Education Agencies, are required to adopt a Local Control Accountability Plan every three years starting in July 2014.