CFT United
CFT United
CFT United, previously named California Teacher, is the union’s flagship magazine that is emailed to all union members. The award-winning digital magazine contains union news important to members, and covers major issues in each division of the CFT: PreK-12, Classified, Community College, University, and Retired. Browse stories by date here or by index.
CFT United is published regularly during the academic year. We welcome unsolicited articles, letters, and story ideas. Please send letters, submissions, or other inquiries to Communications Director Matthew Hardy: mhardy@cft.org
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The pandemic — reopening, regrouping, testing and protecting
K-12 locals put safety first, find communities on their side
The week after Thanksgiving, Mariah Fisher, president of the Novato Federation of Teachers and a middle school drama teacher, said she was ready to go back to in-person teaching, starting that week. She had marked off six feet of space between all the desks and she was preparing to teach acting to students wearing masks.
Paul da Silva became the candidate he wanted to see
First teacher elected to College of Marin Board of Trustees
For years, Paul da Silva, a biology teacher at the College of Marin and a member of United Professors of Marin, Local 1610, wondered about the lack of teachers on the college’s Board of Trustees and tried to talk retiring professors into running. No one took him up on it.
So when he decided in the summer of 2019 that he would retire, he concluded, to paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, he’d have to be the candidate he wished to see in the world.
A First Lady who is a community college teacher
President-elect supports two years of free community college
Dr. Jill Biden, a community college teacher, union member, and soon to be First Lady, spoke virtually to members of the AFT and the National Education Association, thanking them for all the phone banking, text messaging, voter registration drives and poll work they did to get her husband, Joe Biden, elected. AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Becky Pringle introduced her.
What I did to help win in Election 2020
Five retirees recount their extraordinary efforts
CFT retirees have broad-ranging interests and community relationships — and a lot of collective power. That is reflected in these five first-person accounts from very connected and active retirees.
Dark times bring out our best selves
By Jeffery M. Freitas, CFT President
What a year it has been. In March, as the coronavirus hit and “shelter in place” orders were issued, CFT leaders immediately started communicating with members about the situation. We held online meetings, shared resources on our website, and hosted a CFT Member Townhall that 11,000 members joined.
California governor and major media endorse Prop 15
Corporate tax reform garners deserved support
As we inch closer to the General Election, Proposition 15, also known as School and Communities First, is gaining momentum amongst voters, in part boosted by a wave of critical endorsements.
Governor signs union-sponsored Student Borrower Bill of Rights
Sweeping legislation to protect student loan borrowers
Governor Newsom signed CFT co-sponsored AB 376, the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, on Friday, September 25. This critical piece of legislation will bring much-needed reforms to the student loan market and regulate the private sector companies that service both federal and private student loans for California borrowers.
Unions are the anchor during a perfect storm
Locals navigate pandemic, reopening, wildfires, elections, social unrest
Facing the threats of COVID-19 and wildfires, local unions and districts across California are trying to figure out how school will look this semester.
Orange County was one of the first to push for in-person instruction after it had been prohibited based on the county monitoring list. At the beginning of the summer, the members in the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers were pretty much evenly divided about that.
Q&A with Carl Williams: First classified AFT vice president from California
“We are essential and this work cannot be done without us”
On September 1, Carl Williams was elected to join 39 other AFT Vice Presidents from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Williams joins two other vice presidents from California, a group that has included former CFT Presidents Mary Bergan and Joshua Pechthalt over the years, and now current President Jeff Freitas.
Facing most difficult conditions in decades, unions meet the moment
Organizing for equity at work, home, and in communities
Strong organizing has meant workplace gains and more political power for faculty during the pandemic, with members showing up in larger than ever numbers to virtual bargaining sessions and meetings.
New working groups align UC-AFT with nationwide racial justice efforts
Hardship fund helps members in need due to pandemic, wildfires
By Mia McIver, UC-AFT President
Contingent teaching faculty and librarians at the University of California recently voted to create three new working groups to combat racism and support each other with mutual aid. With the firm conviction that Black Lives Matter, UC-AFT members aim to align our union’s efforts with those of activists fighting for racial justice nationwide.
Retirees mobilize for most important election in their lives
The threat to our social norms is “mind boggling”
Every senior has a long personal view of U.S. history, but nearly all would agree that this presidential election will be the most important ballot they cast in their lives. The prospect of Donald Trump in the White House for four more years has ratcheted up emotions.
“The threat to our Constitution, to our institutions, and to our social norms is mind boggling,” said Dennis Cox of the CFT Council of Retired Members.
Unions step up to help wildfire evacuees
Wildfires threaten member homes and lives
Fires in California, many started by lightning, have burned a little more than a million acres, and scores of people have lost homes and thousands more have been forced to evacuate, including CFT members. The fires, some of the largest in the state’s history are burning in areas including Lake, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo counties.
“Let’s have our voices count!” urge CFT Black leaders
Avalanche of protests call for racial justice following murder of George Floyd
For days, hundreds of thousands of people have filled the streets of 160 cities across the country, even during the coronavirus pandemic, expressing their outrage and grief at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Two Black leaders of the CFT, with long histories of fighting for racial equity, say they could not help being profoundly moved by the murder itself, and the outpouring of rage in response.
Social worker’s outreach during pandemic leads to district-wide change
“We’re not just trying to teach — we’re in the in business of love and care…”
Leslie Hu, a social worker at San Francisco’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, thinks that during a global pandemic, when many students are seeing their communities directly affected, isn’t the time for business as usual.
Tightrope Walkers: Teaching and parenting at the same time
Faculty parents share stories of teaching from home during shelter-in-place
By Katharine Harer, San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1493
You’re teaching all your classes online, providing support to freaked-out students and dealing with a flood of emails every day, while at the same time, and often in the same room, hour after hour, your children need you to be present and available. You can’t send them to school or childcare or to the grandparents or to play at their friends’ houses. You can’t send them anywhere. Will lack of sleep, personal space and time make you trip and fall, and if so, who will catch you?
Now – yes, now – is the time for contingent faculty to organize
If we don’t fight now, we may not get another chance
By Josh Brahinsky and Roxi Power, UC-AFT Santa Cruz
When graduate-student workers at the University of California at Santa Cruz voted overwhelmingly in December to reject their statewide union contract and follow the West Virginia teachers’ model of a wildcat strike, the precarious lives of academic workers became a news story once again.
Dedication to students helps teachers make huge shift online with grace, diligence
Distance learning demands hard work, extra hours — and good internet
Since schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and instruction moved online, Jessica Hoffschneider, a resource special education teacher at Soquel High, has been busy. A site representative for the Greater Santa Cruz Federation of Teachers, she spends her days trying her best to help her students with mild to moderate disabilities.
Tech support powers online classrooms behind the scenes
Classified employees make the connections and keep them strong
Computer geeks have been on the front lines of online learning since March, when school and college districts across urban and rural California closed to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tech staff are the essential employees who are turning digital classrooms from a pipedream into a working educational system.
College instructors rise to distance learning challenge
Extra hours, perseverance, union support assist in transition
Palomar College child development teacher Barbara Hammons definitely found the idea of distance teaching a challenge. For years, she and her department chair had a running joke – if she ever wanted to get rid of her, no need to fire her, just give her an online class.
Retired unionists go digital during the pandemic
Seniors getting comfortable online and learning new organizing tricks
It is 12 noon on Friday and the California Alliance of Retired Americans is ready to Zoom. Scores of CARA members from San Diego to San Francisco are gathered around home computers, ready for the next best thing to an in-person meeting.
Tips for seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic
How one retiree chapter is supporting seniors during stay at home
By Susan Morgan, President, AFT Local 1931 Retiree Chapter
As a retiree chapter, one of our current challenges is to find new ways to stay connected, be supportive, and sustain our esprit de corps. The current pandemic has increased challenges for retirees, many of whom were already dealing with the social challenges of isolation and loneliness. These newly heightened mental health concerns are real, and our task is to find meaningful ways to connect with our members to support our common union values and goals.
Paraeducator steps up, makes face shields for medical workers
Gilroy family applies 3-D printing skills from campus STEAM lab
By Arti O’Connor, President, Gilroy Federation of Paraeducators
Diana Torres, a paraeducator in the Gilroy Unified School District, has been instrumental in establishing the STEAM lab and program at Las Animas Elementary School. I met her several months ago and was extremely impressed when she showed me the lab — with a 3-D printer — that she uses to teach students about that form of technology.
Uncertainty surrounds education budget for coming year
The one known — coronavirus has blown a giant hole in the state budget
The governor and the Legislature know the COVID-19 pandemic has blown a huge hole in the state budget, but they can’t easily project state revenues or the impact on Proposition 98 — the mechanism that provides K-12 schools and community colleges about 40 percent of the state’s General Fund.