Newsroom
Proposition 25 passes
CFT-backed candidates elected
CFT members are heartened as their endorsed candidates for statewide office all came in winners on November 2, and Proposition 25 made it across the finish line with a substantial and game-changing victory for democracy in the state budget process.
What we need today is some… Talking Blues
An activist's poem from the CFT President
By Marty Hittelman
I was up in Sacramento and all that I heard
was that unions were the problem with the evil they stirred
they were looking for Superman to make things right
“firing teachers will make kids bright”
Reduce funding, increase competition, teach kids to fill in the
bubbles.
The March for California’s Future: We walked the valley with a message of hope and justice
A capsule summary: 365 miles, 48 days, rallying from town to town
In the CFT-organized March for California’s Future, six “core marchers” walked 365 miles from Bakersfield to Sacramento over the course of 48 days. Putting their lives on hold, they braved the elements, sleeping in churches, schools, and RV parks.
Throughout California’s great Central Valley — home to people who work the fields as well as legislators elected in small towns who demand budget cuts and oppose tax increases — the marchers talked to people and listened to personal stories of economic hardship.
The March for California’s Future
Start of the next step in the Fight for California’s Future
April 21, 2010, Sacramento—With a huge, boisterous crowd estimated at 7500 joining feet with the six core marchers who walked more than 300 miles from Bakersfield over the previous forty eight days, the CFT-led March for California’s Future arrived in front of the state Capitol on schedule at 3 pm on April 21.
Its purpose is to draw public attention to three urgent ideas:
Week 5: March for California’s Future
Marchers say the two-thirds rule cuts teachers and builds prisons
MANTECA, CA (4/11/10) — Beginning the final stretch before their arrival in Sacramento, the hardy band of walkers in the March for California’s Future passed into the California delta at Manteca and Stockton.
Week 4: March for California’s Future
Defending a life's work in education
DELHI, CA (4/3/10) — Evenings in the San Joaquin Valley have grown warmer as the marchers for California’s future head for Sacramento. At the journey’s start in Bakersfield and Shafter, even the days were cold. But as night settles into a campground beside the Merced River just north of Livingston, you can feel spring is in the air.
Week 3: March for California’s Future
A substitute marches for all teachers
REEDLEY, CA (3/20/10) – It’s almost impossible for any teacher to take 48 days out of the school year to march to Sacramento, no matter how high the stakes. So it should be no surprise that the teacher walking to Sacramento representing the thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles is a substitute teacher, David Lyell.
Week 2: March for California’s Future
Walking through the crisis in the Valley
TULARE, CA (3/13/10) — Through its first week, the March for California’s Future passed through the small farm worker towns of the southern San Joaquin Valley – McFarland, Delano, Pixley and Tulare. For one marcher, Jenn Laskin, these communities remind her of Watsonville, where she teaches humanities and English, and food justice in the school garden, at Renaissance Continuation High School.
Week 1: March for California’s Future
March heads for Sacramento from Bakersfield
SHAFTER, CA (3/6/10) – As the March for California’s Future left Bakersfield and headed up the San Joaquin Valley toward Sacramento, community college instructor Jim Miller was still energized by the March 4 Day of Action to save public education. That day students, teachers and community activists had demonstrated and protested around the state, with the largest rally in Los Angeles. The marchers stepped out on the road the following day, after a similar rally in Bakersfield.
Labor Education 101 conference focuses on solidarity, curricula
Conference receives high marks from attendees
They learned about the best practices in the field. They heard from a legislator about the prospects for progressive legislation in post-recall Sacramento. And they enjoyed a personal visit from beyond the grave of dockworker and union hero Harry Bridges, leader of the longshoreman’s union and the 1934 San Francisco General strike, courtesy of actor Ian Ruskin, who performed his acclaimed solo show, From Wharf Rats To Lords of the Docks.
Teachers like new “New Deal” Conference
The second annual Education and Labor Collaborative conference was held at Antioch University/Los Angeles for a labor film fest on the Friday evening of April 24, and at United Teachers Los Angeles headquarters all day Saturday. About 50 people attended the film show, and 75 attended the conference, about 25 of whom were UTLA members who received salary point credit for attending. Last year’s conference was held at United Federation of Teachers in New York.
CFT participates in EdSource “Convening”
A California Education Policy Convening: Getting from Facts to Policy
EdSource served as the neutral host of the “Convening,” which was held as a response to the Getting Down To Facts research project. The focus of Getting Down to Facts and the policy Convening are finance, governance, personnel and leadership, and data systems. The Convening took place on October 19, 2007.