Newsroom
A triple play response to a rogue accrediting agency
Bills will support City College of San Francisco, all community colleges in state
By Joshua Pechthalt, CFT President
The CFT is in a pitched battle to repair our broken accrediting system for our public community colleges. The battle is being played out at City College of San Francisco, where 80,000 students and more than 2,000 faculty and classified members are at the mercy of a single agency that instead of ensuring quality education for all, has displayed manipulative practices, policy violations and illegal conduct.
CFT Convention delegates working to “Reclaim the Promise”
A recap of Convention 2014
The Reverend William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, and leader of the growing “Moral Monday” movement contesting his state’s descent into the nineteenth century at the hands of its Tea Party government, provided a parable to the 600 elected delegates in the waning hours of the California Federation of Teachers’ 72nd annual convention, held in Manhattan Beach over the March 21-23 weekend.
Local Control Funding Formula: New regulations specify use of funds for targeted students
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.
Morgan Hill educators fight to keep community-based schools
Silicon Valley charter chains eye San Jose suburb
The latest flashpoint in the big-money expansion by charter school chains in Silicon Valley is Morgan Hill, a bedroom community with rural roots just south of San Jose.
Within the last year both Rocketship Education and Navigator Schools petitioned to open charter schools in the Morgan Hill Unified School District. Following swift mobilization and communication by the union and community groups, the school board denied both applications.
CFT releases statewide study of part-time faculty pay
Collaborative union effort leads to promising new tool for bargaining
A new CFT study has, for the first time, ranked compensation for part-time faculty throughout California and found that salaries vary dramatically across the state.
Proposition 30 leads way to fiscal recovery
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.
Domestic Worker Bill of Rights corrects historic wrongs
Seven-year journey to bring overtime protections to personal attendants
They work in the shadows of society and have been excluded from the most basic of labor protections. Yet those domestic workers who care for seniors, children and the disabled, have risen above their historic isolation, built an effective coalition and performed the seven years of heavy lifting that saw their struggle succeed.
Early educators fight reckless closure of community Head Start
Congresswoman Maxine Waters questions motives of L.A. County Office of Education
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.
The Vergara lawsuit: Anti-public education ideology cloaked in civil rights rhetoric
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. (See page 7)
Judge rules trial required to determine legality of ACCJC actions
CFT lawsuit advances significant step toward fair accreditation in community colleges
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.”
CalSTRS Board Member: Perspective on the shortfall
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.
New legislation proposes universal transitional kindergarten
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has introduced a bill to expand California’s Transitional Kindergarten program to give every four-year-old the opportunity to attend a year of school before kindergarten.