In one fell swoop, teachers reached out to 31,000 registered voters during an all-out precinct walking and telephoning effort in conjunction with the October meeting of CTA's State Council of Education.

 

Arriving by the busload, teachers poured out in groups to canvass targeted voters and encourage them to cast their ballots against Propositions 74, 75 and 76. Council delegates who didn't knock on doors worked in phone banks set up at the Hilton Hotel and in nearby union halls, where they made thousands of calls. Still others wrote postcards to their friends, family members and community supporters. It was a massive undertaking, one that was complemented by similar activities undertaken the weekends before the election by local teachers and their coalition partners in the Alliance for a Better California all over the state.

 

Before canvassing voter precincts in the Venice Beach area, CTA President Barbara E. Kerr, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and two Council delegates spoke out against the governor's initiatives at a news conference in front of Venice High School in West Los Angeles. A busload of precinct walkers backed them up.

 

"We come from many backgrounds, but we speak with one voice," Kerr told media representatives. "If you care about our public schools - and having police and fire protection in our neighborhoods - please make your voice heard and vote 'No' on the governor's bad ideas for our state."

 

Mike Rosenfeld, a member of the Coachella Valley Teachers Association (Riverside County), blasted the governor for proposing Prop. 76, which would slash school funding "by over $4 billion every year - $600 per student - leading to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials."

 

He said Prop. 74 "blames teachers for the problems in our schools. It does nothing to get our schools the things they really need, like smaller class sizes and up-to-date textbooks."

 

"Prop. 75 is not about protecting workers," warned Linda Bynoe, a California Faculty Association member from California State University at Monterey Bay. "It's about shutting us up so we can't tell the public about why bad ideas like the governor's propositions on the ballot are dangerous for our communities."

 

As they made their rounds of Los Angeles neighborhood precincts with the media in tow, Council members found few people supporting the governor's initiatives. Most agreed that the important thing was for those people who are against the initiatives to actually go to the polls on Nov. 8. The governor was counting on a low voter turnout to work in his favor in the off-year election. That's why Council's decision to postpone its work and hit the pavement that Saturday was critical.

 

Once Council members opened their mouths to say, "We are teachers against the governor's agenda," voters who greeted them at the door or in their front yards were in immediate agreement, and promised to vote in their favor.

 

"It was really unifying for State Council members to get out there" and walk door-to-door, said Carmen Gonzalez, a member of the Porterville Educators Association (Tulare County). "We were charged!"

 

In fact, she was still fired up enough to do some more precinct walking after she got home Sunday evening.

 

"I really think it's good to put your energy into action," said John Haschak, president of the Willits Teachers Association (Del Norte County). He had done phone banking in Willits, where he teaches high school, but appreciated the chance to "get out there and be active and get face-to-face with voters" in the Venice neighborhood.

 

In her address to Council before the GOTV activities, Kerr observed that politicians want teachers to stay out of politics. "But, like the saying goes, we'll stay out of politics when politicians stay out of our classrooms."

 

"What was the governor thinking when he went after teachers, nurses and firefighters?" asked CTA Executive Director Carolyn Doggett in her address at the October meeting of Council.

 

In many ways, she said, the election has come down to the question: "Who do you trust? Nurses and firefighters and teachers? Or a promise-breaking governor and his corporate cronies? The people who take care of you, keep you safe and educate you? Or the people who want to cut education, health care and public safety?"

 

"My money is on all of you!" said Doggett.

 

The hard work that educators and their coalition partners have undertaken in recent months has paid off, she added.

 

"It just seems like everybody gets it but our governor. Now, we just have to make sure that the people who 'get it' get to the polls."

 

 

Dale Martin