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Kerr offers CTA advice to governor

CTA President Barbara E. Kerr has issued an invitation to Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to work with CTA.

Conducting business at CTA's State Council are President Barbara E. Kerr...

As part of her address to CTA's State Council of Education Oct. 24-26, she offered CTA members' help as problem-solvers. "We could help you do things a better way, but only if we're invited in and involved first. If you wait to advise us of something after you've done it, you'll find we can be your biggest nightmare."

Teachers, she advised, don't want to hear about any more new initiatives in education. "We've had enough of those." The priority needs to be on taking care of the budget shortfall and protecting classroom funding. "It's all about the budget."

Other advice Kerr offered Schwarzenegger included:

Put partisan politics aside.
Hire a finance director who understands school finance.
Never fund public schools below the Proposition 98 minimum-funding guarantee or below prior year per-pupil funding.
Reject proposals for a permanent spending cap, which would prevent the growth of education funding.
Work with teachers to define any cuts in education spending if they have to be made.
Support the state school bond on the March ballot.
Forget about allowing colleges, universities and mayors to license charter schools.

...Vice President David A. Sanchez and Secretary-Treasurer Dean E. Vogel.

"And finally," Kerr said, "if you really want to get rid of a useless bureaucracy that does nothing for teachers or students, [you could] eliminate the office of the Secretary of Education."

Kerr also had a warning for University of California Board of Regents member Ward Connerly on the heels of the voters' strong
rejection of Prop. 54 in the October special election. His initiative "amounted to discrimination, no matter how well disguised."

"Connerly says he'll try again. We say, "Bring it on because we're going to stop you.'"

Kerr told teachers their hard work in getting the voters to reject both Prop. 54 and Prop. 53 was what made the difference in the election.

As for the stand CTA took against the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, Kerr said, "I still believe we did the right thing."

Looking forward to the spring, Kerr reminded delegates that the March ballot includes two important initiatives:

Prop. 55, the $12.3 billion state school bond that will finish the work started in 2002 to provide adequate school and college facilities;
Prop. 56, the Budget Accountability Act, which reforms the state budget process.

She also urged Council delegates to endorse presidential candidate Howard Dean for the primary.

"The only way to fix the testing nightmare is to change the current Congress and the President."