In one fell swoop, 800 State Council members reached out to 31,000 registered voters during an all-out precinct-walking and telephoning effort Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles.

 

Arriving by the busload, teachers poured out in groups to canvas targeted voters and encourage them to cast their ballots against Propositions 74, 75 and 76. Those teachers who didn't knock on doors, worked in phone banks set up at the Hilton Hotel and in CTA offices and nearby union halls where they made thousands of calls. Still others wrote post cards to their friends, family and supporters. It was an undertaking that was complemented by similar activities by the Alliance for a Better California all over the state.

 

Before walking Los Angeles voter precincts, CTA president Barbara E. Kerr and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell spoke out against the governor's Propositions 74, 75 and 76 at a news conference with classroom teachers in front of Venice High School in West Los Angeles.

 

"We come from many backgrounds, but we speak with one voice," Kerr said. "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 teacher in the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, blasted the governor for backing 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."

 

"Proposition 75 is not about protecting workers," warned Linda Bynoe, a professor at California State University-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."

 

Council members found few people in support of the governor's initiatives, but urged residents to make sure they get to the polls.

 

"It was unifying for State Council members to get out there," said Carmen Gonzalez, a teacher in Porterville. "We were charged! In fact, I started all over again as soon as I got home Sunday night."

 

In her address to Council earlier, Kerr observed how politicians "... want us to stay out of politics.  But like the saying goes, we'll stay out of politics when they stay out of our classrooms.

 

"We'll stay out when they stop proposing worthless merit pay plans that tie a teacher's pay to a student's score on a standardized test.

 

"We'll stay out when they stop trying to deny teachers basic due process rights to a hearing before being fired. We'll stay out when they stop cutting school funding by more than $25,000 per classroom.

 

"We'll stay out when California's per-pupil funding isn't more than $1,000 below the national average."

 

 

Liane Cismowski, the Contra Costa educator who has, perhaps more than any other, put a face on teachers in the current political campaign brought her own personal stories to CTA's State Council this weekend.

 

She was greeted with wild enthusiasm from the Council as she spoke.

 

"In January, Governor Schwarzenegger broke his promise to pay back the two billion dollars he borrowed from California's public schools," the former county educator of the year said. "I was incensed and felt absolutely powerless! He was our friend. He started after school programs. We trusted him and believed he would keep his word. It was a crushing disappointment.

 

"And what could I do? I'm just one little teacher in one little school working in alternative education – one of education's ugly stepchildren. So I did what most of us did. We decided, oh well, we'll just have to keep on working our hardest to help our students and know that from here on out we'll have to make do with even less – fewer supplies, fewer textbooks, fewer computers, less access to technology."

 

But then, her chapter president Mike Noce called to tell her CTA was looking for a teacher to do a commercial. Although she was surprised by the request, Cismowski agreed to do it — and a CTA star was born. 

 

"And it was so much fun! All of you should try it," the alternative education teacher enthused. "All of the CTA people were so kind and encouraging, and my students were so thrilled to see me on TV."

 

Cismowski said she believed at the time that "Surely Mr. Schwarzenegger will listen to our polite but impassioned pleas to return the money he borrowed.

 

"Surely he will be swayed by reason and the request to behave responsibly! Unfortunately, I was wrong. Not only did he decide not to return the money — he decided to go ahead with his special election, wasting millions of dollars."

 

The rest, as they say, is campaign history. Cismowski's commercials for CTA had been so effective that she was asked to make several more, all on the topic of the governor's broken promises to schools.

 

Cismowski scored a home run with State Council as she has done with the public in her advertisements. In turn, Cismowski thanked Council and CTA.

 

"I'm awed and humbled to be here in front of all of you, my daring and valiant colleagues. I want to applaud and thank you for all the extra work you do here as State Council representatives to make our job, our profession, our calling — the very best occupation in the whole wide world."

 

 

No one was more "psyched" by Council's Get Out the Vote mobilization Saturday afternoon than Carolyn Doggett, CTA's executive director, who was able to report back estimated figures to Council on Sunday morning.

 

"More than 250 people walked and knocked on 4,816 doors," Doggett said. "They recorded roughly 1,120 No Votes for each initiative compared to only 20 confirmed for yes," she said. At the same time, thousands of phone calls were made, so many in fact that they jammed the Cingular cell tower signal, Doggett said.

 

"If you add all of our activities and combine them with the Alliance activities this weekend in Los Angeles, we had 1,800 people walking and phone banking this weekend in LA. That's truly amazing!" she said. Even more than that, Doggett announced that all told, CTA and the Alliance reached out to 31,000 voters on Saturday.

 

Although the effort was momentous, Doggett urged Council to continue to Get Out the Vote in these last days of the campaign. 

 

"We've got to get creative and maybe a little crazy to do everything we can to hand this governor a defeat on November 8 so that he thinks twice before he messes with us, nurses, firefighters, police officers and all the good people of California again."

 

In the end, the campaign comes down to trust, and who the voters believe in.

 

"Do you believe in nurses, and firefighters and teachers?" she asked. "Or a promise-breaking governor and his corporate cronies? The people who take care of you, and keep you safe and educate you? Or the people who want to cut education, and health care and public safety? My money is on all of you!" she said.