Employing a political war chest on a par with those of major parties, the California Teachers Assn. is used to being in the thick of campaigns. But on a muggy Monday morning at the end of July, when most of their peers were on vacation, hundreds of teachers gathered at UCLA were reminded that they were now targets as much as participants.
"There are people in this state who are trying to portray us as something that has nothing to do with children, nothing to do with students and everything to do with greed," the union's president, Barbara Kerr, told organizers and negotiators attending an annual summer training institute. "And they are wrong..."
Spending vast sums is nothing new for the union, which says the state's immense power in dictating how schools are run and funded makes a strong presence in Sacramento essential. From 2000 to 2004, the association laid out more than $70 million for politics and lobbying, campaign finance records show — an average of $42 a year for most union members.
In the Legislature and at the polls, the union has pressed for more education spending and smaller classes, and kept private-school vouchers at bay. It has fought to limit the spread of charter schools and restrict testing requirements for teachers and students. It has also advocated an agenda that goes far beyond school halls to encompass California's healthcare system and taxes... |