A Short History of the CFT
Imagine that you were fired just because you wore a beard. Or because you were a woman over forty, and your principal had a problem with that. Maybe you participated in a peaceful political demonstration, or wrote a letter to the editor of a daily newspaper criticizing your school administration. Arbitrary firings-and worse-used to be commonplace in California's schools.

Things are different today. But getting from there to here wasn't easy. From its inception in 1919 the California Federation of Teachers fought for the rights of education employees when no one else would. The first tenure law, passed in 1921, was supported by the CFT and the labor movement when every other education organization opposed it. In an age when women teachers were fired for following their own taste in fashion, staying out past eight o'clock in the evenings, or getting married, the CFT was so radical as to call for the extension of the constitutional rights of US citizens to women teachers, too.

From the 1950s through the 1970s scores of courageous teachers put their careers on the line for the sake of principle with CFT's legal support. In this way a body of case law was created involving academic freedom, tenure, wrongful discharge and discipline, loyalty oaths, and freedom of speech. As the former General Counsel of the California School Boards Association admitted, "Over ninety percent of the court decisions setting forth teachers' rights in the state of California have CFT's name on them."

The first fair labor practices law in California, establishing the Commission on Discrimination in Teacher Hiring in the late 50s, was written by the CFT to change blatantly racist hiring policies in school districts. In the 60s, the first law protecting probationary teachers was passed, on the basis of a case involving CFT members who stood up for what they believed in. When maternity leave for teachers became law in 1975, once again it was the CFT that led the way.

That same year the centerpiece of the CFT program finally became reality. Two decades earlier the CFT had stood alone in its advocacy for collective bargaining in education. Over the years the CFT slowly but surely built a majority sentiment among educational employees and the broader community. Tireless grassroots organizing and militant activism in the 60s and 70s brought passage of the Educational Employment Relations Act, which in 1975 granted collective bargaining rights to employees in public education.

Educating California's children remains an enormous task. You still don't have enough money, supplies, or time. But you don't have to worry about getting fired without any recourse, on someone else's whim. There are laws and contract clauses governing administrative behavior, and the union makes sure these rules are followed. Your job may not be easy. But at least now, thanks to the CFT's consistency and perseverance, it's possible.