A few days before Christmas workers learned that Sunnyvale's Community Preschool Board of Directors decided to sell the preschool and terminate all 32 workers rather than negotiate with a union voted for by its employees unanimously one year before.  The rally on December 21, featuring the preschool's children and parents alongside the workers, drew wide media coverage for the insensitivity of the Board decision timing.  Tanya Arnaiz photo

Dennis Kelly (left), president of the United Educators of San Francisco, co-hosted the Education Town Hall meeting in San Francisco. Similar events were held in half a dozen locations to demonstrate the impact of budget cuts and help move public understanding toward reform of the state budget process and tax policies. Matthew Hardy photo

November 20—Educators in Sacramento, San Francisco, Costa Mesa, San Diego, San Jose and Watsonville held rallies, press conferences, and a town hall to draw attention to the impact of the worst budget cuts to education since the Great Depression, and to call for reform of the state budget process and tax policies in order to restore the programs that have been slashed.

Food workers at San Diego City College wore their AFT t-shirts in solidarity with striking UC employees and in protest against state budget cuts to public education on September 24.

September 24, statewide—CFT members in K-12 and community college locals across California wore union t-shirts and handed flyers to the public to raise awareness about the impact of state budget cuts on all levels of public education and necessary social services.  In the University of California, faculty, staff and students rallied, held teach-ins, and in some cases (University Professional and Technical Employees/CWA) walked off the job, supported by students outraged at tuition increases and faculty whose role in shared governance of the institution is eroding. More than $15 billion in program reductions over the past two years are now wreaking havoc on our ability to deliver quality education to students in K-12, community colleges, and CSU and UC.

The most outrageous thing is that these cuts did not have to happen.  They were not inevitable.  They were a consequence of choices made by the governor and Legislature.  The most recent data shows that there has been a massive redistribution of wealth in the country, and in the state, over the past few decades, to people who were already the wealthiest in our society.  The top one percent of wealth holders (average income:  $1.6 million/year) owns more than one third of the wealth today, and their tax rates are far lower than they used to be.  Fair tax policies that address this shift in wealth would return California's promise of free, quality education for all, and keep fire stations and health clinics open.

Over the next couple of years, the CFT will be working closely with other unions and community organizations in a Fight for California's Future.  We will educate ourselves and the public about how the state's broken budget process can be fixed, and build a campaign to reverse the damage.  If enough of us care, we can reduce the state's undemocratic requirement for two thirds of the Legislature to vote for a new tax, to a simple majority.  We can overturn the same undemocratic requirement for two thirds of the Legislature to pass a state budget, which has put power into the hands of ideologues who represent just over a third of the Legislature, and whose real interests are on behalf of the top one percent of wealth holders.

It's time to fight back.  It's time to Fight for California's Future.

• September 24 flyer for members
• September 24 flyer for the public
• Background information and materials on the state budget crisis
• Information on the UC walkout and demonstrations