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Early Childhood Education |
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Early Childhood Education is critical to the success of students and our public education system. The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) is working to organize early childhood educators and gain appropriate levels of support to enable our children to succeed. If you are an early childhood educator and you are interested in finding out more about how you and your co-workers can form a union, please contact Sandra Weese at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 510.523.5238, ext 14.
To hear more about our efforts please sign up to receive the CFT's free e-newsletter, Small Talk. This newsletter is dedicated to keeping front line early care and education professionals in touch with each other and efforts around California to support and improve early care and education.
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Community Preschool meets with the Mayor of Sunnyvale |
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 Community Preschool (CP) union members, union staff and parents met with City of Sunnyvale Mayor, Anthony Spitaleri, to update him on the progress of CP’s first contract negotiations. The Mayor recognizes the importance of quality Early Childhood Education programs and has always supported CP teachers and staff in their fight to win a fair contract.
Left to right: Karen Golosman, CP union member; Kristen McMullen, CP parent; Anthony Spitaleri, Sunnyvale mayor; Linda Medwin, CP union member; and Irene McMullen, CP grandparent. |
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CFT hosts booth at LAUP Conference |
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California Federation of Teachers members and staff hosted a booth at the Los Angles Universal preschool Conference and Education Expo held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on October 16 and 17.
The conference focused on the impact and trends of preschool education and gave preschool providers, parents, community and business leaders as well as elected officials the opportunity to discuss, share and explore how to better prepare our children for future successes through a high quality preschool education experience.
The conference featured more than 60 workshops that addressed issues such as preschool advocacy, quality, teaching and curriculum including: Encouraging Parent-Child Interaction, Preparing for kindergarten, Creating a Meaningful Classroom Experience and Understanding a Parent’s Role in their Children’s Learning.
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) contingent included Early Childhood Education Organizing Project staff Karl Beitel, Karo Szymanska and Sandra Weese and CFT Local 1475 president Arleen Rivera and Local 1475 members Cynthia Norman and Aldo Gonzalez.
The CFT booth was a big hit at the conference. We distributed numerous AFT free educational and professional development materials, such as the Transitioning to Kindergarten toolkit, the Colorín Colorado toolkit and the Helping Your Preschool Child Series of booklets in English and Spanish. Local 1475 members also took the opportunity to talk to other early childhood educators about the benefits of belonging to CFT and encourage them to think about forming their own union.
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Early Childhood Federation of Teachers, Local
1475 activist and Head Start preschool teacher Aldo
Gonzalez talks to other ECE providers and parents
at the CFT booth at the LAUP Conference.
Arlene Rivera, president of Early Childhood
Federation of Teachers Local 1475 and
a preschool teacher at a LAUP site, with
Assemblymember Kevin de León.
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Early childhood education makes all the difference |
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An Op-Ed by Betty Robinson-Harris
Commencement season is one of my favorite times of the year, a moment when I watch our eager young graduates celebrate in caps and gowns, confident that they will be ready for their next big step this fall – kindergarten.
A recently released final report in a series on preschool confirms what I have seen in 37 years of teaching: early childhood education makes all the difference in whether children succeed in school later on. The report by the RAND Corporation finds that children who start out behind tend to stay behind, and the achievement gap is evident as early as kindergarten.
The good news is high-quality early childhood education can narrow that gap by getting kids ready to learn. Even more exciting is that President Obama has made early learning a top priority, calling it the first pillar of education reform. He has included more than $5 billion for it in the federal stimulus package, at least $500 million of which could come to California. At a time when we are all searching for ways to turn the economy around, early childhood education is a strategy for economic recovery and long-term economic growth.
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Budget deal devastates California education |
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On July 28, 2009, the Legislature finally passed and the governor signed a budget intended to address a $24 billion deficit. The Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget came on the heels of a mid-year budget revision in February that had already sought to address a projected two-year deficit of $41.8 billion through a combination of spending cuts ($14.9 billion), new revenue measures ($12.5 billion), borrowing ($5.4 billion) and new federal funds ($7.9 billion). All told, over the last two fiscal years, the budget gap has totaled $65 billion. The hemorrhage appears unceasing, as a new budget gap of $8 billion is currently being projected for the next fiscal year, raising the specter of further cuts in vital services.
To date, early care and education (ECE) programs have avoided the type of draconian cuts implemented in K-12 and higher education. Total appropriations from the state general fund passed through the California Department of Education have been flat between FY 07-08 (total of $2.568 billion) and FY 09-10 (just under $2.6 billion). Over the last two years, there have been no cost of living adjustments (COLA), growth adjustments, or increases in the standard reimbursement rate – the rate at which the state reimburses ECE providers for subsidized childcare. As a result, real (inflation-adjusted) funding levels have fallen by 3-4% between FY 08-09 and FY 09-10.
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