Each year our members recommend legislation that will address important issues to educators and the students we serve. Based upon these recommendations and Executive Council approval, the CFT is sponsoring several new bills and a budget proposal aimed at improving our working conditions, and strengthening the labor movement and public education.
SPONSORED BILLS
K-12 SCHOOLS
Prohibits for-profit operation of charter
schools
AB 406 (McCarty, D-Sacramento) prohibits a petitioner
that submits a charter petition for the establishment of a
charter school, or a charter school that submits a charter
renewal or material revision application, from operating as, or
being operated by, a for-profit corporation, a for-profit
educational management organization, or a for-profit charter
management organization.
Prohibits fees for beginning teacher induction
programs
AB 410 (Cervantes, D-Riverside) prohibits a school
district, county office of education, or charter school from
charging a fee to a beginning teacher to participate in a
beginning teacher induction program that is approved by the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the Superintendent of
Public Instruction.
Changes to Local Control Funding Formula
AB 2808 (Muratsuchi, D-Torrance) relates to the public
school financing system. Deletes the provision specifying the
amount of the base grant in the 2013-14 fiscal year and would
instead specify new, higher amounts for the 2018-19 fiscal year,
which would also increase the supplemental and concentration
grant amounts and result in various other changes to funding
calculations for purposes of the Local Control Funding Formula.
Tax relief for cost of
new teacher induction
SB 1214 (Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge) allows K-12
teachers with preliminary credentials to claim, for each taxable
year beginning on or after January 1, 2019, and before January 1,
2024, a $2,500 above-the-line tax deduction on their personal
state income taxes for fees incurred toward the completion of an
induction program approved by the Commission on Teacher
Credentialing. This bill would also require the Legislature to
review the deduction before January 1, 2024. SB 1214 would take
effect upon an appropriation of the legislature as a tax levy.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Provides part-time faculty differential pay for parental
leave
AB 2012 (Medina, D-Riverside) requires, regardless of
the type of differential pay system used by the school district
or community college district, a person employed in an academic
institution to receive no less than 50% of his or her regular
salary for the remaining portion of the 12-work week period of
parental leave.
ALL-UNION
International Workers’ Day
AB 3042 (Santiago, D-Los Angeles) designates May 1 as a
school holiday known as International Workers’ Day and would
require public schools and educational institutions, on the day
that schools are in session prior to the day on which schools are
closed for that purpose, to hold exercises, funded through
existing resources, commemorating and directing attention to the
history of the labor movement in the United States. In addition,
AB 3042 would combine the currently observed “Lincoln Day” and
“Washington Day” into “Presidents’ Day” to be observed on the
third Monday in February.
CO-SPONSORED LEGISLATION
School employee housing to benefit retention and
recruitment
AB 2788 (Thurmond, D-Richmond) expresses the intent of
the Legislature to enact legislation that would help close the
achievement gap by providing a school employee housing tool to
school districts that addresses California’s current crisis of
low recruitment and retention of school employees.
Limits on charter school petitions
SB 1362 (Beall, D-San Jose) prohibits the governing
board of a school district from denying a petition unless, the
governing board of the district makes a finding that the petition
does not contain a reasonably comprehensive description of the
means by which the charter school will achieve a racial and
ethnic balance among its pupils, and a balance of pupils
receiving special education services.
STATE BUDGET REQUEST
Labor in the Schools: This budget proposal would seek to secure one-time funding to support release-time for one teacher in several school districts to develop curriculum and provide professional development to educators in order for them to teach the history of the labor movement and the role immigration played in the creation of the labor movement.