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Article state budget

Governor’s Proposed State Budget for 2023-24
Research Brief

Governor Newsom started off the 2023-24 budget process on January 10 with a $223.6 billion proposal. Facing lower revenues than expected last year and a budget deficit projected at $22.5 billion by the Department of Finance, the January budget proposal is cautionary. Since the 2022-23 enacted budget anticipated a different budgetary landscape and included significant one-time expenditures, the governor’s initial proposal includes few cuts to education and does not draw on the available rainy-day reserves. Protecting education funding, the proposal also fully funds the statutory COLA, which is estimated at 8.13% at this time.

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Article gender equity LGBTQ+
Women's History Month

Celebrate Women’s History Month at school and home
March is Women's History Month

Women’s History Month provides us an opportunity to remind ourselves of women’s contributions to our culture and society and reflect on women who have fought for change in labor, education, science, the arts, and politics. Use the CFT’s curated collection to find lesson plans for your classroom and inspiration for your union, home, and beyond.

CFT to sponsor essential legislation for 2023-2024 legislative session
Legislative Update

INTRODUCTION

With the 2023-2024 California Legislative Session beginning, the CFT will be engaging in a new environment at the state Capitol. With several education champions reaching their term limits, and a large sector of the legislative staff turning over, the Legislative Department will be focusing on building new relationships with newly-elected legislators and their staff. 

Article CalSTRS CalPERS defined benefit
increasing piggy banks representing increasing protection for pensions

How CalSTRS and CalPERS pensions are protected from inflation
Governor signs CFT-sponsored legislation to provide earliest CalSTRS retirees another supplemental check

Both CalSTRS and CalPERS have mechanisms in place to guard a retiree’s defined benefit pension against eroding purchasing power. The first is a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, and the second is a “floor” below which the buying power of a pension cannot fall. Now thanks to a CFT-sponsored bill recently signed by Governor Newsom, CalSTRS retirees from earlier decades will see additional relief.

Article Classified Conference
CCE officers present Aspiration to Action AwardJeff FreitasMike Gipson

Classified professionals move from “Aspiration to Action”
Conference gives front-line activists the tools to organize and lead during troubled times

First came the pandemic protocols. About 100 participants from 15 AFT locals across California had to test negative for COVID before entering the Council of Classified Employees conference area.

Then came the fireworks. “We need to march in the Capitol for the next Classified Appreciation Week. If they don’t want to recognize the work we do, we need to toot our own horn,” CCE President Carl Williams roared in his welcoming speech. Williams drilled down on “Aspiration to Action,” the conference theme.

Article Classified Conference gun control
Members doing safety training with fake orange gunsKeith Wrightson, trainer from AFT Health Issues Departmentthe AVERT graduates group shot with their certificates

AVERTing disaster: Every second counts
Surviving an “active shooter” on campus takes quick decisions and actions

The names of the schools are etched in our minds: Columbine High, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High, Uvalde Elementary. Gunmen with grudges have struck at all grade levels and in every corner of the country.

Most shootings take place at businesses, but news stories more often focus on schools. Deadly shootings are, in fact, tearing up U.S. schools at a record pace. According to Education Week, as of October 24 there have been 40 school shootings this year, with a toll of 34 dead and 88 injured.

Article Classified Summer Assistance Program
due process, dictionary listing

CFT’s due process bill succeeds, puts classified on even footing with faculty
Summer Assistance expands to community college staff, Juneteenth becomes official school holiday

Governor Newsom capped the 2020-22 legislative session by signing a flurry of bills that CFT sponsored, co-sponsored or supported. Senate and Assembly bills with strong bearing on classified employees ranged from due process during workplace appeals, to a fair repayment plan for accidentally overpaid wages.

Following are the new laws CFT fought to win for classified employees and paraprofessionals.

Article part-time faculty PT campaign
PT faculty get high-five from legislator

Legislative high and low for part-time faculty
Healthcare funding increased in state budget, but higher workload cap vetoed

California community college adjuncts saw the single greatest gain for part-time faculty ever—$200 million in ongoing annual funding for part-time faculty healthcare—but felt bitter disappointment when CFT’s sponsored bill to lift the teaching cap to 85% of a full-time load died for a second time on Governor Newsom’s desk.

Geoff Johnson, AFT Guild San DiegoLacy Barnes, CFT Senior Vice PresidentCFT President Jeff Freitas

AFT resolution asks U.S. Department of Education to conduct higher ed study
Calls for national data about adjunct/contingent pay and benefit inequities

CFT once again demonstrated its commitment to adjunct/contingent faculty by submitting and winning unanimous passage of its resolution “Calling for Department of Education Study of Pay and Benefit Inequity” at the AFT Convention July 15 in Boston.