CTA MARKS A MILESTONE
SES·QUI·CEN·TEN·NI·AL:
adjective1. marking the completion of a period of 150 years. noun 2. a 150th anniversary or its celebration.
150 YEARS OF ADVOCACY!
This year, CTA marks 150 years of advocacy for our profession, our students and our public schools. And we will be celebrating the entire year. Coincidentally, the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) turns 100 this year.
Over the next year, we will explore and celebrate our past via social media, our website, our publications, and our conferences. At the same time we will set the course for our future through a newStrategic Planning Process. It’s an exciting year, especially just coming from a successful election in which Californians demonstrated their commitment to public education by approving the first statewide tax increase in 20 years.
TIME TO CELEBRATE!
We're celebrating all year and we'll be providing a variety of resources for your use, including:
posters timeline fliers customizable resolution covers for Facebook pages & sample posts logos as well as videos, TV ads & radio spots, an oral history project, a booklet of our legislative victories, a mobile museum and more!CTA'S MISSION:
The California Teachers Association exists to
protect & promote the well-being of its members to improve the conditions of teaching & learning to advance the cause of free, universal & quality public education to ensure that the human dignity & civil rights of all children & youth are protected to secure a more just, equitable & democratic societyOUR FOUNDER
CTA was founded in 1863 as the California Educational Society by state schools superintendent John Swett with fewer than 100 members, all male. What a difference 150 years makes. With 325,000 members, CTA now is the most inclusive & most powerful voice of educators in the state.
John Swett: “Association in some form is the soul of modern progress… let us organize and work together. Let us make our influence felt in leading public opinion in school affairs.”
THE HISTORY OF CTA
At left: The CTA Headquarters building before it was refurbished due to seismic necessity.
CTA’s long history is full of the sounds of school strikes and teachers chanting on picket lines, the shouts of victory on countless election nights, and the quiet conversations of educators waiting to speak out in crucial legislative hearings held over the decades in Sacramento. Read more.
CTA’s long history is full of the sounds of school strikes and teachers chanting on picket lines, the shouts of victory on countless election nights, and the quiet conversations of educators waiting to speak out in crucial legislative hearings held over the decades in Sacramento. Read more.
CTA FINISHED THE JOB!
MAY'S FEATURE: DAY OF THE TEACHER AND OTHER TEACHER LOVE!
CTA's history of commitment to honoring educators
Starting with Teacher Appreciation Week May 6-10, then Teacher Appreciation Day on May 7, and then the revered Day of the Teacher on May 8, we are all about showing love to our educators during May. Rounding out the month is our celebration of our esteemed Education Support Professionals (ESPs) on May 21! Please share your favorite teacher and ESP stories on CTA’s Facebook page - we want to hear all about them! Check out the other ways CTA has historically been involved in promoting and supporting various Awareness Holidays.
CTA'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER THE PAST 150 YEARS
Each month, we'll share facts of our our involvement in the betterment of public education. For example:
CTA and the Association of Mexican American Educators co-sponsored legislation creating Day of the Teacher in 1982.
CTA and the Association of Mexican American Educators co-sponsored legislation creating Day of the Teacher in 1982.HIGHLIGHTS FROM 150 YEARS OF ADVOCACY FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
1863 – CTA is founded as California Educational Society by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Swett with fewer than 100 members, all male.
1866 – CTA’s first legislative achievement establishes free public schools for all children in California.
1867 – CTA fights for and wins public funding for schools that educate nonwhite students.
1890 – CTA wins state Supreme Court ruling on “fair dismissal” law.
1895 – CTA backs the first class-size reduction law, limiting the number of students in a class to 80.
1911 – CTA leads state funding fight to establish community colleges. At CTA’s urging, free textbooks are printed and distributed at state expense.
1913 – California State Teachers’ Retirement System is created by legislation after CTA State Council calls for a statewide teacher pension system in 1910.
1915 – CTA leads efforts to outlaw child labor and enact other legal protections for children.
1927 – CTA wins legal victory when state Supreme Court rules that a school board cannot fire a female teacher simply because she got married.
1940s – CTA is one of a few organizations in California to protest against internment of Japanese-Americans at the beginning of World War II.
1946 – CTA sponsors Proposition 3, which guarantees schools $120 per student in ADA from the state and a minimum teacher salary of $2,400.
1960 – CTA leads the successful campaign to preserve the then-100-year-old Columbia School in the historic Gold Rush town. Hundreds of thousands of school children give their pennies, nickels and dimes to the project, raising $40,000 altogether, while CTA contributes $30,000 to finish the job.
1967 – CTA establishes schools for children of migrant workers, and leads the authorization of bilingual instruction classes for English learners.
1975 – Legislature passes the CTA-sponsored Rodda Act, making K-14 school employees the first public employees in California to win collective bargaining rights.
1980 – Thousands of teachers receive layoff notices as a result of Prop. 13. Continuing program cuts lead to annual layoffs.
1983 – CTA leads passage of SB 813, which provides significant additional revenue for California schools through equalization of revenue limits and new categorical programs. This bill also provides more rigorous graduation requirements, longer school day and year, and higher beginning teachers’ salaries. It also establishes statewide model curriculum standards.
1988 – CTA drafts and wins passage of Proposition 98, which guarantees a minimum portion of state money to fund K-14 education. The passage of Prop. 98 firmly establishes CTA as a political force to be reckoned with.
1993 – Thousands of teachers and citizens mobilize to defeat Proposition 174, a school voucher initiative.
1994 – CTA opposed Proposition 187, a ballot initiative designed to deny undocumented immigrants social services, health care, and public education. It would have put hundreds of thousands of our students on the streets.
1994 – CTA opposed Proposition 187, a ballot initiative designed to deny undocumented immigrants social services, health care, and public education. It would have put hundreds of thousands of our students on the streets.
1995 – CTA wins Class Size Reduction law for K-3 classrooms after massive media and lobby campaign.
1996 – CTA files lawsuit (CTA v. Gould ) against the state to protect Proposition 98 and wins largest settlement in the country against a state government, providing $540 million to schools in 1996-97 and more than $1 billion in succeeding years.
CTA membership reaches 270,000.
CTA membership reaches 270,000.
1998 – CTA leads defeat of an initiative that would have restricted how unions participate in political campaigns and silenced member voices. CTA wins passage of a $9.3 billion statewide school bond.
2000 – After a massive mobilization effort with more than 10,000 CTA members attending a rally in Sacramento, public schools receive $1.84 billion.
CTA members defeat a second voucher initiative, Proposition 38.
CTA members defeat a second voucher initiative, Proposition 38.
2001 – CTA launches an effort to draw attention to the challenges facing lower-performing schools and to bring more resources to them with the Schools of Greatest Need Bus Tour across the state.
2002 – CTA wins passage of a $13 billion statewide school bond.
2003 – CTA wins passage of a $12.3 billion statewide school bond.
2004 – State budget deficit of more than $35 billion results in cuts of nearly $2 billion for schools.
2005 – CTA members lead a broad coalition effort with other public sector labor unions to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s initiatives that would have cut school funding, destroyed teachers’ due process rights and silenced the voices of public employees. Efforts include two major rallies at the State Capitol and Pershing Square in Los Angeles that draw over 30,000 people. CTA files a lawsuit against the state to get back all money owed to schools under Proposition 98.
2006 – CTA’s Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) passes into law in 2006 and is helping schools that are serving a higher percentage of low income, minority and English learners to close the achievement gap. CTA wins passage of a $10.4 billion statewide school bond.
2007 – CTA members successfully mobilize to stop the harmful Miller-Pelosi reauthorization proposal for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the so-called No Child Left Behind Act). The proposal would have placed more emphasis on test scores, created new sanctions for struggling schools, and eroded employee rights.
2008 – Nearly 11,000 CTA members receive pink slips in March. In April, the CTA officers embark on a six-week statewide “Cuts Hurt” bus tour to focus attention on the governor’s proposed cuts. The tour culminates in a CTA Lobby Day at the State Capitol in early May. CTA’s actions reduce layoffs to 5,000.
2009 – As the state budget crisis unfolds, schools are hit with massive cuts. More than 27,000 educators receive pink slips. CTA stages Statewide Day of Action on “Pink Friday,” March 13, and launches the “Stand Up for Schools” website. With CTA’s help, the number of layoffs is reduced to 17,000. In late July, due to CTA’s efforts, the Legislature reaches a budget agreement that will restore $11 billion of Prop. 98 funding in future years.
2012 – CTA leads fight to pass the governor’s Proposition 30. It stops billions in new education cuts and will generate $42 billion for public schools and local services over seven years. CTA also defeats Prop. 32, another attempt to silence our political voices.