Dear Editor, I am writing to urge the voters of Morgan Hill to
vote no on propositions 74,75 and 76. The governor and his
corporate sponsors hope to silence public employees and strengthen
their political power with these initiatives.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to urge the voters of Morgan Hill to vote no on propositions 74,75 and 76. The governor and his corporate sponsors hope to silence public employees and strengthen their political power with these initiatives.
Proposition 74 hurts our teachers and is bad for our students and schools. It is unnecessary, misleading and unfair. It will drive new teachers from our profession. It is unnecessary because there is already a system in place to fire teachers who are not performing in the classroom. Existing law allows teachers to be fired for unsatisfactory performance or unprofessional conduct, no matter how long they’ve been on the job. We have had teachers asked to leave or have been terminated. Because of privacy rights, we as union leaders do not advertise that fact. No teacher is guaranteed a job for life. The union protects their right to a fair evaluation and a fair process to defend themselves, but it does not protect bad teaching. We want what the public wants – good teachers for our students and for our profession. Prop 74 does not improve student learning or deal with the real problems that face schools such as large class size or quality teacher training. The fact is that 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession by their fifth year because the conditions of work are so difficult.
Proposition 75 targets only public employees, the nurses, teachers and public safety persons who take care of all of us. The backers of Prop 75 aren’t for workers’ rights, they have designed Prop 75 to unfairly apply political restrictions on public unions and no one else – not union members in the private sector, and not corporations. According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, corporations already out spend unions 24:1 in national politics.
The entire measure is completely unnecessary. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled no public employee is required to join a union and contribute to politics. Union members already have the power to elect their leaders into and out of office and to determine their own internal rules. In Morgan Hill, we have 452 union members in the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers. Fifteen of those members have elected not to contribute a portion of their dues to political campaigns. Annually we inform our members of this option and they determine if they wish to be rebated for the portion of dues that goes to political work. Public employees have been strong advocates for our communities. Teachers fought to restore funding the state borrowed from our public schools, but never repaid. Nurses battled against reductions in hospital staffing to protect patients. Police and firefighters fought against elimination of survivors’ benefits for families of those who died in the line of duty. Prop 75 is an unfair attempt to silence teachers so corporations can have more power in government.
Prop 76 will cut funding for vital programs, including education. The governor borrowed $2 billion from our schools, and if this initiative passes, the governor will never have to repay that money. This initiative does even more damage to our schools by overturning the voter-approved Prop 98, eliminating the funding guarantee for education, which will lead to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and few classroom materials. Prop 76 cuts school funding by over 4 billion every year – $600 per student. This initiative also cuts funding for local government, which will result in cutting police and firefighters, as well as local health care that protects children and the elderly.
Prop 76 will eliminate the checks and balances to give the governor new powers. This initiative undermines our democratic systems by giving the Governor awesome new powers with no legislative oversight. He can declare a fiscal emergency whenever he wants and cut any program without the approval of the legislature or the people of California. Governor Schwarzenegger has already tried to cut vital programs and funding for our schools, this proposition will give him unchecked power. This proposition creates phony spending limitations and does nothing to prevent tax hikes. A study the Center for Government Analysis says that if this initiative had been in effect over the last 16 years, in eight of those 16 years there would have been more state spending, not less.
I urge you to go to the polls on Nov. 8 and vote NO on Propositions 74,75 and 76.
Donna Foster
President, Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers
