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Antonucci: California Teachers Association’s strategic plan — how’s it doing?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Back in 2014, the California Teachers Association generated a long-term strategic plan. Titled “Our Union, Our Future,” it described eight broad goals, including community engagement and coalition building, organizing unrepresented education workers and “transforming our profession.” In April, CTA assembled a working group of union officers, representatives...
By Mike Antonucci | June 4, 2019
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Antonucci: Want to know where your education dollars go? Take a look at labor costs — it’s nearly all salary and benefits
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Any debate about public education finances invariably devolves to whether we are spending enough “in the classroom” and how much “administrative bloat” there is. Textbooks, maintenance, facilities, curriculum and student programs all come under scrutiny, either to find savings or to fight for additional funding....
By Mike Antonucci | May 29, 2019
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Antonucci: As L.A. voters weigh a parcel tax, here’s a stroll through 31 years of California school funding claims
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. In two weeks, a small percentage of those who live within the boundaries of the Los Angeles Unified School District will go to the polls to vote on Measure EE, a parcel tax designed to raise an estimated $500 million annually for the city’s schools. How will...
By Mike Antonucci | May 22, 2019
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Antonucci: National Education Association may lose thousands of Las Vegas members if city’s bus drivers, food service workers & custodians shift to Teamsters
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Most of the education support employees working for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas may soon find themselves switching state and national unions. A loss for the National Education Association will turn into a gain for the Teamsters. The Education Support Employees Association is affiliated...
By Mike Antonucci | May 15, 2019
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Antonucci: UTLA is already planning to spend Measure EE money twice
*Updated May 8 Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Measure EE, the proposed L.A. Unified parcel tax on the June 4 ballot, has a steep hill to climb. It needs a two-thirds majority to pass, and a wide assortment of business groups have lined up to oppose it. What’s more, a last-minute change...
By Mike Antonucci | May 7, 2019
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Antonucci: Will the state legislature pass the unions’ charter school wish list?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. California’s public employee unions have fought tooth-and-nail against charter schools ever since the law authorizing them was introduced by Democratic Senator Gary Hart in 1992. It’s fair to say that many things have changed in the state over the years — the composition of the legislature and...
By Mike Antonucci | April 23, 2019
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Antonucci: Los Angeles unions open campaign spigots for special elections
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Campaign season came a little early in Los Angeles this year, with the open District 5 school board seat and Measure EE, the parcel tax proposal to fund city schools. United Teachers Los Angeles is devoting its sizable war chest to these elections, and its union allies...
By Mike Antonucci | April 16, 2019
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Antonucci: Is the Sacramento teacher strike legal, and will it open the floodgates to new strikes, even re-upping them in L.A. and Oakland?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Another California school district in financial crisis is facing a teacher strike, but Thursday’s one-day walkout in Sacramento is something different than what we’ve seen so far this year, and it might not be legal. But that’s not stopping the Sacramento City Teachers Association from hinting at...
By Mike Antonucci | April 9, 2019
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Antonucci: New California Teachers Association president elected in upset
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Delegates to the California Teachers Association State Council elected E. Toby Boyd as the union’s next president last weekend in Los Angeles. Boyd defeated CTA’s sitting vice president, Theresa Montaño, for the position. It is rare for an incumbent union second-in-command looking to move up to be...
By Mike Antonucci | April 2, 2019
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Antonucci: California Federation of Teachers elects new leaders
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The California Federation of Teachers has a new president for the first time since 2011. Delegates elected Jeff Freitas to the position at the union’s biennial convention in Los Angeles this past weekend. CFT is the smaller of California’s two statewide teacher unions, with approximately 85,000 members....
By Mike Antonucci | March 26, 2019