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Analysis: With Newsom vetoing three state bills co-sponsored by the California Teachers Association, will the new governor be ‘Brown’ or ‘Gray’ for unions?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report By all accounts, it’s a great time to be a California union activist. Statewide political offices are in Democratic hands. The legislature is solidly liberal. The state GOP shows no signs of life. Government revenues are up. Government spending is up. Where is there a...
By Mike Antonucci | October 23, 2019
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Antonucci: California Teachers Association ramps up its property tax campaign, but it has a tough road ahead
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report The School and Communities First ballot initiative might be the biggest and most expensive school funding campaign battle in California history. Or, it might peter out as so many other similar attempts have in the past. There is evidence to support either view. The proposed...
By Mike Antonucci | October 10, 2019
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When unions open their own charter schools — lessons from San Carlos’s Kwachiiyoa elementary
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report As difficult as it may be to believe nowadays, when teacher unions deem charter schools their mortal enemies, there was a brief period of time when they took a different approach. Affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers once created their...
By Mike Antonucci | October 1, 2019
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California Teachers Association is flush with campaign cash to advocate for its 2020 agenda
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report There isn’t much to occupy California’s teachers unions politically for the rest of 2019, but that only allows them to accumulate more funds for what promises to be a very busy 2020 on the campaign trail. Choosing a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President,...
By Mike Antonucci | September 18, 2019
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Analysis: There are 14 months to go before Election Day 2020, but unions’ campaign for split-roll property tax has already begun
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report You have to give California’s public employee unions credit for their dogged determination to undo Proposition 13, the state’s landmark property tax limitation initiative approved by voters in 1978. Forty years of failed attempts and tens of millions of dues dollars spent without even managing...
By Mike Antonucci | September 11, 2019
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Analysis: Another year, another wide-ranging plan for California public education by United Teachers Los Angeles
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report It was an eventful year for the Los Angeles Unified School District, with the run-up and launch of the teacher strike, the District 5 school board election and the Measure EE parcel tax initiative. Behind them all was United Teachers Los Angeles and its president,...
By Mike Antonucci | September 3, 2019
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Antonucci: No, really — as I reported last week, the California Teachers Association did not add 22,000 members this year
Last week, I expressed very strong doubt about this claim from the California Teachers Association, reported by Louis Freedberg of EdSource in a story about the disaffiliation of the 19,000-member California Faculty Association, which represents employees of the California State University system: “The CTA anticipates that some 22,000 new members it says it has recruited...
By Mike Antonucci | August 21, 2019
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Analysis: California Teachers Association’s claims of new membership don’t add up
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Last week, we reported the news that the California Faculty Association, representing 19,000 employees of the California State University system, suddenly decided to drop its affiliation with both the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. Everyone involved is being very close-mouthed about the...
By Mike Antonucci | August 14, 2019
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Antonucci: 19,000 state university faculty members withdraw from California Teachers Association
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The California Faculty Association, which represents some 19,000 employees of the California State University system, abruptly ended its affiliation with both the California Teachers Association and National Education Association, a relationship that began in 1981. It was by far the largest secession of a union...
By Mike Antonucci | August 7, 2019
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Antonucci: UTLA line of succession becomes a circle as officers look to swap positions in 2020 vote
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Alex Caputo-Pearl is approaching the end of his tenure as president of United Teachers Los Angeles. He fulfilled his dream of leading the largest teacher strike the state had seen in 30 years, but he didn’t quite “create a state crisis” that would lead to...
By Mike Antonucci | July 31, 2019