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Critical charter school reforms pass out of the Senate Education Committee

On Wednesday, charter school reform came one step closer to becoming reality when the Senate Education Committee passed AB 1505 and AB 1507. The critical reforms in both bills go a long way to ensure that charter schools are accountable to local communities and that they are held to the same high standards as traditional public schools.

Thanks to all who have taken action by calling and emailing your elected representatives, and those who have made it up to Sacramento this year to call attention to the need to reform the charter school industry. Our efforts have been essential to counter the deep-pocketed charter lobby, backed by billionaires intent on privatizing public education, that consistently attempts to evade transparency and accountability.

With charter school scandals popping up nearly every week in the media, the call for reform only continues to grow. AB 1505 and AB 1507 will now move through the State Senate and we will continue our advocacy to strengthen the bills.

Watch the powerful CFT video about the May 22 Day of Action in Sacramento

On May 22 thousands of teachers, schools workers, parents, and students took a stand in Sacramento to demand fully funded schools and to stop the privatization of public education.

Watch this powerful video about the day of action, which brings into focus how the activism of CFT members, parents, and students is part of a nationwide movement to protect and defend public education.

CFT members testify before Select Committee on Ending the School to Prison Pipeline

On Wednesday, June 26 three CFT members testified at the State Capitol at the first ever hearing of the California Assembly Select Committee on Ending the School to Prison Pipeline. The committee, chaired by Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer, held the hearing at the urging of the CFT Racial Equity Task Force, which released a ground-breaking report in 2017 to reclaim the promise of racial equity for black males in California.

“Addressing the current dearth of black male educators must be a critical aspect of any plan to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline and its deadly, disparate impacts on black students and other students of color,” said CFT President Jeff Freitas during his testimony at the hearing. "We look forward to working closely with Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer during the coming year to identify, fund, and help create programs that significantly increase the number of black males who enter our schools either as educators or as classified personnel."

“Research on leveraging teacher effectiveness, recruitment, and retention to help end the school-to-prison pipeline tells California that we need to hire more African American male teachers,” added Dr. Angelo Williams, a member of Los Rios College Federation of Teachers, who is pictured above testifying before the committee. “I'm proud to be part of a union that knows that, and, with our participation in this Select Committee hearing, is working to make equity and diversity a reality.”

The CFT Racial Justice Task Force is working with Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer to hold a similar hearing in Southern California this fall, and to develop specific legislation based on the four strategic priorities addressed in the CFT report.

The June 26 Select Committee hearing is available to view here.