Dear John,

Please urge Governor Newsom to sign AB 500 – Paid maternity leave for teachers and school workers

With the signing deadline this Sunday, October 13 fast approaching, we ask you to please send a letter to Governor Newsom today, urging him to sign Assembly Bill 500 (Gonzalez, D-San Diego) and stand with educators and support staff who wish to start families.

Sponsored by CFT, AB 500 would require K-12 school districts and community colleges to provide a minimum of six weeks of paid leave for pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, and recovery for both certificated and classified school employees.

Please sign and share this letter today!

Grassroots effort leads to historic charter school reform

On Thursday, October 3, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1505 and AB 1507, two historic charter school reform bills that are essential to ensuring charter schools are accountable to local communities and all California students. Thanks to all of the CFT members who stood with fellow educators, school workers, parents, and students to push for reform. With a fierce effort to derail the legislation by deep-pocketed charter school backers, our collective efforts were critical.

This year has been a been a banner year in Sacramento for CFT. So far Governor Newsom has signed eight CFT-sponsored bills, with two remaining on his desk!

October 25 conference on the future of higher education in Berkeley

On October 25, leaders from the Peralta Federation of Teachers, San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, UC AFT, and San Francisco State will host a free conference on the future of higher education at Berkeley City College.

Faculty, classified professionals, students, and activists from throughout the state are welcome at the conference where issues of academic freedom, contingent labor, and cases of oppression within the workplace will be addressed. The goal of the conference is to build a strong network of Bay Area and statewide activists across education systems to support each other, brainstorm priorities, and develop plans of action to forward local and common struggles.

The conference will take place at the Berkeley City College campus, which is easily accessible by BART, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. If you are interested in attending the conference, please RSVP online, and share the Facebook event page.