"Good unions know how to fight for member interests without harming the public, but many in California have lost sight of that balance. Teachers unions have become the worst examples, and it’s students and families that are hurt most." — The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
Buffy the Vampire
At CPC, we give credit where credit is due. Even knowing of our low estimate of the state’s government unions, you’ll appreciate this fact: thanks to California’s public-safety unions, one of the most radical vaccine mandates proposed in the California legislature met its deservedly ignominious end on Tuesday.
AB 1993 would have required all California employers to insist that their employees and independent contractors get vaccinated against COVID-19. But due to a constellation of groups, including unions representing Highway Patrol, firefighters and corrections officers, the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), caved: she pulled the legislation before its first scheduled hearing Wednesday.
Cops and firefighters weren’t alone in their outrage over what the California Globe called an “overreaching, unconstitutional, totalitarian bill.” Over 2,700 people expressed their opposition to Wick’s bill through California Policy Center’s online Take Action portal by signing the CPC petition and more than 600 contacted their legislator using our quick-access tool.
And now for CPC’s predictable — but nonetheless on point — stipulation: Buffy's Vampire Bill was put to bed quickly because government union leaders objected to it — the government union leaders who pour tens of millions of dollars into politicians’ campaign coffers. If these unions had backed AB 1993, it would have moved swiftly through the halls of the political Death Star we call the state capitol.
Consider state Sen. Richard Pan’s SB 871 as our evidence. As we reported previously, the bill would force all school-age children to receive the COVID-19 vaccine — and eliminate any personal belief exemption. Though students and families vehemently oppose SB 871, they don’t carry with them the sort of financial firepower to persuade Pan and his Sacramento colleagues.
Fortunately, there’s a grassroots movement of parents who represent people power — liberal, conservative or politically nonbinary parents (it’s a joke: please don’t mount the virtual stage and slap me). They’re voters, these parents, and they’re often allied with CPC’s Parent Union — and they do not want their kids’ names in the mouths of Sacramento politicians (see previous disclaimer).
Parent Union supporters responded quickly to our Action Alert earlier this week, with nearly 700 people signing our petition to euthanize SB 871. Many used the same simple web tool to let their legislators know how profoundly they despise the idea of government regulators inserting themselves into their families.
Of course, the state’s most vulnerable constituency — children — don’t contribute millions of dollars every year to Sacramento politicians. And though these politicians and their union financiers may seem impervious, they’re not. They understand pressure.
Press the politicians now — and keep pressing them. Press the teachers you care about to stop funding (through their silence and their union dues) the unions holding kids hostage. And help CPC amplify the voices of the state’s truly marginalized — parents of school kids of all classes, genders and racial categories fighting the good fight. As Barry Goldwater said, “The price of democracy is eternal vigilance.”
If you haven’t had the chance, there’s still time for you to sign CPC’s petition opposing SB 871 or contact your legislator directly about the bill here.
Earlier this week, Lance Christensen, CPC’s Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs, testified before the California Senate Education Committee in support of SB 1222. That bill, introduced by Senator Brian Dahle (R -Bieber), would require sexual education curriculum used in K-12 schools to be posted online to allow parents to review the material. CPC supports curriculum transparency and giving parents the tools they need to know what’s being taught in California classrooms.
California parents are demanding curriculum transparency when it comes to sex education specifically after parents across the state and nationwide have discovered the Left’s obsession with indoctrinating kids in even the youngest grades with radical gender identity politics. But parents should have the right to know what their children are being taught regardless of political viewpoint or subject matter. After all, it is their child that is being taught.
But teachers unions see your children differently. They believe teachers should be given carte blanche to browbeat your child with progressive political ideology because, in their worldview, parents are unsophisticated rubes. You can bet that if the curriculum taught in any California public school classroom leaned even slightly in the direction of conservatism, the teachers unions would be apoplectic about their need to know every word of that curriculum before they quickly jettisoned it out of California schools.
Politics aside, public school parents should be able to review the sex ed curricula being taught in their child’s classroom as a matter of fairness. As Christensen explained to members of the Education Committee, parents who have their children in independent study or who homeschool are able to view all of their child’s curriculum. Private Catholic elementary schools send home sex education curriculum for parents to review before it is taught. Why shouldn’t public school parents have the same accessibility to know what their children are being told when it comes to sex?
Sacramento Teachers Union Strike Update
The Sacramento City Unified teachers union strike continues to drag on, forcing more than 40,000 children out of school for eight days. As we reported last week, the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021, representing other school workers, are demanding their piece of the school district’s COVID relief funds pie, including higher pay, retroactive bonuses and more.
The unions negotiating strategy — or lack thereof — has been primarily to insist the district acquiesce to a “neutral fact-finding” report that sided with the district, but the “neutral chair” is anything but: he’s a former union negotiator for the California Nurses Association. As Lance Christensen explained in the Sacramento Bee, the agency charged with giving “independent opinions” on labor disputes in government agencies — the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) — is not so independent.
“PERB exists for the purpose of protecting unions, and school administrators have a difficult time navigating that process,” Christensen said.
At California Policy Center, we’re helping California teachers who are fed up with corrupt union antics opt out of their unions. Last week, CPC joined Let Them Learn to hold a special training session for teachers who wanted to learn more about leaving their union. Mari Barke, Director of CPC’s CLEO project, and CPC Vice President Jackson Reese helped lead the session. Teachers who missed the webinar but are interested in more information about opting out of your union can learn more at CPC’s website, mypaymysay.com.
From Behind Enemy Lines
Our newest voice at CPC’s Parent Union is sharing insights from inside California’s broken public education system. Our anonymous author, “Dissident Teacher,” has had it with the state’s dysfunctional public school system and is shining a light on what really goes on behind closed doors in our schools and classrooms. Checkout Dissident Teacher’s column, ”You’re Not in Charge,” on CPC’s Parent Union website and follow Parent Union on Twitter and Facebook for new columns each week!
National Review's Radio Free California Podcast: The Cannon: CPC president Will Swaim and CPC Board Member David Bahnsen discuss Disney’s fumble of “Parental Rights in Education” and progressives’ new line of attack against attempts to ban Critical Race Theory in schools.
Questioning the Political Priorities of the Firefighters Union: CPC co-founder Edward Ring looks at the jaw-dropping pay for California fighters and why the firefighters union doesn’t throw its hefty political weight behind effective fire prevention tools.
