Coming soon to a state near you?

By Edward J. McElroy
AFT President

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California’s movie-star governor has proposed a number of radical ideas that would have a profound impact on funding for public education, public employee pensions, and teacher tenure and compensation. Only in California, you say? It wasn’t so long ago that many people expressed similar sentiments about the professional-wrestler former governor of Minnesota. And the last big-screen celebrity governor of California took his ideas about supply-side economics and limited government all the way to the White House. So you’re wise to watch how this plot unfolds.

Some trends said to originate in the Golden State are cause for hardly more than a chuckle—Valley-girl “speak,” platform heels and alfalfa sprouts come to mind. But others are far more consequential—government by initiative, recall elections, and movements dealing with major societal issues like class-size reduction, bilingual education, whole language and affirmative action. And don’t forget Proposition 13, the 1978 law that capped property taxes and decimated funding for public education. What happens in California politics is likely to spread across the country like a California brushfire.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to put automatic spending caps on state budgets; eliminate public employees’ death and disability benefits; shift their pensions to 401(k)-type investment plans; tie teacher pay increases to classroom performance; and bar labor unions from making certain types of political contributions. The governor also wants to change the California Constitution to undo Proposition 98, a voter-approved measure that protects K-14 students and schools from harmful budget cuts and establishes a minimum level of education funding.  If he can’t drive these changes through the Legislature, the governor has vowed to bring them to a referendum vote next fall.

Opinion polls consistently show that the public has positive feelings about teachers, nurses and the other public employees Gov. Schwarzenegger has placed squarely in his sights. But whether in the movies or in real life, people want the target to be the villains, not the good guys. So, the governor has tried to demonize educators and nurses. The people who teach our children? The professionals who provide expert and compassionate care to our loved ones? The governor has branded public workers as “special interests” in an attempt to discredit and isolate them.

And this spells trouble for public employees throughout the country. Union members, especially in the public sector, are among a dwindling number of workers who have been able to hold onto adequate health benefits, fair conditions of employment, and pensions providing a secure and dignified retirement. Logic would suggest that such benefits should be the standard, not the ceiling, but there is a concerted effort in many places to balance budgets by plundering public employees’ hard-won benefits and to quash workers’ expectations that their employers will help provide for their current and future well-being.

So what can we do? In partnership with the AFT and the AFL-CIO, the California Federation of Teachers has launched a campaign to challenge the governor’s assault. The CFT also is an active participant in a broad-based coalition standing up to the governor. In addition to lobbying and public relations activities, the CFT will engage in unprecedented member education and mobilization. The idea is to build a permanent infrastructure that will last long beyond this fight. The AFT is sounding the alarm in other states, as well, calling on our members and leaders to mobilize or be vigilant, depending on how advanced the threat.

This is a potent reminder of how important it is to make sure the right people are elected to office—and to hold them accountable once they are there. Our work is far from done after Election Day. In fact, in many ways, that’s when it really begins. We must work with elected representatives to ensure that issues of importance to our members and those they serve are handled appropriately. And we must prepare for future elections either to return responsible leaders to office or to bring in people who can do the job.

The good news is that ever since Gov. Schwarzenegger began picking fights with “special interests” like teachers and nurses, his popularity has declined. But that should be small consolation to the rest of us. We know that our “interest” is in providing the best education, care or services to the public; and we make no apologies for wanting pay and benefits commensurate with our work. But, if our enemies successfully portray public employees as a “special interest” concerned only about their own well-being, you can be sure that all workers will suffer. The governor’s “Terminator” mentality may have worked at the box office, but we can’t allow it to take hold in the real world.