Defeat the Governor’s Special Interest Agenda

Special Election: November 8
Where We Stand

No on Proposition 74: “The Punish New Teachers Act” would do nothing to improve public education or deal with the real problems facing our schools. It unfairly attempts to blame teachers for the problems in our public schools, ignoring the realities of underfunding, overcrowding, and the lack of materials and resources needed for effective teaching and learning. If this measure passes, new teachers would serve a five year probationary period rather than the current two years. That means teachers would lose the right to have a fair hearing on their dismissal for a full five years. Current law already allows for firing teachers who are not performing in the classroom, no matter how long they’ve been on the job.

No on Proposition 75: “The Paycheck Deception Act” requires public employee unions including teachers, college and university faculty, firefighters, nurses, police officers – to gather individual forms from every member annually in order to spend dues money for any political purpose. Far from protecting their rights, the measure is designed to reduce their ability to inform us when politicians harm education, health care and public safety. It is an unnecessary and unfair measure, with a hidden agenda intended to weaken public employees, so corporations can have more control in state government. Meanwhile, corporations already out spend unions in politics by a huge margin. In fact, Proposition 75 will make this imbalance even worse.

No on Proposition 76: “The Cuts School Funding Act” would devastate our public schools, community colleges, universities, and other vital public services by slashing funding for these priorities. It cuts school funding by over $4 billion every year – $600 per student – leading to more overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, and fewer textbooks and classroom materials. Our schools lost $2 billion dollars when Governor Schwarzenegger broke his promise to repay the money he took from education, and if this initiative passes, the governor will never have to repay that money to our schools. It does even more damage to our schools by overturning Proposition 98, thus eliminating the funding guarantee for K-14 education. It also cuts funding for local government – cutting police and
firefighters, as well as local health care services that protect children and the elderly.


No on Proposition 77: This measure amends the process for redistricting California’s State Senate, Assembly, Congressional and Board of Equalization districts, putting the process in the hands of a thee-member panel of retired judges, selected by legislative leaders. This measure requires immediate redistricting which is unnecessary, costly, and will produce unfair results by using outdated census data. Even Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson believes this measure is fatally flawed because it cannot be implemented under the time line contained in the measure.