Posts tagged California Teachers Association
Educators union sues California, alleging billions missing from public school funding
September 16, 2026 // Facing their own statewide budget deficits, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators "deliberately underfunded the schools" by $1.9 billion in 2024-25 and by $3.9 billion in 2025-26, the California Teachers Association said in a suit in Sacramento County Superior Court. It was filed against Newsom's finance director, Joe Stephenshaw, and several defendants who were unnamed but clearly included the governor.
CTA-backed group vies to force election to unionize Clovis educators
September 9, 2026 // The Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), which is backed by the California Teachers Association, last week filed an intervention petition with the state labor board in hopes of forcing an election among Clovis Unified School District educators. The unaffiliated Independent Clovis Unified Educators, or ICUE, filed its petition in July to become the exclusive representative for full-time teachers in the district, which is California’s largest without a teachers union. ACE has challenged ICUE’s petition, calling into question who, among educators, might be represented and eligible to vote, according to The Fresno Bee, which first reported the development.
Opinion: California’s unions have built a $1B taxpayer-funded machine
August 31, 2026 // One group, more than any other, has cashed in on this arrangement: California’s public-sector unions. For them, higher taxes are good business. More taxes means more state workers, which means more union members, more dues, and more power for union bosses. The union bosses, in turn, keep the dollars flowing, agitating for more tax hikes, more spending, and more state workers. How powerful are California’s public-sector unions? In the calendar or fiscal year ending in 2024, 10 of the largest California-based unions with public-sector members collectively raked in more than $1 billion in dues and fees.
Opinion: Gavin Newsom’s mind-boggling record of giveaways to unions
August 25, 2026 // Richer government contracts and expanded public employee benefits don’t come from nowhere. They land on taxpayers — the same taxpayers already staring down the nation’s highest gas prices, some of the steepest home insurance increases in the country and a cost of living that keeps pushing people out of the state entirely.
Teacher unions dedicate money to political activism, lobbying
August 18, 2026 // In 2025, the NEA spent a total of $448,171,192, according to Union Facts, a nonprofit that focuses on transparency and accountability. AFT spent a total of $278,261,430. The NEA spent more than $51 million on political activities and lobbying in 2025, and the AFT spent more than $41 million, according to Union Facts. In comparison, the national average salary for a public school teacher is $74,000, according to the NEA.
Clovis Unified’s ASL interpreters reach first union deal, despite some pay concerns
August 18, 2026 // The contract comes at a time when the Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), which is backed by the California Teachers Association and helped to organize interpreters’ unionization, is vying to be the exclusive representative of Clovis Unified’s teachers. The district is closer than ever to ending its 66-year “union-free” history as the other major group, Independent Clovis Unified Educators (ICUE), gathered enough signatures and filed a union petition with the state in July.
Independent union files for recognition in Clovis Unified over CTA-backed group
August 6, 2026 // For years, the Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), backed by the California Teachers Association, and the unaffiliated Independent Clovis Unified Educators (ICUE) have sought to represent teachers in the district. Clovis Unified is California’s largest school district without a teachers union but could become the state’s largest independent union. The unaffiliated ICUE reportedly collected more than 50% of signatures from more than 2,000 teachers in Clovis Unified, The Bee reported. The group filed a union petition with California’s Public Employment Relations Board, a feat it nearly reached last year, according to The Bee. “Teachers are realizing, ‘It’s ACE or ICUE,’ ” Erin Dieterle Garcia, a founding teacher of ICUE, told EdSource in 2025 when ICUE was less than 75 signatures away from being able to file the union petition.
While NAEP scores hit 20-year lows, teachers’ unions were debating ethical veganism
July 16, 2026 // Recognizing ethical veganism as a protected philosophical belief; glyphosate has no place on student food and beverages; opposing merging US military operations, intelligence, and/or defense technology with those of any foreign military; comprehensive immigration reform; banning the use of AI in the decision-making process for the use of nuclear weapons; investigating fires for evidence of microwave energy attacks through the use of “direct energy weapons”; prohibiting weather modification to be injected into the stratosphere; calling for the impeachment of Trump before the November election, at a campaign cost of $5.2 million; and ending the war in Iran. For an entity that cloaks itself in sanctimony for defending the rights of teachers, it seems very much that the welfare of average union members might not be the C-suite’s top priority.
Special Feature: How Public Employee Unions Built California’s Most Powerful Political Machine
July 13, 2026 // In California, public employee unions are often among the most influential organizations helping determine who becomes governor, mayor, county supervisor or school board trustee. They endorse candidates. They contribute millions of dollars to campaigns and independent expenditures. They provide campaign volunteers, voter outreach, mail programs, and political infrastructure that many candidates could not easily replace. By the time contract negotiations begin, the relationship between labor and management has often existed for months or years. That does not mean elected officials simply surrender to union demands. Many negotiate in good faith and work hard to protect taxpayers while fairly compensating public employees. But in government, the officials responsible for approving compensation packages are frequently supported by the same organizations representing the employees who will benefit from those agreements.
Union Behind California Billionaire’s Tax Offers to Drop It in Favor of Smaller Tax
June 21, 2026 // Newsom batted down the offer via a spokeswoman, who said the governor “has been clear that he is strongly opposed to a California-only wealth tax.” “This poorly designed state-only measure will defund teachers, schools, clinics, and public safety,” Newsom’s spokeswoman said. “Changing the tax rate doesn’t change this measure’s fundamental flaws that harm working Californians.”