YOUR VOICE

     The Association is your voice - in the legislature and the courts, in contract talks and before the school board - wherever other people make decisions affecting your personal and professional well-being.
     To make sure that your voice says what you want said, and that your organization does what you want done, CTA is rigorously democratic. By secret ballot, you and your colleagues elect delegates to the 660-member State Council of Education, CTA's highest governing body. The four Council meetings each year set basic CTA policy.
     CTA has a 24-member Board of Directors. The Board meets ten times a year. It employs the CTA staff, oversees all CTA operations and exercises other policy-making responsibilities between sessions of the State Council.
     Your local association and other CTA-NEA chapters are the exclusive collective bargaining agents for more than 280,000 educators. CTA, the largest organization of public employees in California, is affiliated with the 2.3 million-member NEA, the largest employee organization in the country.
     CTA chapters represent educational employees from preschool through graduate school in more than 950 of the state's 1,000 public school districts, at a majority of its community colleges, and in the 19-campus California State University system.
     Those numbers translate into political and educational policy clout-the ability to get things done for education and education personnel. CTA's numbers also give your Association the economic clout to negotiate with vendors to get you low rates and substantial discounts on insurance and merchandise and on travel, financial and even legal services.
     Because you are a CTA member your voice is heard.

SUPPORTING YOUR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

     Your Association maintains the most comprehensive array of training programs of any employee organization in the nation.
     Each summer the president of your local association is invited to an intensive three-day training conference. Similar meetings are held during the course of the year in each of CTA's four geographical regions. The sessions help leaders of your chapter gain additional skills in collective bargaining, grievance handling, political action, community action and media relations, newsletter editing, classroom management, and professional growth, and even such personal concerns as coping with stress and burnout.
     Those subjects - and others - are also offered in workshops that are available on afternoons and weekends to chapters and individual members.
     As a CTA member you are eligible to attend professional conferences on leadership training, multicultural education, AIDS, child abuse, and how to develop your professional growth plan. Statewide conferences include CTA's Good Teaching Conference and the Equity and Human Rights Conference, among many others.

IMPROVING EDUCATION

     In 1997 the 660 members of the CTA State Council of Education approved launching an ambitious education reform agenda that was developed by CTA teacher members. This agenda includes:

• Continuing the class size reductions for all grades K-12.
• Support for meaningful standards and accountability for all involved in the educational process.
• Support for safe schools and workable zero tolerance policies.
• Encouragement for more teacher involvement in working with parents and other interested parties in the development of charter schools.
• Support for the development of a comprehensive plan to use the most current technologies in all classrooms.

     CTA has committed to work with local teacher associations, parent and community groups, other educational groups, the business community, and the localboards of education as well as the state government to implement these CTA member conceived reforms.

YOUR VOICE IN SACRAMENTO

     Most decisions on education policy and funding are made in Sacramento by legislators, the governor, and bureaucrats. Without a strong forceful advocate working on our behalf in Sacramento, our voices, our expertise, and our practical experiences would be ignored by policy makers. CTA employs seven full time education advocates to track legislation, to testify at committee hearings and work behind the scenes to ensure that our professional interests and rights are protected. In recent years our CTA education advocates have resulted in:

• Increased per-student spending by $800 million in 1997.
• Secured cost of living increases for the K-12 system and the Community Colleges.
• Class-Sized Reduction Program funding for all early primary grades.
• Repeal of a $50 per-unit fee charged students enrolled in community colleges.
• Defeat of a proposal to eliminate permanent status for certificated employees of all public schools.
• Continued funding for the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA).
• Secured passage of legislation to bolster campus safety and high-tech learning by paving the way for phones and Internet access lines to all classrooms (This legislation was vetoed by the governor).

     Our CTA presence in the state capitol helped us to create coalitions to write and pass Proposition 98 which put into the state constitution an education funding formula that provided for fair and stable funding sources for all school districts. Our coalition of public education allies also helped defeat the school voucher initiative in 1993.

TELLING YOUR STORY

     CTA realizes that without public support of the schools, teachers and other school personnel cannot have the resources they need to do their jobs. Therefore, informing the public of the needs and the successes of our schools is a high priority in the CTA program.

• Media Relations CTA's media specialists work with the print, radio and television media to keep the public informed about CTA's positions on the major issues.
• Quest for Excellence Weekly Television Program Beginning last fall CTA produced Quest for Excellence, the highly regarded and acclaimed half-hour news format weekly television show. Seen in every media market in California, each week Quest for Excellence highlights the successes of public schools throughout the state and spotlights the critical issues facing California's public schools, students, and teachers. This program, scheduled to air again this year, is another effort by our 280,000 member Association to reach out to the communities we serve.
• "California Educator" All CTA members receive CTA's every-member publication "California Educator," a monthly magazine designed to keep members informed about policy decisions, legislative progress, Association accomplishments, trends in education and reports from Association officers. All CTA members also receive "NEA Today," the monthly newspaper that offers the national perspective on education issues as well as the news from our national Association.

PROTECTING YOUR RIGHTS

     A primary focus of your Association's activities is helping chapters negotiate good contracts with better salaries and health benefits, stronger job-security provisions and improved working and teaching-learning conditions.
     In addition to 14 negotiation and organizational specialists, CTA employs more than 100 UniServ Representatives. Partly supported by funds from NEA, CTA's UniServ Reps also help members win grievances and arbitrations, get fair and equitable treatment under district paid and individual health programs, and achieve other job and professional objectives.
     An extensive and computerized research service at CTA headquarters backs up work of your Association's UniServ Reps. Salary schedules, tax rates, district contributions to employee health benefits, and even the language of individual contract items are stored in CTA computers. The data can be called up instantly to give a chapter's bargaining team the ammunition - the rationale - it needs to win for you at the negotiating table.
     CTA's budget-analysis service helps local teams track school board revenues and expenditures to uncover "hidden" funds that could and should be used to raise your salary or improve some specific working condition.
     CTA staff is also actively involved in retraining both your negotiating team as well as your district's negotiating team to bargain in a less adversarial and more collaborative way to achieve positive results for both the Association and the district.

MEETING YOUR LEGAL NEEDS

     In this day of litigation gone haywire, you'll be comforted to know that the moment you joined the Association you were automatically covered, at no cost, by NEA's $1 million professional liability insurance policy. But that is only the beginning of the protections conferred by your CTA-NEA membership.
     CTA employs seven full-time attorneys to advise and help individual chapters and members in every kind of job-related legal problem. From time to time employees in almost every school district discover that their paychecks do not reflect the full amount to which they are entitled. CTA lawyers jump on those cases and take whatever action is necessary. Similarly, our attorneys stand ready to defend the rights of all members who are unfairly disciplined or dismissed.
     Statewide cases are often just as important. Just a few years ago CTA lawyers, working with constitutional law experts, compelled the governor to restore hundreds of millions of dollars to the Proposition 98 education fund. This case, known as CTA v. Gould, not only resorted badly needed funds to California's public schools, but also allowed for the funding of the class size reduction program.
     CTA legal services don't end there. Your Board of Directors and State Council recognized that CTA members can't afford the high fees attorneys now charge for personal legal matters. That observation led to the development of the CTA's Group Legal Service (GLS) program. Today more than 40 law firms are part of your Association's GLS network. They offer you free consultations and discounted fees on almost every kind of personal legal need you may have.

SAVING YOU MONEY

     To enhance the value of your Association membership, CTA and NEA have created special member benefit programs. Ranging from auto loans to discount tickets for Disneyland, these programs offer you the opportunity to purchase goods and services at special, negotiated rates.

Insurance

Protect yourself, your family, home, and valuables against loss and disaster.

• Educators Employment Liability Insurance: $1 million coverage included with the cost of membership.
• CTA Group life Insurance: for active and retired members.
• CTA Group Salary Protection Insurance.
• California Casualty Auto and Homeowners Insurance.
• NEA Dues-Tab: no-cost life insurance as part of continuous NEA membership.
• NEA Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance.
• CTA death benefit: a no-cost benefit of up to $2000 that accrues to your beneficiary if you die while still a member of CTA.

Financial Services

Participate in a financially sound credit union, established by and for teachers.

• Interest-Earning Checking.
• Personal, Real Estate, Auto and No-Interest Strike Loans.
• No fee, low-rate VISA Cards.
• Savings & Investments.

Travel, Entertainment & Discount Programs

Enjoy more for less through CTA and Teacher Services Association.

• Special Rates on Cruises, Tours, and International Airfares.
• Discount Cards to Disneyland, Sea World, etc.
• Auto Quotations and Fleet Discounts.
• And Much More.

BACK COVER

     To take advantage of membership benefits, contact the Association Representative at your site.

Find Your Local Representative

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