STATE EDUCATION FUNDING

Campaign to extend Proposition 30 begins with signature gathering, resolutions of support

AFT 1493 members and CSEA members table together for the measure at Skyline and CSM

You may have already seen them.  Signature gatherers have hit the streets to place a measure on November’s ballot that would extend Proposition 30.  Prop. 30 has been a game changer for public education in California.  The new ballot measure circulating will only ask to extend the top bracket income taxes for the very wealthy.  The revenue will help ensure that California continues to move forward toward funding education for all students from pre-school through university.

Prop. 30, a temporary tax passed by California’s voters in 2012 by a 55 – 45 margin, saved the state’s public sector by pumping $7 – 8 billion per year into state coffers from two sources.  About a billion dollars comes in from a one quarter of one percent increase in the sales tax, and the other six billion or so dollars originates in three tiers of 1, 2, and 3 percent bumps on taxpayers making $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000 per year.  Thus it is a mostly progressive tax, with the regressive portion—the sales tax—expiring at the end of this year.  The final year of the tax on the wealthy will be 2018, unless it is extended.

“We cannot afford to let Prop. 30 expire,” says CFT president Joshua Pechthalt.  “Thanks to Prop 30, we have only just begun to restore the programs and positions lost to the Great Recession.  Without this tax, which asks millionaires to pay a little more in taxes so that all of us can benefit, public education will return to the devastating years of budget cuts, layoffs, and skyrocketing class sizes and tuition increases.”

CFT is partnering with the CTA, SEIU, and other unions to pass the extension. The measure, called the “The Children’s Education and Health Care Protection Act of 2016,” will extend the tax on the wealthy for twelve years.  You can help by contacting AFT 1493 (574-6491) to find out how to obtain and circulate petitions and make presentations to community groups that you are involved with.

Resolutions in support of extending Proposition 30 have already been passed by the San Mateo Community College District Board of Trustees and the San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1493.

AFT 1493 members at Skyline College and CSM tabled alongside CSEA members to get signatures for the extension to Proposition 30.
At Skyline, top photo, CSEA members Ulysses Guadamuz and Chris Weidman (seated, l. to r.) are joined by Skyline student Bruno Bower (leaning in behind) and AFT 1493 Co-Vice President, Katharine Harer (right).
At CSM, bottom photo, AFT 1493 Executive Secretary, Dan Kaplan (left), helped CSEA members (l. to r.) Olivia Cortez-Figueroa, Annette Perot, Juanita Marie Celaya and Sarah Wilson.