In 1863, just 13 years after California became a state, its superintendent of public instruction, John Swett, founded the California Educational Society with 100 members, all men.<\/p>\n
It was the genesis of what became the California Teachers Association, a trade union that achieved, through laser-like focus, substantial political power long before the state\u2019s public employee unions gained collective bargaining rights a half-century ago.<\/p>\n
The CTA collects dues from its more than 300,000 current members and spends much of its revenue on campaign contributions to friendly politicians and lobbying for and against legislative bills and the occasional ballot measure.<\/p>\n
There are thousands of interest groups pressing their causes in the Capitol, but the CTA is generally regarded as the most influential. Its shining achievement was the 1988 passage of Proposition 98, a constitutional guarantee of state support for elementary, high school and community college education, offsetting the decline of local property taxes from Proposition 13 a decade earlier.<\/p>\n
Each year, as the governor and legislators haggle over a new state budget, the process begins with calculating how much the complex Prop. 98 formula requires to be allocated to schools, after which the remainder of state revenue is divvied up among other programs and services.<\/p>\n
If the politicians come up short, they\u2019re allowed to cut the school money but must later restore it.<\/p>\n
In recent years, however, another segment of the budget has risen to challenge education for fiscal dominance: health care coverage for 14 million low-income Californians \u2014 more than a third of the state\u2019s population \u2014 through Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n
The state is spending nearly $200 billion on Medi-Cal in the current fiscal year, and Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s 2026-27 budget ups that to $217 billion. Most of that money comes from the federal government, but it\u2019s still one of the budget\u2019s larger state commitments, about $50 billion.<\/p>\n
Reductions in federal aid have put pressure on Newsom and the Legislature to cover the shortfall. Much of that pressure comes from a union that rivals the CTA in single-minded pursuit of its goals: SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which claims 120,000 members.<\/p>\n
Inevitably the interests of CTA\u2019s teachers and those of SEIU-UHW\u2019s health care workers have collided since there\u2019s only so much money to go around unless taxes of some kind are increased.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s race for governor is one arena for that rivalry. Service Employees International Union, the parent of SEIU-UHW, is backing former Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the leading Democrat. The CTA has supported billionaire Tom Steyer, who has repeatedly pledged to pursue one of the teachers\u2019 holy grails, removing Prop. 13\u2019s property tax limits on commercial property, which would generate more money for schools.<\/p>\n
The two unions also are at odds over details in the state budget, such as financing preschool programs. The state Senate\u2019s version of the budget would shift preschool support into the Prop. 98 segment of the budget, thus freeing up money that could go to health care. CTA sees that as a raid on school funds.<\/p>\n
Their biggest clash of all is over a ballot measure sponsored by SEIU-UHW that would levy a 5% tax on the wealth of California\u2019s roughly 200 billionaires and devote nearly all of its revenue to propping up health care.<\/p>\n
CTA leaders not only dislike being excluded from a pot of new tax money; they worry that having it on the November ballot would undermine support for the teachers\u2019 union ballot measure, which would make permanent a surtax on incomes of the state\u2019s wealthiest residents, which was first approved by voters in 2012. Approving it would maintain as much as $15 billion in annual tax revenue.<\/p>\n
For unions which usually align on issues, it\u2019s becoming a clash of the titans.<\/p>\n
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1863, just 13 years after California became a state, its superintendent of public instruction, John Swett, 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