"Stop the blame. Stop the cuts," the California Teachers Union exhorted in a billboard and mailing campaign last month aimed at California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
Over the weekend, the Sacramento Democrat fired his own surgical strike with a "Dear Educator" letter to offer his side of the story. In a two-page letter, the mailing paid for by campaign funds seeks to remind teachers that Steinberg is on their side.
Last year, the letter says, "we worked together" to try to get voters to pass Proposition 1B to get more back money into schools. The May special election measure called for putting $9.3 billion back into schools and community colleges that hadn't been appropriated but was due.
Proposition 1B failed, "despite our collective efforts," Steinberg notes -- and millions, he adds, worth of political advertising that the CTA had committed to the cause.
"Like you, I was disappointed," Steinberg's letter says. "That public rejection" has made the budget task tougher, resulting in cuts in teachers and deep cuts in funding.
"The only tool we've had to slow the bleeding is Proposition 98 (the law that guarantees schools a minimum amount of general fund money)," Steinberg says. "Since I became the leader of the Senate eighteen months ago, we have been able to increase Proposition 98 funding by $1.6 billion."
"People know that I remain committed to doing everything I can to fund our public schools," Steinberg says. "The future of our state depends on it."
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