The union-funded independent expenditure committee California Working Families may have just left the airwaves, but the California Teachers Association is stepping in with a 30-second spot attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman for supposedly backing education cuts.
The teachers union ad says Whitman would cut $7 billion from the schools and lay off 100,000 teachers. On the campaign trail, Whitman has not said she wants to cut school funds but has proposed redirecting money from school administrative costs to the classroom. She's also proposed creating more charter schools and setting up a bonus system to reward teachers and administrators.
Whitman spokeswoman Andrea Jones Rivera said in an e-mail, "The CTA hasn't done its homework. Meg's plan to fix California's schools would direct more of the money spent on education into the classroom, reward outstanding teachers, institute a system that grades our schools on an A-F scale, and eliminate the cap on charter schools. The CTA gets an F for accuracy on this ad."
Here's the text of the ad:
"Should California continue the cutbacks that are crippling our classrooms? Meg Whitman says yes. Whitman says we should cut another seven billion dollars from our schools. Teacher layoffs -- 100,000 more. 33 percent larger class sizes. And even more cuts to arts and music programs that deny our kids a well-rounded education. Tell Meg Whitman that cutting education to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy is wrong for our schools and California's future."
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