powerful letter to CTA president David Sanchez

Please read this powerful letter written by a fellow teacher and personal friend . . .

Dear friends,
It's time to speak out. Most of you know that I'm a teacher. Recently, CTA, the California Teachers Association donated $1,250,000 to the 'No on 8' campaign. When I read this I was very angry and, frankly, embarrassed. Here was the largest state teachers union in the country telling the world that they spoke for me. I didn't know what to do so I wrote a letter to the CTA president, David Sanchez, to tell him what I thought. That letter snowballed into a grassroots movement within the teaching ranks (Teachers for Prop. 8) that brought out those of us who are tired of being represented by am extreme leftist organization. That $1.25 million was only a small part of the more than $5 million CTA has given to political causes and campaigns this year. In an email from my local union's state council "representative", he states that the vote to approve these political donations was "nearly unanimous". There are over 800 men and women in that state council. Where can you get 800 elected people to agree unanimously on anything? Think of the countries that hold "democratic" elections and take note of the ones where the vote comes out "nearly unanimous". That's frightening. I've attached my original letter to this email. Please read it. If you know a teacher anywhere in this state, send it to them and encourage them to write a letter of their own to CTA president, David Sanchez. If you know anyone who has children who attend public school, send to them and ask that they write a letter. If you know anyone who pays taxes that fund public education, send it to them as well. We need to speak out. We CAN have some influence if we will just speak out. May we all fight the good fight.

21 October 2008

Dear President Sanchez,

I am just one voice among many. It’s difficult for one voice to be heard. Nevertheless, I have found it impossible to remain silent any more. I am writing to express my anger over two decisions CTA has made that are wrong and, in my mind, criminal.

The first is in regards to the $20.00 donation that has quietly been removed from my paycheck ($2.00 at a time) each month since the school year began in September. It is my understanding that it is being taken from each CTA member and has been designated to support some scholarships and other causes the board of directors has deemed worthy.

I, like all of my unsuspecting colleagues around the state, were notified a few weeks ago of the surreptitious deductions and told that you would graciously send back OUR hard earned money (which was taken without permission) upon written request. That’s big hearted of you, Mr. Sanchez. What I find most interesting is that you aren’t sending the money back until the end of the year – after you have collected great amounts of interest from the money you’ve stolen from us. Is that even legal?

The second is in your financial support of Proposition 8. CTA is a union. Unions were created to promote better working conditions for the people they represented. You represent me. How does the passing or failing of this proposition affect my working conditions? It doesn’t. I personally don’t care how you or CTA’s leaders feel about any political issue. However, I do care what my union does with the money they take from me every month.

You represent me, Mr. Sanchez, but very few of CTA’s decisions represent how I, and many of my colleagues feel. Did you poll those you claim to represent? Did you ask around the state what the plain old classroom teacher thinks about all this? Did you ever think about climbing outside your box to ask what WE thought? I don’t ever remember seeing a survey asking for my opinion, yet you donated well over a million dollars in my name. I would have been equally angered if you would have given to the other side.

Aren’t there other buckets that could use some filling? I have some ideas. How about spending more money to lower class sizes? How about using the millions of dollars in political contributions to help us get better benefits and wages around the state? How about adding some of this surplus of money you seem to be able to give away to our STRS fund. How about buying each school site a pallet of paper so our kids will have something to write on? How about taking less money out of our paychecks each month so WE can decide whom to support. Or, how about just sending it back to help us buy some bread and milk to get us through to the end of the month.

This is why I held out so long to join. You have become corrupted. You have stolen my money, offered to give it back, but keep the interest made on it. You spend money you have collected from the hardest working people in the state and wastefully spent it on causes that only promote your personal political philosophies. You have lost sight of what unions used to mean to the working person.

Randall J. Schimpf
Barnett Elementary School
Ramona Unified School District


Contacting David A. Sanchez:

California Teachers Association
P.O. Box 9211705 Murchison Drive
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
Phone: (650) 552-5305
FAX: (650) 552-5007
E-mail: dsanchez@cta.org