On Oct. 8, Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association (ASTA) members and Oxford teachers gathered at Oxford Academy to stand with educators across California, participating in the ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign. The event was part of a statewide initiative involving 77,000 educators in 32 California school districts, demanding increased funding in schools. The California Teacher Association (CTA) initially launched the ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign on Feb. 4, encouraging various unions across districts to create a collective voice to advocate for change. Despite California’s status as the 5th-largest economy in the world, the state ranks in the bottom half nationally for per-student funding: the amount a school or district receives to educate an individual student annually.
According to The State of California’s Public Schools, by the CTA’s Research Firm, GBAO Strategies, many educators think they aren’t receiving enough financial support for their schools, and as a result, nearly 4 in 10 say they are considering leaving the profession.
‘We Can’t Wait’ was developed to bring together statewide attention and action to shared requests from teacher unions.
“Think of it like an umbrella: the ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign with CTA is the whole state, and there are a bunch of district teacher unions that are under that umbrella, and we’re all fighting for things that are relevant to our specific district,” Danielle White, ASTA’s organizing chair, said.
The specific change which AUHSD is requesting for is the implementation of a class-size cap. This measure aims to address concerns specific to their district while aligning with the broader goals of the state-wide campaign.
“For junior high, we’re asking for a maximum of 37 students in a class, and for high school, we’re asking for a maximum of 39 students in a class. And these are very realistic, righteous, and financially doable for our district,” Mrs. White said.
At Oxford Academy, more than 20 teachers — many of whom are union members — dressed in black, red, or ASTA merchandise and showed their support for the campaign on Oct. 8th. They aided other members in passing out flyers to cars coming onto campus as they explained the initiative to them.
“I definitely have had classes as big as 45 students in the past. It’s tough to meet the needs of every single student in class when that’s the case — just the volume of grading is pretty substantial and trying to make sure that all students are following along. It’s harder to do that in a class of 45 as opposed to a class of 35 or 30,” Oxford math teacher Mr. Williams, said.
As statewide campaigns continue, the Oct. 8 rally at Oxford highlighted the issue of underfunding in schools, which ASTA President Geoff Morgenstern fully supports, hoping for the campaign to support students.
“At the heart of our campaign are the learning conditions of our students. The community has been very supportive and we [encourage] the community to join us at site rallies, school board meetings, and other opportunities to have the voices of our community heard. Students and families sharing their current educational experiences and needs will help convince district leadership to adopt our ‘We Can’t Wait’ campaign proposals,” Mr. Morganstern said.
