Vantage Point: CSBA’s 75th—Oh, what a year this has been! 

It is so very hard for me to believe that 2006 is coming to an end. This year has flown by. It has been such an honor to serve as your president this year. I thank all of you for your support and for placing your confidence in me. I also want to acknowledge and thank my fellow Executive Committee members for their commitment to the children of California: President-elect Dr. Kathy Kinley, Vice President Paul H. Chatman, Immediate Past President Dr. Kerry Clegg and, of course, Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin. We have made an awesome team. Additionally, I want to recognize the dedicated CSBA staff for its tireless efforts on behalf of public schools and our children.

Oh, what a year this has been! As always, our vision statement has served as our focus and our guiding light. We have worked to ensure that “the futures of all children are driven by their aspirations, not bounded by their circumstances” by persuading the governor to pay the schools the money that he owed them, working to close the achievement gap, kicking off our campaign to obtain adequate funding for California schools and working diligently to ensure passage of Proposition 1D.

We worked to ensure that “local citizen governing boards are fully vested with the means to advance the best interests of students and the public” by fighting the mayoral takeover of Los Angeles schools. During our campaign to defeat Assembly Bill 1381, CSBA’s Legislative Action Network Alerts met with a strong response from school board members and superintendents across the state, who sent thousands of messages to the Capitol in opposition to the mayor’s efforts to take over the school district. This battle is not over; it continues in the courts, where CSBA has joined a broad coalition to challenge the constitutionality of AB 1381.

In fact, our struggles on behalf of all of the issues we confronted this year continue on to next year. My first column for California School News was entitled, “2006 will be about adequate funding.” And indeed, we started this school year with a dramatic increase in funding—but I want to remind everyone that this was money that schools were owed and that this was an election year. Next year could be a very different matter.

Despite years of struggling to protect Proposition 98 funding, California remains 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding. Consequently, with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CSBA will continue to work with our partners in the Education Coalition, the state PTA, League of Women Voters and Children Now to develop a public engagement campaign addressing adequate funding in California schools.

Finally, 2007 marks the year of reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. Our “Fix NCLB” campaign has been revived. CSBA will be joined by our friends in the Education Coalition in our efforts to amend this law. All of you are a crucial part of that effort. We need to reach out to our own individual congressional representatives and help them understand the need for change.

For 75 years, CSBA has served the children and the public schools of this state. As we move into the next 75 years, we will continue to promote the interests of public schools and the children they serve. Happy 75th anniversary, CSBA!