The California Teachers Association (CTA) is running a TV ad criticizing Governor Gavin Newsom. The ad claims that the governor’s budget cuts will lead to larger class sizes and many teacher layoffs.
“California classrooms face a monumental crisis,” says the narrator of the ad. It urges people to tell lawmakers and Governor Newsom to pass a state budget that protects public schools.
This ad comes after the CTA donated $250,000 to Newsom’s Yes on Prop 1 committee in February and $1.8 million to his anti-recall campaign in 2022.
Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy for the California Policy Center and a critic of the CTA, said, “The alarmism in the ad is over the top and doesn’t reflect California’s budget realities.”
The governor’s budget proposes cuts of $150 per student compared to the January budget proposal. It also delays $8 billion in cuts to the future, which the California Legislative Analyst’s Office calls an accounting trick.
The ad started airing this week, and the CTA has also threatened to sue over the school cuts.