Local 99 Members Make Their Voices Heard to Urge Legislators to Fund Education
At about 6:30 p.m. on April 17, the large tour buses started lining up outside SEIU Local 99—buses headed to Sacramento that would be pulling out around midnight filled with school janitors, cafeteria workers, community college employees, child care providers, Head Start teachers, and others in the field of education and early care.
Our mission: to tell Sacramento to stop the cuts that hurt our kids and families.
Nearly 100 Local 99 members joined that trip to make sure legislators heard from us. After arriving early Wednesday morning, we received some lobby training, marched and chanted on our way to the capital, and started showing up at legislators’ offices.
Together, Local 99 members visited 39 legislators. We told them about our commitment to children and the effects of three years of devastating budget cuts. We asked them to stop the cuts, to preserve special “categorical” funding that pays for the services we provide, including transportation, nutrition, special education, and other programs. We also urged them to oppose the “realignment” of the guaranteed funding that would shift child care services from state oversight to counties.
Legislators came to us!
At the end of our day, legislators went out of their way to come to a special reception to meet us and wish us well on our trip home. They emphasized their commitment to quality schools and the employees who provide that quality: US! SEIU Local 99 members are making politics work for our schools!
We are the 99%!
During our “Midnight Ride” Kick-Off Rally Tuesday night, we shined some light on one of the main reasons we don’t have enough money for quality child care and good schools: the rich “1%” aren’t paying their fair share and hugely profitable corporations raking in tens of billions of dollars are paying ZERO in taxes. We held a “Tax Revolt Carnival” after our press conference. The rally was covered by ABC 7, Univision, Telemundo, and several other local news stations. Watch the coverage!
What’s next?
We took this trip in anticipation of Governor Brown’s “May Revise” of his budget proposal. Each year, the Governor adjusts his budget after he learns how much money the state received in income taxes. We wanted to make sure he heard from us before releasing this revised budget.
Take action!
…and we want to make sure the Governor keeps on hearing from us. If you haven’t already, be sure to call him at 1-866-873-0560 or email the Governor to let him know what the cuts mean to the children and families you serve!
“This is the second time I went to Sacramento to advocate for students. I told Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield about the student I work most closely with and how budget cuts affect him. I can’t wait to show my student the photos of me talking to the legislators, fighting for his education.”
Laura Christopher
Special Education Assistant, Van Nuys High SchoolLaura pictured with Assemblymember Filipe Fuentes’ Chief of Staff Raul Bocanegra
