Contact:
Sarah Lillis
916-761-1385
slillis@teachplus.org
October 3, 2024—Teach Plus California Executive Director Sarah Lillis today issued the following statement in response to Governor Newsom’s signed and vetoed education legislation:
“Teach Plus applauds Governor Newsom for signing AB 2074 (Muratsuchi/Alvarez) and SB 445 (Portantino) and advancing laws to establish structures that Teach Plus educators recognize as critical to the implementation of transformative educational policies. These bills send a strong message that passing a law, which promises educational opportunity, is not enough but that California must create and invest in the structures that enable educators to realize those promises. At the same time, Teach Plus is disappointed that Governor Newsom vetoed SB 1391 (Rubio), which would have provided essential transparency and oversight of the educator workforce.
Assembly Bill 2074 by Assembly members Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and David Alvarez (D-Chula Vista) requires the California Department of Education to create a state implementation plan for the English Learner Roadmap, which was first approved in 2017. Sponsored by Californians Together and the California Association of Bilingual Education, and supported by Teach Plus teacher leaders, this bill can help set a plan to bring the Roadmap to life and transform the educational experience of the more than one million multilingual learners. As Teach Plus Policy Fellow Angela Wright, who teaches in Azusa Unified School District, shared: ‘When the state board first adopted the EL Roadmap, there was a definite feeling of hope … Seven years later, the EL Roadmap has not reached its full potential. I sometimes describe the EL Roadmap as a self-guided tour lacking assistance to ensure its implementation, which is why I was so excited to learn that AB 2074 focuses on a statewide plan to ensure that the English-only days are long gone.’
In Ensuring Equity: Recommendations for Full Implementation of the English Learner Roadmap from Teach Plus California Policy Fellows, Teach Plus teacher leaders recommended that state leaders provide funding, resources, and guidance for district and school leaders to carry out integrated approaches to implement the English Learner Roadmap. By signing AB 2074, Governor Newsom has reinforced the importance of a state plan to do this.
Governor Newsom also signed Senate Bill 445 by Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Glendale) which requires the Department of Education to translate the forthcoming statewide Individualized Education Plan (IEP) template into the top 10 most commonly spoken languages used across the state aside from English and to make those templates available on the department’s website. Again, this is a small but essential step to help families and students who need additional support at least access the language of the required forms they need to complete with their partner educators.
While Teach Plus celebrates these important steps, teacher leaders recognize that there is much more that the state needs to do to implement policies to advance educational equity. These move the state forward in supporting multilingual learners and students with special needs, but Governor Newsom did not support the Legislature’s efforts to provide essential transparency and oversight of the teacher workforce. By vetoing Senate Bill 1391 by Senator Susan Rubio (D-West Covina), Governor Newsom has stood in the way of an effort to provide essential data on teachers and related grant programs, which was supported by the entire Legislature and a broad coalition of organizations. As Policy Fellow Eric Lewis, who teaches in San Francisco Unified School District, wrote in EdSource: ‘The Cradle-to-Career dashboard could provide critical data on how effective our teacher grant programs and teacher training pipelines are, but it has not yet lived up to its potential … We cannot back off investing in the future of our workforce — first understanding clearly which programs work and which don’t, and then doing everything we can to maintain the programs that ensure every student has access to a well-supported teacher who reflects the diversity of our state.’
Teach Plus teacher leaders sent a clear message: to transform the experiences of students and educators, California must invest in the implementation and oversight of visionary state policy. This year, the legislature and governor have made some important steps but have a long way to go.”
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus is dedicated to the mission of empowering excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success. In pursuing our mission, Teach Plus is guided by our Student Opportunity Mandate: All students should have the opportunity to achieve their potential in an education system defined by its commitment to equity, its responsiveness to individual needs, and its ability to prepare students for postsecondary success. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning for students. teachplus.org/ca
