06/02/2026
Recently our President, Jes Bracken, joined other leaders from across the state in Sacramento to take public education advocacy to the frontlines - the state assembly. She met with Cottie petrie-Norris, Brian Jones ,Tasha Boerner, Kate Sanchez , Laurie Davies , Diane Dixon, Tom Umber, and Dr. Darshana Patel to provide first hand information and knowledge about the day to day realities public educators face.
While in Sacramento, the Governor’s revised budget was released, which contained some big wins including 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, extra ongoing money for Special Education, and a 4.31% COLA.
The Governor is still proposing to withhold 3.9 billion from schools Prop 98 guaranteed money for budgetary reasons. Jes, along with many others, advocated to fully fund prop 98. This is important because in Irvine, the majority of our funding comes from Prop 98, so cuts to this funding source could have a major impact.
In addition, Jes advocated for an “Earn while you Learn”- stipend for student teachers and gave testimony in support of the 14-weeks paid maternity leave in a senate hearing.
This work is so important and is powerful. Thank you, Jes, for being the collective voice for so many. We appreciate you!
Image credit: Jes Bracken
