Wayne’s World, Again

At a time when California has embarked on a historic effort to reform its public schools, the state’s largest teachers union has chosen as its new president a scrappy fighter for wages and power.

Wayne Johnson, who officially took the reins of the 295,000-member California Teachers Assn. last week, said he supports holding teachers to high standards and investing more union money in their professional development. He even gives tepid support to Gov. Gray Davis’ plan to require teachers to review the performance of their veteran colleagues.

But what he relishes is a good political battle.

“We’re relentless,” Johnson said. “If you want to fight, we’re going to fight and you know we’re going to rough you up in the process.”

The union, which represents 95% of the state’s teachers, devotes nearly $8 million annually to support or oppose initiatives and candidates. Johnson said he wants to boost that amount by asking for an increase in the $19 each member contributes annually to an initiative fund. The organization spends $4 million more on direct lobbying.

That money, combined with the size of the union, makes it a powerful political force. Last November, the union backed a successful $9.2-billion school construction bond measure and spent $6.6 million to block an initiative that would have required teachers to pass competency tests and created an education czar to judge school performance. The union was also the top contributor to Davis’ campaign.

“The only thing I’d like to do differently is advocate more aggressively for some of the changes that we believe in,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s two main goals are to increase education spending and to create a larger role for teachers in education reform efforts. “Give me decent class size, give me books and materials and then give me professional flexibility,” he said. “Don’t dictate to me what, where, why and how” to teach.

Johnson’s track record shows that he knows how to win.

He started his career as a social studies teacher at Los Angeles’ Hamilton High School in 1962. Back then, he said, nearly all of the school’s students were white and it was one of the best in the state academically.

As neighborhoods to the east of Robertson Boulevard became more integrated, so did the school. Soon, though, students who had previously attended Hamilton began going to University High School, which was farther to the west.

Although the school worked hard to maintain high-level, academically challenging courses, it could not stop the exodus. Johnson said similar dynamics have plagued public education in cities across the state, undermining their image and cutting into community support.

Nowhere is that more true than in Los Angeles, which has 40,000 public school teachers. Johnson became president of United Teachers-Los Angeles in 1984.

An Aggressive Leader

When he assumed the post, Johnson said, the membership was dispirited and the organization was so broke that it was unable to pay the phone bill the first two months he was in office. Under his stewardship, the union quickly became more militant.

From 1984 to 1986, Los Angeles teachers won raises averaging 8% annually. In 1987, teachers boycotted all after-school activities and got a 10% raise. To pay for it, the district cut back on music, counseling and after-school tutoring.

The next year, the union took teachers out on strike for nine days and won a 24% salary increase over three years as well as far greater decision-making power at individual schools.

Former state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said Johnson subscribed to the “old-fashioned, pump ‘em up, get ‘em angry, make management into the bad guy approach.”

The approach had its advantages. When Johnson left the presidency in 1990, the union had enough money to buy a Mid-Wilshire headquarters building and had won a contract clause known as “agency fee.” All unions cherish such clauses because it means that all workers are required to pay a fee to the union, regardless of whether they are members.

But the lucrative settlement won by Johnson and United Teachers-Los Angeles in 1989 backfired the next year. In 1990, with the state facing serious financial setbacks, the school had to cut wages by 3% or face bankruptcy. Wages were slashed even more the next year.

Looking back, Johnson said those were different times. “I’ve changed quite a bit,” he said. “I understand that, to move the agenda, oftentimes a frontal, full-force assault is not necessarily a best strategy. It worked in 1989, but we live in a different world today.”

Johnson said the battles in Los Angeles left him weary. He returned to teaching at Hamilton in 1990 and served on the state organization’s board of directors. Then he ran for vice president in 1995 and left the classroom.

Johnson, 59, lives in Fullerton with his wife, Beverly, a special education teacher at Diamond Bar High School.

Johnson takes over the California Teachers Assn. from Lois Tinson, who became union president in 1995. Tinson softened the organization’s often combative stance on education reform. She reached out to more Republican legislators, brokered a compromise that will allow the creation of more charter schools and stressed the importance of having the union work on ways to improve teaching and learning.

Under his leadership, Johnson said, the union may start some charter schools. But the union also sponsored a bill--vehemently opposed by charter school proponents--that would have required the faculty at all such schools to be part of the union.

The bill caused such a storm of protest that its sponsors were forced to back off. Now the bill simply says that the teachers should have the right to vote to unionize, as do all other teachers.

Johnson also said the union is considering introducing ballot measures that would raise taxes to support public education and make it easier to pass local construction bonds.

Johnson knows the union faces pressures from within and from outside.

The union’s wealth and power have drawn the ire--and envy--of political opponents. Adversaries have tried unsuccessfully to curtail its ability to use union dues for political purposes.

Johnson said it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that the organization should not be politically active or that its interests are at odds with those of the public schools. “These are not flamethrowing fanatics,” he said. “I want this state to understand who the CTA is. It’s your friends and neighbors, 75% of them are women, median age 43, who teach children all day.”

He said the union will protect their interests. But he said, “We also understand we have to protect the institution [of public education]. If we only protect our members, it would be shortsighted and eventually it would kill us.”

Internal polls show the union’s membership wants the organization to continue its political and legislative efforts. But the members also want the union to do more to help them improve their skills.

Only 3% of the union’s $100-million budget is spent on its Institute for Professional Development, and Johnson said that he wants to increase that amount. The institute holds seminars around the state for new teachers and an annual “good teaching” conference that this spring attracted 1,000 teachers.

Johnson recognizes that the public is demanding better schools. He takes over just as the state’s public schools receive a second round of test scores that, early indications are, will show improvement.

But he said the testing fervor has gone overboard and is part of a top-down philosophy that cuts teachers out of the picture. Still, the union has had to walk a tightrope in criticizing education reform.

Davis promised to improve public education during his campaign, and after taking office in January quickly introduced four reform bills.

The union quickly got behind two--to require a high school exit exam and to pour more money into improving reading instruction. But it balked at supporting two others. One called for a peer review system for veteran teachers and the other for an accountability system. The bills passed anyway and have been signed.

Teacher Empowerment

Johnson said he is not opposed to holding teachers accountable or to having peer review. But he said teachers must also have a say in which teachers are hired, how money is spent and what college courses prospective teachers are required to take.

He also emphasized that California still spends about $1,000 less per pupil than the national average, that 20% of California’s students are not fluent in English and that poverty rates are rising. Given those factors, he said, it’s unrealistic for Davis to expect test scores to go up 5% annually.

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“I’m not knocking the governor,” Johnson said. “He’s sincere and he’s trying to do the right thing. . . . But the reality of the problems that face California education didn’t change just because Gray Davis got elected.”