Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/189657
FOUNDING " Literally, all teachers were dismissed and re-hired annually through local school board examinations, a process fraught with abuse, caprice, and intrigue. development, salaries, professional standards, and procedures for teacher certification. In 1866, the Society's petition, and a barnstorming tour in which Swett delivered a speech titled "Duties of the State to Public Schools," led to passage of the landmark California law establishing free public schools – funded by a statewide tax measure – for all the state's children, no matter where they lived. That same year, The California Teacher became the official organ of the State Board of Education, funded through state appropriations. In 1867, the California Educational Society, following the National Educational Association's lead, admitted women to membership, and charged women members annual dues ($5) half those of their male colleagues – a tacit recognition of the fact, decried by Swett in his final report as superintendent, that while public school teachers were generally paid inadequately, women teachers, despite often equal or better qualifications and experience, were paid less than their male colleagues. The State Teachers Association " A banquet at the 1910 CTA convention held at the University of California Berkeley campus, just three years after the organization filed for incorporation. conventions, and by 1876 the California Educational Society had ceased to exist. The body that replaced it, the State Teachers Association, was formed from a core group of teachers from the San Francisco Bay Area who, over the next quarter-century, combined with colleagues from other regions: Los Angeles/ Southern California, the San Joaquin/Central Valley, and the Sacramento Valley. These affiliations, however, remained weak until the turn of the 20th century; most of the State Teachers Association members were Northern California school administrators. In 1891, at a joint convention in Riverside, the four regional organizations established a State Advisory Council to lead, and report on, the effort to secure reforms in educational legislation and practice. The Council, which included none other than John Swett – now a retired teacher and honorary lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of California – helped breathe life back into the organization. In 1900, Swett was appointed to the committee assigned to revise the association's constitution, and he was a member, also, of the committee that made its While it established a solid precedent as an advocacy organization for students and teachers, the California Educational Society achieved little compared to the latter-day California Teachers Association (CTA). An exclusive club of mostly male administrators, the Society found it increasingly difficult to maintain a statewide influence, and in 1871 the legislature withdrew financial support of The California Teacher. The annual State Teachers Institute was replaced by a series of county conventions, keeping teachers within widely separated regional groups. For nearly two decades, there were no statewide teachers' OCTOBER 201 3 Educator 10 Oct 2013 v2.1 int.indd 57 www.cta.org 57 10/7/13 9:39 PM