FilAmstar.net: Yee named ‘Legislator of the Year’ by CA school employees

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Yee named ‘Legislator of the Year’ by CA school employees
Jul 30, 05:33 PM

SACRAMENTO — For his commitment to education and working families, Senator Leland Yee has been named “Legislator of the Year” by the California School Employees Association (CSEA) – the largest classified school employee union in the United States.

CSEA represents 220,000 school support staff throughout Californiawho perform a wide range of essential work in our public schools and community colleges, including security, food services, office and clerical work, school maintenance, transportation, academic assistance, library and media assistance, computer services, and more.

“Senator Yee has stood with working families and CSEA members over and over during these difficult budget fights,” said Dave Low, CSEA Director of Government Relations. “He refused to cut funding for schools and has been a champion for good middle class jobs, with quality health care and retirement. CSEA is recognizing Senator Leland Yee as our ‘Legislator of the Year’ because he doesn’t just vote the right way for schools, he reaches out, communicates and cares about education and classified employees.”

“I am honored to receive this award and proud to stand with the students, teachers, school employees, and parents who are saying ‘enough is enough,’” said Yee. “The state budget should not be balanced on the backs of students, schools and the most vulnerable. I will continue to oppose all budgets that put the interests of corporations and the rich before the interests of public education and California families.”

Yee will be presented the award on Tuesday, August 3, 2010, at the CSEA Annual Conference, Sacramento Convention Center– Hall D, 1400 J Street at 11:30 AM.

Yee has consistently voted against cuts to education and is the only senator to have signed a commitment card from the California Education Coalition to protect schools during the ongoing state budget battle.

“Senator Leland Yee is the only State Senator so far who has stood by his word to make public education a priority and has signed a commitment card vowing to protect our students, schools and colleges from further budget cuts,” said David A. Sanchez, president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association. “He understands that the future of our students and the future of California depend on us having a quality public education system. We hope other legislators will follow his lead.”

“We are so proud of Senator Yee for standing up and saying no to more cuts,” said Marty Hittelman, president of the California Federation of Teachers, representing 120,000 educational employees. “After all of the carnage inflicted by the governor and the legislature on education, it is a ray of sunshine to have a legislator like Senator Yee stand up for the people of California. We, and the students we serve, applaud him.”

Yee has authored dozens of laws to assist children and improve schools. This year, Yee is authoring legislation to protect kids from violent crime, to increase transparency and accountability at the state’s higher education institutions, to ensure speech rights of students, to guard teachers and school employees from unfair retaliation by administrators, and to improve public health and safety of children.

For these efforts, Yee has been named “Legislator of the Year” by several other organizations as well, including the California Association of School Psychologists, California School Nutrition Association, California Psychiatric Association, Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, California Mental Health Directors Association, Associated Students of UC Davis, California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, San Francisco Women’s Political Committee, California Faculty Association, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME 3299). Yee was also recently honored with Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Human Rights Award by the National Education Association – the largest professional organization and labor union in the United States, representing over 3.2 million school teachers and university faculty and staff.

“It is time for those who say they care about funding education to be held accountable for their actions,” said Yee. “If the Republicans say repealing corporate tax breaks is off the table, Democrats need to keep education off the table.”

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