Flavored tobacco. Sports betting. Taxing millionaires to fund electric vehicles. All face a common enemy this fall: California teachers.
The state’s largest teachers union has pumped millions into ballot initiative fights that seem to have little or nothing to do with education. And polls show those measures are in trouble.
The 310,000-member California Teachers Association spends millions of dollars each year lobbying Sacramento, but its influence is hardly confined to education policy. The labor powerhouse has staked positions on November ballot initiatives ranging from abortion rights to vape juice, and its lobbyists champion criminal justice reform, grants to help undocumented families and affordable housing policy.
