Four years ago, Riverside teacher Barbara Kerr became president of the powerful California Teachers Association as the state neared its first-ever recall of a sitting governor. When she steps down as CTA president today, the longtime Woodcrest Elementary School teacher will have been in the thick of record budget problems and six statewide elections during a tenure defined by an up-and-down relationship with a world-famous governor. Kerr said she is looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family after spending all but a handful of days a month away from home in recent years.
The past four years, she said, were "exciting, amazing." "It s the same feeling as being at the end of the school year," Kerr said of leaving office. "You spend some time thinking of the things you didn t do.
But you have to look at how things changed from where you started to where you ended. "People ask if I m going to write a book or run for office. I need some time to relax.
I need to have some time to discover who I am," said Kerr, 60. Close associates called Kerr personable and driven. Kerr, they said, preferred coalitions and working together but was quick to put her 335,000-member union, one of the most influential groups in the state, into take-no-prisoners battle mode.
Politicians who crossed the teachers association found themselves in its crosshairs. "In all my dealings with Barbara, she represented herself, and her union, with the utmost faithfulness and vigor," said Tom Campbell, Schwarzenegger s former finance director, who squared off with the teachers association and Kerr during 2005 budget negotiations and that year s special-election campaign. Virtually all of school funding in California flows through Sacramento.
Under Kerr, the union was active in a statewide education alliance that included principals, school board members, parents and others. "Even though we have our differences, there is no doubt in our minds of the exemplary job she did these past four years as one of the major players in education. She was indefatigable," said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.
John Mockler, a longtime education consultant who often works with the union, said Kerr s tenure stands out. "In her presidency, she faced some incredible challenges," Mockler said. Top among those was the 2005 special election.
Kerr and the teachers association were dominant forces in the campaign to oppose ballot measures promoted by Schwarzenegger that would have changed state law on teacher tenure, union political spending, and state school funding. The association spent more than $50 million against the initiatives, some of it raised by increasing dues and borrowing against its Sacramento office. "I don t think people really grasp the risk that CTA took in making the decisions to engage in a heads-up battle with the governor, not just because it was Arnold Schwarzenegger but any governor," said Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman, the strategist for the umbrella group of unions known as the Alliance for a Better California.
"That would have been risky for any organization that is incredibly dependent on state funding and good relationships with whoever is in the governor s office," she said. "But she made the decision and she never looked back." Kerr leaves her job on good terms with Schwarzenegger despite the 2005 hostilities.
The two met for a final time a month ago, discussing health care, vocational education, and the federal No Child Left Behind law, she said. Schwarzenegger, she said, mentioned getting together once he leaves office in 2010. "He said, When I m through, I ll call you up and we ll pump iron together in Venice, " Kerr said.
In a statement, Schwarzenegger called Kerr a "tireless advocate for teachers and children." "It has been a pleasure to work with her," the governor said. Four years ago, Riverside teacher Barbara Kerr became president of the powerful California Teachers Association as the state neared its first-ever recall of a sitting governor.
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