ARNOLD BETRAYS SCHOOLS, ADS SAY.

Byline: David M. Drucker Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - The war between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and organized labor escalated Monday, as the California Teachers Union launched television ads accusing him of breaking his promise to fully fund public education.

The statewide television campaign comes a week after Schwarzenegger was targeted in radio ads by California's largest union of state employees - the Service Employees International Union, Local 1000. The CTA's latest ad buy, costing more than $2.5 million, is scheduled to run two weeks on television and three weeks on radio.

``California teachers feel betrayed by this governor,'' said Barbara E. Kerr, president of the 335,000-member union. ``His broken funding promise and his attacks on (Proposition 98) will mean larger class sizes, fewer textbooks and more teacher layoffs. That's not reform; that's revolting.''

Schwarzenegger's allies are countering the union offensive, with the governor saying Monday that he will pursue his agenda ``no matter how many unions are against me.''

Teachers and public-school administrators in one group - with union members among them - have formed a coalition to promote Schwarzenegger's education agenda, while a political committee last week launched statewide television ads urging voters to sign petitions to place the governor's proposed constitutional amendments on a special November ballot.

``There's a real difference between what union leadership in Sacramento represents and what teachers actually believe in their hearts,'' said Margaret Fortune, just named by Schwarzenegger to improve California's troubled schools. ``Only in the world of a union lobbyist is a $3 billion increase in funding to schools characterized as a cut.''

Schwarzenegger proposes increasing education spending by $2.9 billion in his 2005-06 budget proposal. But that amount falls short of the minimum funding level demanded by Proposition 98 and goes against an agreement the governor made with the CTA last year when he secured the association's support for suspending the voter-approved law.

Meanwhile, the CTA, SEIU and a coalition of other unions are cooperating to defeat Schwarzenegger's move to overhaul the California Constitution. Among the governor's proposals stoking tensions between organized labor and him are his plans to implement merit pay for teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade and to replace the guaranteed benefits doled out by the public-employee pension system with 401(k) accounts.

David M. Drucker, [phone]

david.drucker(at)dailybulletin.com