Fighting for the Public Schools and Communities All Students Deserve

An educator since 1997, CTA President David B. Goldberg has spent most of his career as a bilingual teacher at Murchison Elementary in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In addition to English, he is fluent in both Spanish and sign language.

Goldberg has a long history of union activism. He previously served as CTA vice president and secretary-treasurer for four years each, as well as two three-year terms on the CTA Board of Directors. Goldberg also previously served as treasurer of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). He comes from a long line of Los Angeles educator union leaders—he was active in the UTLA strike of 2019, just as his mother “walked the line in 1989” as a UTLA strike captain and his grandmother did during the L.A. teachers strike in 1971.

Goldberg is committed to securing the full funding that California public schools deserve. He led CTA’s effort in 2020 to reform corporate property tax laws to fully fund public education and local services, and reverse decades of disinvestment in our communities. Goldberg sees advocacy for strong public schools as part of a larger struggle for social justice, with CTA leading the way in the movement for equitable opportunity for all.

He spearheaded CTA’s efforts to establish community schools across the state, helping to guide local educators’ associations in their work with school districts to create transformative opportunities for students and families. Powered by the state’s $4.1 billion investment and the energy of organized educators, this effort has the potential to create real change for communities that have been historically underfunded, elevating the voices of the traditionally marginalized and giving them power and agency in fulfilling their needs.

Goldberg earned a bachelor’s degree in community studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and after a brief career as a professional basketball player overseas, earned his teaching credential through the intern program in LAUSD.

He is a lifelong resident of the Echo Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, Karla Alvarado-Goldberg (a high school psychiatric social worker in LAUSD). They have three children. In his free time, Goldberg enjoys gardening, bike riding and meditation.

Contacting David Goldberg

California Teachers Association, P.O. Box 921
1705 Murchison Drive
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921

dgoldberg@cta.org | Twitter: @teachergoldberg