Los Angeles – California Teachers Association President Eric C. Heins, Vice President Theresa Montaño, and Secretary-Treasurer David Goldberg have been re-elected by acclamation to second terms in office by CTA’s State Council of Education in Los Angeles. The action by the elected governing body of more than 800 educators statewide assures continuity and stability as experienced leadership of the state’s largest education union continues to lead the profession and advocate a student-centered agenda in the face of new and ongoing challenges. Heins, Montaño, and Goldberg will begin their second terms in June.

A 26-year teaching veteran President Heins has taught kindergarten through fifth grade, including music in the Pittsburg Unified School District, and is a member of the Pittsburg Education Association. Over the past two years as CTA president, Heins has led the successful CTA efforts to pass Proposition 55, preventing billions in cuts to public schools, and Proposition 58, restoring important language acquisition strategies that had been banned two decades earlier. He has also led efforts to implement California’s new Local Control Funding Formula which puts important decisions back in the hands of local stakeholders, and was co-chair of the California’s Accountability and Continuous Improvement Task Force, whose work has brought major improvements to the way the state measure’s school and student progress. Heins also successfully led CTA against two failed legal attacks against educators, Vergara v. California and Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, and fought efforts by billionaires and corporations to privatize public education. He has a master’s degree in language and literacy education from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from Chapman College.

“It’s been a privilege to work alongside thousands of amazing California educators during my first term and I look forward to continuing to help them help their students over the next two years,” said Heins. “We have won several important battles on behalf of public education and the students we serve, and we will certainly face more very soon. I’m excited to lead CTA’s continuing and outstanding work, and to partner with my fellow officers, colleagues and coalition partners to ensure that every California student has the quality education they need and deserve.”

Vice President Montaño is currently a professor of Chicana/Chicano studies at California State University Northridge. She also has many years of experience as a middle and high school teacher in Los Angeles and Denver, CO—experience that has given her a special understanding of issues facing all students and educators in California’s public schools and colleges. Fluent in Spanish, Montaño served for six years as an NEA board director and as the president of the National Council for Higher Education. Her commitment to social justice issues and her experience working with students at multiple levels helped her lead CTA efforts to pass Proposition 58 and restore bilingual education to California.

Secretary-Treasurer Goldberg, an educator for 21 years, has spent most of his career as a bilingual teacher at Murchison Elementary in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is a third-generation teacher and is fluent in Spanish and American Sign Language. A committed education and social justice advocate, Goldberg has deeply engaged in coalition building around the struggles in public education. Over the past two years he has ensured that CTA has remained fiscally sound in the wake of massive cuts to public education and in the face of ongoing attempts to weaken labor unions and their ability to stay adequately funded. 

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The 325,000-member California Teachers Association is affiliated with the 3 million-member National