In a long-fought win for Career and Technical Education teachers, Assembly Bill 2245 (Carrillo) was signed into law this month by Governor Newsom. This bill creates a pathway to permanent status for all CTE teachers — both in Adult Education and K-12 — in programs run by a single district, such as LAUSD. 

Currently, CTE teachers are at-will employees and can be fired without cause and have no due process rights. 

“Being at-will employees is particularly unfortunate because CTE teachers are often hard to find,” said Matthew Kogan, the UTLA Board member for Adult Education. “It is difficult to find an industry-experienced individual who is willing to change careers, for usually less money, and then they find out that they are at-will employees with fewer rights than other teachers.” 

This bill was sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers, which lobbied vigorously for its passage. In the final days before the bill was signed, UTLA members participated in an electronic letter campaign encouraging the governor to sign AB 2245, which resulted in hundreds of letters flooding the governor’s inbox in approximately one week. 

This is the fourth bill in the past eight years that the UTLA Adult Education Committee worked with CFT to advocate for permanent status for Adult Education and CTE teachers. The first two bills died in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Last year AB 897 went into effect, which provided a pathway for Adult Education teachers to permanent status, but it did not apply to CTE teachers. 

UTLA Adult Education and CTE members were leaders in lobbying for these two historic bills. Working with CTE and CFT lobbyists, UTLA members were organized by constituency and held numerous Zoom meetings with their lawmakers to advocate for permanent status rights. Additionally, UTLA members gave testimony on four occasions before the California Assembly and Senate committees. We also lobbied with other teachers’ unions, including Sweet Water Education Association, ABC Federation of Teachers, and Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers. 

“The Adult Education Committee has been fighting for permanent status for more than three decades,” Matthew Kogan said. “Now with the passage of AB 2245, we have finally reached our goal of equal due process rights as other California teachers.” 

The bill takes effect July 1, 2025.