The California Teachers Association (CTA), the nation’s largest statewide teacher organization and one of the state’s leading voices for public education, has announced its opposition to the MICRA lawsuit initiative.

This addition makes CTA the latest major organization to join the historically-broad and bipartisan coalition of California organizations lining up to oppose the measure. CTA joins a growing list of California public and private organizations – including physicians, health providers, community clinics, civil liberties advocates, school boards, labor unions and business groups – that have expressed concerns about the ballot measure's impact on costs, patient access, underserved children and California’s overall health delivery system.

“At a time when California is finally getting school funding back on track and paying back students after years of drastic budget cuts, the last thing public education needs is to be forced to foot a brand new bill for unregulated health care costs,” said CTA President Dean E. Vogel. “This is a costly and harmful initiative that our students and schools can’t afford.”

According to California’s independent Legislative Analyst, the proposed measure could increase state and local government health costs by “hundreds of millions of dollars annually.”

A complete list of the organizations opposing the MICRA lawsuit measure can be found here.