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Scores of Berkeleyans will travel to Sacramento on Monday for a rally promoting an increase on state spending for public schools. 

The participants have chartered five buses for the trip, and several dozen cars also will be used for transportation, according to Mark Coplan, president of the Berkeley PTA Council, who has been spearheading the effort. 

Many of the participants are affiliated with a new organization called “Advocates for Public Schools,” a Berkeley-based group that was formed last month. The organization has created a petition that calls for the state to help provide “fair pay” for teachers, fund ongoing teacher training and parent involvement, finance academic support programs and allow districts greater flexibility in how they use certain portions of state-allocated funds. 

The endorsement list includes all five members of the BUSD School Board, representatives from the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, the Berkeley chapter of the League of Women Voters. and former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien. 

Monday’s rally will be held two days before Gov. Gray Davis will release his revised state budget. Public education supporters have called on the governor to use the expected budget surplus to raise per-pupil spending levels so they’re more equitable with funding levels of other states. 

The rally, sponsored by the California Teachers Association, will be an ideal opportunity for the Berkeley group to share its message and seek more signatures for the petition, Coplan said. Berkeley parent Simone Young will be one of the speakers at the rally. Prior to that event, the Berkeley contingent will be meeting with state Sen. Don Perata, who already has signed the petition, and Coplan is still trying to arrange an appointment with a member of the governor’s staff to deliver the documents. 

But local involvement in the rally has touched a nerve with the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, currently in mediation with the school district over increased salaries for teachers. On several occasions in recent weeks, the union has warned the district not to use the Sacramento rally as a way of distracting attention from local contract issues. 

“Yes, this is Sacramento’s fault,” BFT President Barry Fike told the school board Wednesday night, referring to low wages for teachers throughout the state. “But this isn’t the type of competitiveness we’re asking of you, the Berkeley school board. What we’re asking of you is to simply commit to make Berkeley salaries competitive with other teachers’ salaries in the area. 

“Your continued refusal to make this commitment and your attempts to blame this on Sacramento means that the BFT is unable to devote the full energy and attention on Sacramento that we would like to.” 

Coplan said he understands the tension between the union and the district surrounding the contract negotiations, but he believes next week’s rally can be a unified for the community. 

“I’ve seen division in this district, and it’s horrendous, and I’ve seen what it does to us,” he told the school board. 

“I’ve also seen the power of the people. But, I think what the people can do when their efforts are combined, can be even greater. Once place where we can get to that point is at the rally in Sacramento.”