The tent sign on a table at the food court at Valley Fair Mall in San Jose read, “I am a teacher. Ask me what I do.” So I did.

Jennifer Thomas, an English teacher at Lincoln High in San Jose Unified, was reading 94 two-page essays by her three freshman classes on the topic “Should there be a curfew at the malls for students?”

She was one of 100-plus teachers seated around tables, papers and computers out, at the “grade-in” after school at Valley Fair, one of dozens of similar events up and down California on Tuesday, the second day in the California Teachers Association’s week-long State of Emergency actions. Their colleagues went to the barricades at the Capitol; thousands more went to the mall to reach out to a tuned-out public.

The macro message, at sit-ins, leafletings, and rallies, is for the Legislature to extend $11 billion in taxes, due to expire this month, to prevent as much as $4.8 billion more in cuts to K-12 schools. The micro-message at the grade-in, for passersby who asked (few actually did) is the inverse ratio of shrinking budgets: the bigger the cuts, the larger the classes and the less time teachers can spend with each student.

English teacher Jennifer Thomas grading papers at the mall

At 5 minutes per paper, with no time to dawdle or dwell on writing, it will take Thomas 470 minutes, or nearly eight hours, to grade them all. That’s two hours after school, four straight days, to get them back within a week. And it’s 100 minutes more on that one homework assignment than a few years ago, when there were 25 students per class – and 2:05 more than a decade ago. Under class-size reduction back then, there were 20 students in ninth grade English.

And she’s not including additional time reading homework for her two junior classes in English.

Thomas, for one, doesn’t begrudge the extra work. “It’s what we do for our children,” she said. But she and her colleagues wanted to remind shoppers that Tuesday was a typical day: Their jobs don’t end when the last bell rings. The work they brought to the mall is what they take home every night.

The grade-in was a perfect non-confrontational event for teachers who don’t want to hand out fliers to strangers or sit in at legislators’ offices. On Friday, CTA is counting on the week to end in a crescendo at six big regional rallies – in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, San Bernadino, Los Angeles, and Visalia.

CTA is hoping that tens of thousands of voices can change five minds: those of Gov. Jerry Brown and four Republican legislators: two in the Assembly and two in the Senate needed for a two-thirds majority to extend taxes. So far, their message has been lost in translation.

Brown continues to insist on his campaign promise, that the electorate approve any tax extensions. At the earliest, this can happen this fall, assuming the Legislature can be persuaded to put the issue on the ballot.

But that timing would be disastrous for school districts and the 20,000 teachers they will have to lay off. Districts will have to build their budgets based on a revised state budget with $15 billion in cuts, including $2 billion to $5 billion for schools, that Brown will release on Monday. So the CTA wants lawmakers to extend the taxes on their own by mid-June. Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez agree with the CTA. The CTA, a big backer of Brown in last fall’s election, is also warning the governor not to count on its money for what’s bound to be a tough ballot on taxes.

Can the CTA and legislative leaders jam Brown to renege on his promise? No sign they can yet.

Republican legislators, meanwhile, are really messing with teachers’ minds. Last week, the State Department of Finance revealed that, as of April, the state had taken in $2.5 billion more in revenue than projected. Budget builders can assume that there will be at least that much extra next year as well. Starting with Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway on Friday and continuing this week, Republicans are declaring “crisis over.” They are promising both to defeat new taxes and to commit all of the extra revenue to K-12 schools and community colleges, thus meeting funding obligations under Proposition 98, which the Legislature suspended this year. “That’s a nonstarter,” Conway said. “Assembly Republicans are not going to vote to suspend Proposition 98.” When teachers show up at Republicans’ offices, they are told, We’re with you; go talk with the Democrats.

The extra revenue won’t be nearly enough to offset other cuts to state services, including as much as $1.5 billion less to the UC and CSU systems. And there are reasons for Brown to be conservative in projecting ahead; some of the cost reductions he is counting on won’t happen – they never do.

But the unexpected GOP response has caught the CTA off guard – and given the few Republicans who might possibly vote for tax extensions more reason to resist – or strike a harder bargain.

While normally great news, the extra revenue is complicating the CTA’s narrative of the budget crisis. And that’s unfortunate for Jennifer Thomas, other teachers and their students, facing bigger classes, less one-on-one time with their teachers and possibly fewer days in school.