Be on the lookout for mail from Healthcare Data Management -on behalf of PEIA! Read more...

The GFCCE leadership is urging members to voluntarily contribute to the newly established political action committee (GCOPE) in preparation for the 2010 School Board elections.  With threats to education occuring at both the federal and state levels, it is critical that we recruit and support education allies for the Board.  Our membership can make a huge difference by donating to campaigns and volunteering to walk neighborhoods in the fall.  There is no time to waste, as the election season is just around the corner. 

Becoming a member for GCOPE is a two-step process:

1) The initial "buy-in" cost is $10 (make checks payable to GCOPE) but will increase after June 1. 

2) Fill out a voluntary monthly payroll deduction form and submit it to the payroll department.

The endorsement process will occur in August or early September.

Click on the title for the letter sent to members this week.

Quincy Federation of Teachers Local 809 is seeking members interested in becoming Educational Research and Dissemination Trainers.  Each year the QFT, with the assistance of the ER&D Program sponsored by the AFT, trains three members in one or two of the ER&D modules.  We presently have trainers in Foundations of Effective Teaching 1 and Managing Antisocial Behavior.  

The state of California is in the process of applying for the second round of Race to the Top funding.  This time six superintendents from across the state will craft the application instead of the state legislature and state bureaucrats.  California will need to hop from its current 27th place to near the top to qualify.  One of the biggest criticisms from the federal government in California's original application is that state policy-makers did not get union approcal of the plan.

Click on the title for more analysis.

On Saturday, April 24th, over 100 early educators met at the Boston Teachers Union Hall in Dorchester for an Advocacy & Leadership Conference. Teachers, assistants, directors, and owners from all over the state came to improve their skills so they could better advocate for children and early childhood education.

Click the link above to read more!

"When it comes to giving up 18a or our employment rules or work rights, that's a non-starter for the AFT." - Judy Hale as quoted in the Daily Mail, April 28, 2010, in response to a question about the upcoming special session.

As we prepare for the special legislative session, AFT-WV has made one thing perfectly clear to the Governor and legislators. Under no circumstances will AFT-WV accept any take-backs or reductions in our employment rights as contained in West Virginia Code, 18a. This includes our rights with regard to seniority, RIFs and transfers, filling of jobs, etc.

Just as AFT-WV led the fight against the charter school bill during the regular session, we will continue to protect our rights and offer proposals to provide real innovation in our schools without reducing our employment rights.

So, what proposals do we expect to surface during the special session?

-A charter school proposal that preserves employee rights. The proposal would allow stakeholders to structure a school's curriculum, create family-involvement programs, determine the length of the school day and year, and plan and manage the school's budget. AFT-WV has and will continue to oppose any bill that reduces employee rights and removes control from the county boards of education.
-A new teacher evaluation system that links student performance on standardized tests and other measures to a teacher’s evaluation. AFT-WV has and will continue to oppose legislation that links students’ performance to a teacher’s evaluation.
-A pay for performance compensation system. AFT-WV has and will oppose merit-pay.

So, what does AFT-WV support?

-We support an expansion of the Innovation Zones Act accompanied by increased funding. Schools should be laboratories of experimentation and reform without diminishing employment rights of education employees;
-We support wrap-around schools that are cost-effective approaches to creatively meet the behavioral, academic and transitional needs of students;
-We support community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools;
-We support legislation to eliminate the responsibility of the OPEB liability from county boards of education and shifting it to the state.

As always, we will keep you informed of the latest developments. Simply visit www.aftwv.org or sign up for our email updates by contacting Morgenstern@aftwv.org. If you have any questions or concerns about our positions, please do not hesitate to contact AFT-WV at 1-800-222-9838 or Morgenstern@aftwv.org.

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Become a member of the United States Lifesaving Association New York Chapter!

Lifeguards always on the lookout to keep swimmers safe. 

SB 955 was "introduced" on April 14 by Sen Huff (R) and sponsored by the Governor.  It was set for hearing in the Senate Education Committee for April 21, the day of our March onto the Capitol, one week after introduction.  SB 955 is a component of the attacks on teachers that the Governor proposed in his January budget proposal.  In essence it removes all due process protections for teachers in layoff situations and dismissals.  This is an attempt to severally weaken teacher unions as we know them in California.  While similar attacks have been introduced by the Governor and Sen. Huff on classified employees (year after year) in terms of contracting out, no Democrats to date have supported such an anti-union proposal.

However, Sen. Romero (D), a candidate for State Superintendent, has taken up the advocacy for the bill and has claimed that it is the answer to closing the achievement gap and it is the only avenue to address the civil rights of minority students in California.  She held a press conference with the governor on April 20 at Markham Middle School in Watts. Markham is named in an ACLU lawsuit regarding constitutional issues of providing a quality education to all students.  Sen. Romero claims this lawsuit calls for the elimination of seniority for all purposes of working conditions including layoff and transfer rights.  She stated in the Sen. Ed Comm. hearing that the legislature must address these issues before the courts do, and the legislators should not put off their duty to fix this issue.

However, the ACLU has stated clearly that its' suit is addressed at a LAUSD policy regarding the placement of new teachers and not with seniority rights as specified in the Education Code. It also is directed at the severe budget cuts in the LAUSD. In short, the lawsuit is based on 3 schools in Los Angeles that had more than 50% of their teachers laid off last year. One of the schools laid off more than 72% of the staff. The three schools service low economic and high minority areas of the district.  The ACLU complaint is that certain students are not given equal access to education.  CFT does not dispute the claims of the ACLU; however, we do dispute the way that Senator Romero distorts the ACLU lawsuit and that it is the teachers or the current laws that caused this situation. In fact, the district decides to implement layoffs, the Governor requested and signed billions of dollars of cuts to education, and we can only negotiate the effects of layoffs.  And specifically in LA, there is a court order that the union is arguing, gave the district a lot of authority to fill those schools with teachers that have various experiential backgrounds. The district simply dropped the ball.

Sen. Romero is the chair of Sen. Education Committee and, as was made clear at the press conference the day before the committee met and by her vote in committee; she supports this bill to eliminate the rights of teachers.  The committee is made up of 6 Dems and 3 Reps; therefore, if all three Reps are present, then two Dems need to vote for the bill to pass out of committee.  Sen. Romero was one of those votes, Sen. Alquist from the Silicon Valley area was the other.  We should thank Senators Hancock, Simitian, Liu, and Price for their No vote and their support for teachers even though they had pressure from some "community leaders" to go along with the bill.

As of now, there are some minor amendments that everyone is waiting for and then it is to go to the full floor.  We are attempting to work some legislative "magic" to stop it in other ways so that we do not have to have a floor fight.  We need the help of your members in contacting their senators and demanding a NO vote on SB 955. Kill it now before it spreads. . 

There are 14 Reps, 1 of whom (Maldonado) may be gone by the time it gets to the floor; 

This leaves 7 Dems that must vote for it (if you ignore the one that might leave).

o      2 Dems have voted for it in ed committee - Romero and Alquist

o      We may still have time to convince Alquist to vote no, but no promise

o      This leaves 5 other dems that need vote for it

o      There may be 7 dems that are soft (no names until we find out directly what their intentions are).

There is currently one vacancy, so we need commitments from the 23 Dems (this does not count Romero or Alquist) that they will vote NO. Both Senator Steinberg and Assemblyman Perez have stated their opposition to the bill, so that is a good sign.