RA Action:

News from the NEA Annual Meeting

Legislative Amendments

July 4, 2008

This page will be updated during the Representative Assembly, and will reflect daily Legislative Amendments exactly as they are printed in RA Today, our official convention newspaper.

Legislative Amendment 1

Insert on page 26, line 9, a new bullet reading “NEA opposes funding private military organizations with public tax money.”

Rationale
The trillions of tax dollars given to private military organizations should instead be used to promote education for all of our students and to adequately equip and supply our own military.

Submitted by
Majority vote of state delegation

Contact
Justin Hughey, Hawaii

Legislative Amendment 2

Insert on page 22, line 46 a new bullet reading, “NEA opposes legislation requiring biometric child fingerprint scanning in schools.”

Rationale
Imagine the consequences if someone were to get a hold of your child’s fingerprints and the subsequent data they could access with that information.

Submitted by
Majority vote of state delegation

Contact
Justin Hughey, Hawaii

Legislative Amendment 3

Insert on page 19, line 50, a new bullet reading, “NEA supports federal resources to subsidize solar panels.”

Rationale
Subsidizing solar panels will provide schools with increasing incentives to go solar.

Submitted by
Majority vote of state delegation

Contact
Justin Hughey, Hawaii

Legislative Amendment 4

Insert on page 14, line 43, a new bullet reading, “NEA supports legislation that requires examination of Genetically Modified (GM) food safety and adequate labeling.”

Rationale
Regulatory agencies are not requiring adequate safety data from these industries prior to marketing or field trials and therefore there are no incentives for this industry to sponsor safety studies.  It is the corporation’s job to make a profit, but it is the government’s job to ensure product safety.  We should be proactive rather than reactive when dealing with consumer protection, especially when taking into consideration that these products will eventually be served in school cafeterias to our children. 

Submitted by
Majority vote of state delegation

Contact
Justin Hughey, Hawaii

Legislative Amendment 5

On page 10 (postsecondary education):

—amend the ninth bullet (on line 40) under “NEA supports” by deleting the word “minority” so the bullet would read, “diversity in enrollments through programs that facilitate students’ entrance into and completion of postsecondary education regardless of their immigration status” and
—insert a new tenth bullet (on line 42) under “NEA supports” reading “access to higher education and in-state tuition for instate residents regardless of immigration status, as well as paths to legalization for undocumented high school graduates.”

Rationale
To strengthen NEA Legislative Agenda language in regard to post-secondary education for undocumented students.

Submitted by
50 Delegates

Contact
Susie Jablinske, Maryland

Legislative Amendment 6

Insert on page 18, line 41 a new bullet under NEA supports reading “strengthening private defined benefit plans through greater funding flexibility, including but not limited to, extending the plan funding period in excess of seven years.”

Rationale
The Pension Protection Act reduced the funding time frame for private funded pension plans, causing a financial hardship on state affiliates.  Relief is needed.

Submitted by
Majority vote of state delegation

Contact
Dale Lee, West Virginia

Legislative Amendment 7

Insert on page 25, line 51, a new b ullet under “NEA supports” reading, “legislation to make war-profiteering illegal.”

Rationale
War profiteering used to be illegal.  Eisenhower was correct in his grave concerns about the military industrial complex.  Trillions of dollars and thousands of lives have been taken in the name of profit. 

Submitted by
50 delegates

Contact
Justin Hughey, Hawaii