News
It's Time to Uncork the Bottle

This Congress has bottled up legislation vital to children and public education, like common-sense gun control. We need to elect new people.

If you need just one reason to put pro-education people in Congress and the White House this November, listen to Colorado art teacher Patti Nielson, one of 30 people shot at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

Nielson spoke this past spring on Mother's Day before 750,000 participants in the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C.

"I am outraged," she said, "that in the year since the Columbine tragedy, Congress has done nothing to protect our kids from gun violence. Nothing!"

Nielson was just one of many NEA members at the march, proudly wearing "Moms+NEA=Keeping Kids Safe" buttons in a demonstration that offered front-line educators their second opportunity in a week to push Congress for common-sense gun control legislation.

Just five days earlier, on National Teachers Day, NEA members Andy Pope and Arlene Thomas spoke at a Capitol Hill press conference on experiences that convinced them of the need for curbs on child handgun possession.

Pope, a world history and geography teacher at Chadron High School in Nebraska, told reporters about what it was like to be shot in the chest in 1995 by a 13-year-old student in his class.

"My oldest son, Mitch, was in the classroom across the hall when I was shot," he shuddered. "A 13-year-old should not have access to a handgun."

Thomas, a school law enforcement officer at Camden High School in New Jersey, agrees.

"Sometimes at my school we use a hand-held metal detector, but kids have many ways to go around detectors," she noted at last spring's news conference. "We need to stop the guns from getting in their hands in the first place."

Added Thomas: "We need roadblocks against those who buy 50 guns at a time and sell them on our streets, and we need child safety locks to prevent a child from accidentally firing a loaded handgun at another child."

Many of these concerns are addressed in S. 254, the Senate bill now stalled in conference committee.

This legislation, if enacted, would require background checks at gun shows and pawn shops, outlaw juvenile possession of semiautomatic weapons, require child safety locks and devices on new handguns, and ban imports of high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Joining Pope and Thomas last spring were NEA President Bob Chase and pro-public education lawmakers from both parties, including Representative Michael Castle, a Republican from Delaware.

"Gun safety and school safety are not partisan issues," Castle said. "We need to send a message to our congressional leadership that we want to work the will of the American people and enact these safety measures as soon as possible."

NEA's Chase was blunter yet: "No more delays, no more excuses. The time has come for every lawmaker to put kids and their safety first."

But delays and excuses are gumming the machinery of Capitol Hill, where common-sense gun control--along with reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, federal aid for school modernization, and money for emergency school repairs in high-needs districts--have been deliberately stalled by congressional leaders.

"Broad educational policy changes are unlikely to happen this year," says NEA lobbyist Joel Packer. "The failure of Congress to address the needs of kids and schools is proof that we need to elect more pro-public education lawmakers this November."

A reminder of all that's at stake in November 2000:

• The offices. Up for grabs this year are the Presidency, the entire U.S. House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate, 11 gubernatorial seats, and control of several state legislatures.

• The issues. Whoever's in charge at the federal and state levels will set the tone for public education in areas ranging from special education funding to teacher recruitment and retention.

• Your future. This year, you'll hear lots of debate on proposals that affect you--from vouchers to Social Security privatization. Stay tuned.

For more information on important education legislation now stalled in Congress, go to www.nea.org/lac/.

In The States
'We'll Be One, With One Voice'

In Florida and Montana, state affiliates of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have moved closer together over the past decade, overcoming rivalry to battle against never-ending attacks on public education.

Step by step, the organizations found new ways to collaborate. They drafted common legislative programs, worked together to elect the same pro-education candidates, and even shared professional development activities.

The final step came this past spring. The NEA and AFT affiliates in both Florida and Montana joined to create new "dual" NEA-AFT affiliates, with newly elected officers and merged staffs. These unique organizations follow the precedent set by Education Minnesota, a dual NEA-AFT state affiliate formed in 1998.

A progress report from Florida and Montana:

• In Florida, the newly unified NEA and AFT state affiliate, the Florida Education Association, is the largest union and professional association in the state, with almost 120,000 members, including K-12 teachers, support staff, and higher education faculty.

  "This merger comes at a time when our members and our public schools are under heightened political assault," the organization's new president, Maureen Dinnen, told the Florida Education Association's founding convention.

  "Right-wing groups in Florida have launched vicious and well-orchestrated campaigns to dismantle public schools and dismantle our unions," Dinnen added. "The new FEA will be a bigger, stronger, and more effective voice for quality public schools and public education employees."

  The new Florida NEA-AFT affiliate faces two immediate challenges: the nation's first statewide voucher law and a right-to-work environment coupled with a weak bargaining law.

  But the new Florida Education Association is fighting back. It's mobilizing members for the November elections and pursuing an anti-voucher lawsuit, recently upheld by a Florida Circuit Court judge.

  "We're working hard to recruit and maintain members and train them to be active members and local leaders," says FEA staffer David Clark.

• In Montana, the new dual affiliate, MEA-MFT, has already become a key force in state politics, with 16,000 members organized across the public sector.

  Montana's largest union by far, MEA-MFT's membership ranges from K-12 school employees and higher ed faculty to Head Start and health care employees.

  The new union, which speaks for employees in job titles from custodian to wildlife biologist, includes "almost one out of every 30 voting Montanans," stresses MEA-MFT Vice President Jim McGarvey.

  MEA-MFT will be counting on those numbers this November, when every statewide elected office will be up for grabs.

  "In Montana, we're seeing hard economic times and a retrograde political environment," reports MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver. "There's a significant anti-government bias and a movement toward privatization. It's been tough on public teachers and other public employees."

  This environment, he adds, demands greater cohesiveness among the players "because legislators like to divide us."

  Concludes Feaver: "You can't have a strong union in one place without a strong union in the other. When we stand before the legislature, the governor, and the Board of Regents, we'll be one, with one voice. Our interest is good government and quality public schools."