NEA: NEA Today: Heroes & Zeroes

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NEA Today Table of Contents: May 2001
Cover Story
s	An Open Secret
s	Debate
News
s	From Low Performing to High Priority
s	Heroes & Zeroes
s	Stick Together, Stay on Message, Tell Your Story
s	"It's About Treating Everyone the Same"
s	Do-er's Profile
s	Rights Watch
s	Interview
Learning
s	Innovators
s	Problems & Solutions
s	Reading
s	Inside Scoop
s	ESP on the Team
s	Tips for the Wired Classroom
Departments
s	Letters
s	President's Viewpoint
s	My Turn
s	Health and Fitness
s	Money
s	People
s	Resources
s	In the Light Lane
s	Masthead

News:
Heroes & Zeroes

In Montana, more than 3,000 parents and other state residents including K-12, higher ed, and public employees represented by MEA-MFT jammed the State Capitol March 3 to rally for public education. The record crowd filled the rotunda, three floors, and steps outside to hear speakers describe the devastating impact of inadequate state funding on Montana's children and college students.

Legislative leaders responded quickly, pledging to move public education funding to the top of the priority list. Not enough for MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver, who urged ralliers to keep making noise until the end of the legislative session.

The National Association of Manufacturers and other big business groups have successfully lobbied in Washington to kill labor-backed OSHA ergonomic standards that would have benefited NEA members in at least 23 states. The people most harmed: ESP who sustain musculoskeletal disorders through repetitive motions, awkward work postures, or the lifting and shifting of disabled students.

In February, a machete-wielding man charged into Hopewell-Winterstown Elementary in Pennsylvania's Red Lion district. In a 20-minute confrontation, principal Norina Bentzel and teachers Linda Collier and Stacey Bailey put themselves between students and the swinging machete.

No child suffered life-threatening injuries. But Collier underwent five hours of surgery on her hand, and Bentzel was flown to Baltimore's Curtis National Hand Center for similar surgery on sliced tendons and shattered bones. Bailey and ten children were quickly treated and released.