News
It's Time Washington Listened to Us

There are five good reasons to invest in federal political action.

Maria Peters, a special education teacher consultant in Michigan's Utica Community School District, sees challenges that can tax even the most affluent district.

Many educators work with a growing number of autistic students, while special ed teachers plow through endless paperwork and meetings.

Special ed caseloads "are never where they should be," says Peters, and regular ed teachers have a crying need for training on working with special needs kids. "Even one full day would help them," she says.

This is just one emerging need that the state of Michigan and its school districts must struggle to pay for, and it competes strongly with other priorities like school repair.

"We need more funding for new teacher support," stresses Michigan NEA member Jennifer Migrin, a brand-new eighth grade science teacher at Emerson Middle School in Livonia. "We need money for classroom supplies, and sufficient staffing and training to teach special needs kids.

"New teachers are often scared to ask questions," Migrin says. "Our district is doing an all-right job at mentoring, but federal assistance could make it more extensive.

"We need to fund mentor training, and to be able to pair a new teacher with a mentor in a similar field," says Migrin. "Most of all, we need mentors who are always available to us."

Like many Michigan educators, Peters and Migrin share an unwillingness to settle for less, and think Washington should pay its fair share of educating America's kids. That's one of the reasons Michigan Education Association members choose to donate heavily to the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education, which pools the voluntary contributions from many of NEA's 2.6 million members to elect friends of public education to federal office.

"We don't do phone calling and we discourage mailbox stuffing," says Al Short, director of MEA Government Affairs. "We raise political action funds through personal, member-to member contact, work station by work station."

That direct approach works well for Maria Peters and other leaders of the Utica Education Association. Once a year, the local's building reps fan out to buttonhole colleagues on why they should contribute to the MEA and NEA political action funds.
"My building has had 100 percent PAC re-enrollment for the past three years," reports UEA activist Joyce White Lalonde, a teacher at Rose Kidd Elementary in Sterling Heights and vice chair of the statewide MEA Political Action Committee.
"Each year at fundraising time," she notes, "I cook my colleagues breakfast, but don't give them silverware until they give me their signed PAC forms. You have to bring some humor to political fundraising!"

Public school employees' work environment depends on political action donations, Lalonde often tells colleagues, "yet we have political power that we often never use. In fact, power is used against us in Washington because we've been too nice."

Are you still too "nice" to invest a few bucks in federal political action? Then these five political facts of life may be eye-openers:

1. Congress passes laws that directly affect you and your students. Congress is now working to reauthorize the far-reaching Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). On the table in this process is every issue from Title I funding and "tenure reform" to new teacher "quality" standards and annual reading and math testing for all students in grades 3-8.
   And within the ESEA debate, lawmakers are deliberating a provision requiring the federal government to fulfill its commitment to pay up to 40 percent of the annual cost of implementing the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), now funded at only 15 percent.
   
   In fact, no matter what your job title, federal legislation affects you directly, be it through existing professional development, Pell Grant funding, or current bills to create new standards for Title I paraprofessionals or abolish the Social Security Offset.
   
   
2. Your dues dollars are not used to make contributions to political parties or candidates. Federal campaign law prohibits any union from using general treasury funds to "make contributions or expenditures in connection with federal campaigns."
   The law does, however, allow the existence of a separate political action committee, or PAC, funded with voluntary member donations.
   Expenditures from the separate NEA Fund for Children and Public Education are made in several ways-including direct contributions to candidates, assistance to state and national committees of both political parties, and "independent expenditures" to communicate on issues to the public.
   
   
3. The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education helps recommended candidates be heard. "The reality of modern politics," points out NEA Government Relations staffer Mary Alice Heretick, "is that candidates in both political parties who are good on issues of children and public education need resources to get their message out."
   
   
4. In an era of close elections and slim legislative majorities, every dollar counts. In the November 2000 elections, support from The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education helped put recommended candidates over the top in several tight races. Now, it'll take stepped-up spending in the 2002 elections to create solid, pro-education majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
   
   "Several of NEA's legislative priorities-including enhancement of programs to reduce class size and pay for emergency repairs in struggling schools-were defeated by just one or two votes in the Senate," notes NEA staffer Heretick. "We have to elect more allies."
   
   
5. Educators need a real voice in Washington, D.C. Too many education decisions are made by federal officials who don't know the challenges faced by schools, like the influx of special needs kids.
   
   "Educators get no input in decisions that affect us-only blame, ridicule, and slander," thunders Joyce White Lalonde. "We can change all that by electing more people who listen to us."
   

For more on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, go to www.nea.org/lac/ esea. To help elect friends of public education, send a check made out to The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education to NEA Government Relations, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036-3290.

"We educators have political
power that we often never use. In fact, power is
used against us because
we've been too nice."

-Michigan teacher Joyce White Lalonde

The Bottom Line
SCHOOL GRADES:
A new Gallup poll reports
that Americans' approval of public schools is at a 30-year high. More than 50 percent polled give their local
schools a grade of A or B. www.gallup.com/Poll/releases/pr010823.asp.

DISCIPLINE: Teachers using humorous alternatives to detention, such as one who requires disruptive students to listen to her play the accordion, report fewer infractions and better bonds with kids. www.ascd.org/readingroom/edupdate/2001/frame0108eu.html.

OVERCROWDING: As school enrollment trends continue to grow, facilities are far exceeding their capacities. In 1999, 10 percent of public schools were over capacity by more than 25 percent. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=94.

DIVERSITY: A cultural research group suggests five standards for effective teaching--all based on the idea of mining sociocultural diversity for valuable learning tools. www.crede.ucsc.edu/
Standards/standards.html.

RETENTION: A new report urges school districts to put equal effort into retaining teachers as into recruiting them--and offers innovative tips for turning new teachers into veterans. www.sreb. org/main/HigherEd/Reduce
Losses.asp.

HOME-SCHOOLING: In 1999, 850,000 U.S. kids were home-schooled. The top reason, say 49 percent of the kid's parents, is to provide "better education." Thirty-eight percent cited "religious reasons." http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/HomeSchool/reasons.asp.

VALUES: Contrary to the frequent criticism that public schools no longer teach values, a new study finds that traditional and contemporary values permeate public schooling. www.ucr.edu/ news/releases/schoolvalues.
html.

DISTANCE LEARNING: More than 1.6 elementary and secondary school-aged children participate in federally supported distance learning programs--and they're valuable in big cities as well as rural areas. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=79.

Do'ers Profile
Jennifer migrin

• Name and profession: Jennifer Migrin, first-year eighth grade science teacher at Emerson Middle School, Livonia, Michigan
  
  
• NEA local affiliate: Livonia Education Association
  
  
• Position: Member of the Michigan Education Association's New Member Task Force
  
  
• Getting more resources to new-
  comers: Among other things, our task force
  is working to better integrate new members into MEA professional development conferences and improve the Association's new
  member handbook.
  We've also developed new monthly packets-for teachers, ESP, and higher ed members-that are user friendly and contain only what's relevant for the month.
  
  
• Making schools more welcoming: One of our main concerns is improving school orientation programs. A lot of new educators feel completely isolated.
  We can cross this boundary by creating a more comfortable, "family" environment for newly hired people.
  
  
• What veterans can do: Work as a team with new members to achieve what's best for kids-and remember that what's routine for you is brand new to us. Just think back to what it was like when you were a new educator!
  
  
• What NEA local affiliates can do: Form a new member club. It's a good way for newcomers to socialize, network across school lines, and get involved in the Association.
  And support the NEA Student Program-it's a neat way for prospective teachers to ease their way into the profession, to get a feel for what's going on.

(To contact Jennifer Migrin, send an E-mail to pravatoj@msu.edu.)

Kudos to. . .

. . . North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, who has signed a new law, strongly supported by the North Carolina Association of Educators, that contains basic hearing and appeal rights for education support professionals. The legislation guarantees their right to receive reasons in writing in the event they are dismissed, demoted, or suspended without pay. The final bill had the support of the North Caro-lina state associations of school boards and administrators.

. . . The California Teachers Association and the California State PTA, which have launched a joint public awareness campaign stressing that education begins at home with involved families. Its components: a community outreach program and a statewide advertising blitz featuring CTA President Barbara E. Kerr and actors Edward James Olmos and Debbie Allen.

. . . The Florida Education Association, which has unveiled a new billboard publicizing the state's underfunding of public education. The billboard reads, "Wanted: Teachers and support personnel for Florida public schools. Below average salary, overcrowded classrooms, benefits reduced annually. Apply to Governor Jeb Bush at (850) 488-4441."

. . . Members of the Education Association of Round Lake in Illinois. The school board has refused to ask voters for a tax hike to fund the cash-strapped district, and legislators have refused to send an emergency loan. So members have pursued another option: They've sent more than 200 letters to heads of state and embassies around the world requesting financial aid for their schools and 6,000 students.

"It's a long shot," concedes EARL President Kim Kearby, "but the alternative is surrender, and we will never give up."