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Forget About Buying That Cape Cod on Lovely Cape Cod

Metro educators are being priced out of the housing market. One solution: Expand the HUD Teacher Next Door Program.

If Greater Hyannis, Massachussetts, means anything to you, it's probably Kennedys and class--lots of it. But move away from the waterfront, and you'll find another kind of class at work: the hard-working municipal employees, building trade and hospitality workers, and public educators who make the Town of Barnstable a great place to live and raise kids.

These folks, for sure, don't live in gray-shingled mansions with tennis courts. But for what they must pay for hard-to-find housing, they might as well be. Monthly rentals are creeping toward $1,000, and modest Cape Cod and ranch homes are selling in the $215,000-$260,000 range.

In response, many working Cape Codders clog Route 6 twice a day, commuting to and from the Barnstable-Yarmouth region--the fastest growing federally designated metropolitan area in the East--to other expensive metro regions like Providence and Boston.

Working Cape Codders face sobering scenarios: a stressful daily drive or the off chance of landing a pricey, moldy basement apartment.

And, if you're a new teacher on Step 1 of the salary scale with college loans to pay off, you might be facing similar choices in high-cost metro regions from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to San Jose, California. If you're an education support professional, the topic of housing may be too painful for words.

NEA Research reports that the average ESP earnings for 2001-02 is $23,321. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, one must earn a "housing wage" of at least $13.87 an hour, or $28,850 annually, to afford the U.S. Median Fair Market Rent set by the federal government for a two-bedroom rental house or apartment.

The housing issue has become a survival issue for ESP and teachers alike.

That's why the NEA Legislative Program now contains this language: "NEA supports federal initiatives to assist education employees in securing affordable housing."

The Teacher Next Door Program
An important first step in federal housing assistance for educators is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Teacher Next Door initiative. This program offers, at a 50 percent discount, HUD-owned homes in 900 specially designated "revitalization areas" to full-time state-certified K-12 teachers and administrators.

Better yet, eligible applicants may apply for an FHA-insured mortgage and buy a home with a downpayment of only $100. They may buy directly from HUD or from a government or non-profit agency that bought the property from HUD, but HUD expects the agency to pass on the full discount to the buyer.

Homes must be located in a school district in which teachers are employed, and teachers must live in their new homes as a sole residence for at least three years after the purchase. Because demand for these homes is greater than the supply, the "winning bids" are determined through a lottery.

Recycled HUD homes don't always come problem-free--buyers must be ready to roll up their sleeves. One Virginia NEA member actually had her purchase contract voided after a HUD inspector failed to recognize and address a dangerous sewage problem.

NEA President Bob Chase has called on HUD to "give teachers assurances that the homes they purchase will be safe and affordable" and to expand Teacher Next Door program eligibility to ESP and teachers in Head Start and child development centers.

All in all, NEA supports this program, Chase says, "because it enables dedicated educators to live and participate in the same community in which they work. NEA members living in the neighborhood can serve as mentors, role models, and links between the classroom and the community."

In addition, NEA supports several bipartisan bills, now pending in Congress, to open up homeownership to public employees.

One bill authorizes 1 percent downpayments on FHA mortgage loans for elementary and secondary teachers and public safety officers who buy homes within the jurisdiction of their employing agencies, while another piece of legislation makes these employees eligible for discounts on more HUD-owned single family homes.

'The Right Thing To Do'
School districts can't wait patiently for Congress to act on affordable housing when they're facing record teacher retirements and the need to recruit new educators now. Here's what NEA local affiliates and administrators are doing in two costly Cape Cod communities:

• The 850-member Barnstable Teachers Association--which has negotiated $30,000 starting pay for teachers and three paid college courses per year for teaching assistants--works with the district administration to find housing for new hires.

  When truant and equity officer John Reed, the BTA vice president, isn't helping the district with recruitment, he's dealing with realtors, private owners, and renters with leases about to expire to locate decent, affordable rentals for newcomers.

  "We've been successful," Reed reports. "We get 20 new people a year. Some stay with relatives, some share space with other members, and others rent or lease.

  "We try and show these people we're a welcoming local that wants them here," he stresses, "and we advise them not to buy a house until they have professional status, tenure, and are secure about their future. You can't encourage young people to stay unless you reach out to them!"

• By bargaining to reduce the number of steps in the salary scale, the 465-member Falmouth Education Association has boosted starting teacher pay to more than $32,000. And through participation in a labor-management Health Insurance Advisory Committee, FEA and other town unions have secured higher employer insurance contributions, more plan choice, and customized individual coverage.

Even with all that, new educators still can't buy a decent place to live. "The cost of living here is high and the rental market has dried up, even in the winter," says FEA President Steve Russell, a seventh grade math teacher at Lawrence Middle School. "Our town realizes the need to pay higher salaries, and they're ahead of the game in realizing the need for affordable housing."

At press time, the Falmouth town government was urging voters to approve a $3 million bond issue to help finance the purchase of up to 50 existing houses over two years, for lease to low- and moderate-income families--including those of public employees.

"Providing adequate housing for the workforce in the community is just the right thing to do," stresses Falmouth Housing Corporation Executive Director Robert Murray.

No one can say it better than that.

--Dave Winans

For more on the HUD Teacher Next Door Program, go to www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/reo/tnd/tnd.cfm.

Floridians Rally To 'Tell Truth' About Public Schools

After months of official misinformation on the state of education in Florida, more than 1,500 teachers and education support professionals converged on Tallahassee's Capitol building in February to tell the real story of Florida's public schools.

"When Governor Jeb Bush repeatedly says the education budget has increased--while school districts throughout the state are making drastic classroom cuts--it's obvious what we as educators must do. It's time to tell the truth about what's happening in our public schools," Florida Education Association President Maureen Dinnen told the demonstrators. "The governor's rosy scenario has meant nothing but thorns for our classrooms."

During the demonstration, FEA revealed these grim facts about education in Florida: The average pupil-teacher ratio in Florida schools has dropped from 39th to 43rd, and teacher pay has fallen from 26th to 29th. Moreover, Florida's per capita spending on education has fallen from 36th to 49th, and spending on higher education has fallen to 46th from 44th.

When confronted with the truth about Florida's public schools in the Cornerstone Report on education, Governor Bush simply addressed the problems with an edit.

The report's authors had concluded, "Additional funding is needed for educational programs at all levels." Bush deleted those words from the report.

"Florida's educators won't allow the truth to be deleted from the education debate," Dinnen concluded in her rally remarks.

NEAFT Partnership Council Charts Ambitious Agenda

Health care costs, school vouchers, low-performing schools, and the new education bill passed by Congress are among the key topics that the NEAFT Partnership Joint Council will work on in the coming months.

At its second meeting in late January in Washington, D.C., the 30-member Joint Council, which includes the executive committees of both the AFT and NEA, created subcommittees of members and staff to develop specific recommendations for action at the group's spring meeting, scheduled for April 23-24.

These recommendations will focus on strategies to contain member health care costs; counter private school vouchers and tuition tax credits; help improve low-performing/priority schools; shape and help affiliates deal with federal, state, and local implementation of the recently passed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); and suggested projects for joint organizing. The challenges of preparing for changes in ESEA, particularly those relating to Title I, are getting immediate attention from both organizations.

Presidents and top staff from Minnesota, Montana, and Florida described their roads to merger and the successes and challenges that unity presents in their states. The Joint Council also heard reports from leaders of the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) and the NEAFT September 11 Fund, as well as from both organizations' staff.

The Joint Council agreed to explore ways of working more closely with TURN, a network of some 25 AFT and NEA locals, as well as fostering similar networks of AFT and NEA locals.

The September 11 Fund continues to accept contributions for the families of both AFT and NEA members affected by the terrorist attacks. Contributions can be sent to the NEAFT September 11 Fund, Dept. 0033, Washington, DC 20042-0033.

The chairs of the Jurisdictional Agreement Implementation Committee reported that, by the end of January, eight states had formally approved no-raid agreements, one had reached an oral agreement, and six were drafting such agreements.

For the complete text of the NEAFT Partnership Joint Council Communiqué, go to www.nea.org/aboutnea/neaft/.