Broad-based Missouri Coalition Stops Vouchers, Tuition Tax-credit Plans

NEA, AFT affiliates spearhead state's grassroots coalition.

Proving that there's strength in diversity--as well as numbers--a coalition of nearly three dozen Missouri organizations successfully stopped legislation that would have provided for a tuition tax credit, which coalition members viewed as little more than a school voucher scheme.

Organized by Missouri NEA and by the Missouri Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel (an American Federation of Teachers affiliate), the coalition, People for Public Schools, included civil rights, religious, and parent groups and others determined to defeat legislation they feared would cut funding for public education and divert attention from improving the state's public schools.

Both AFT and NEA worked with the state affiliates to develop a strategy for educating the community about tuition tax credits.

The Missouri legislative session ended last spring with a House voucher bill still waiting for a floor debate and vote, and a Senate bill still in committee. Lawmakers passed yet another bill from which voucher language had been deleted--in large measure a result of the efforts of People for Public Schools.

The coalition includes "people from many backgrounds who came together to work on common interests," Missouri NEA president Greg Jung says. "We all had an interest in public education and saw the harm that vouchers and tuition tax credits would do."

People for Public Schools activities included a town hall meeting in Kansas City (which garnered several newspaper articles and two radio interviews), a lobby day in Jefferson City, and a Ministerial Interfaith Alliance leadership training meeting that helped solidify ties within the religious community.

The work of the coalition is far from finished, however. Voucher proponents are likely to re-emerge in the next legislative session.

"People for Public Schools created an avenue through which we were able to educate people about tuition tax credits and vouchers," Missouri federation president Scott Ciafullo says. "I anticipate the coalition will stay together in order to speak out for public education and against vouchers and tax credits."

A 'Danger Zone' for faculty rights

NEA and AFT team up to sign up Florida state university faculty and defend collective bargaining on campus.

When the Sunshine State split the Florida State University System (SUS)--once covered by a single union contract--into 11 autonomous institutions, collective bargaining and the United Faculty of Florida (UFF) could have died.

But that didn't happen, thanks to the work of UFF's two national affiliates, NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). A joint NEA-AFT organizing project, in collaboration with UFF local chapters, mobilized an average of 70 percent of eligible faculty on each campus to sign cards naming UFF as the "bargaining agent."

"One reason we have seen such an overwhelming response in the card signing is that faculty know Florida is a danger zone when it comes to faculty rights, as we were recently reminded when the [state] commissioner of education called academic freedom 'a wasteland,'" says UFF president Tom Auxter. "Faculty want a contract guaranteeing that the political agendas of board members and the personal agendas of ambitious administrators do not define the horizons of their professional lives." By press time, UFF had won bargaining rights for roughly 5,500 faculty and professional staff at eight SUS institutions, either through voluntary employer recognition or an employee representation election. Negotiations were scheduled to begin for several new contracts. In the latest victory, UFF won an election at the University of West Florida by a whopping 191-18, with 91 percent of the faculty voting.

Intensive organizing continued on three other campuses with another 4,500 faculty and staff. Meanwhile, the UFF-affiliated Graduate Assistants United had won voluntary recognition on at least one campus, Florida A&M.

UFF and its national partners are still pushing ahead--providing organizing help, training bargainers, and filing unfair labor practices where necessary.

"Assisted by NEA and AFT, the faculty rose up in arms," concludes UFF organizing director Louis Bolieu. "They need all the help we can give them to contend with such issues as faculty rights, shared governance, salary and benefits, tenure, and academic freedom."

For more on the United Faculty of Florida, go to www.unitedfacultyofflorida.org/.

Coalition Trims Health Care Cuts for Ohio Retirees

Unions lead effort to develop alternatives to proposed changes.

The health care benefits of retired educators in Ohio will be vastly better than many had feared--thanks, in large part, to the efforts of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), the Ohio Education Association (OEA), and others with a stake in the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS).

Last year, the STRS board proposed drastic changes to the system's health plan to preserve the retiree health care account, which was decimated by the rising cost of care and by pension fund investment losses. Recognizing the negative impact these changes would have on retirees, the AFT and NEA affiliates took the lead in forming Health Care Advocates for STRS, a coalition of 11 groups representing STRS active employees, retirees, and employers.

If the board's recommendations were adopted, the monthly premium of a typical retiree would have tripled in addition to higher costs for medical procedures, office visits, and drugs.

"The urgency of the situation brought us all together," says OFT president Tom Mooney, also an AFT vice president. "We set out to involve every state organization that represented retirees, employees, and employers covered by STRS. We got everyone to the table."

The coalition met with the STRS board and offered several proposals to increase revenue and reduce costs in 2004. The alternatives were developed with the help of experts from AFT, NEA, and Ohio State University.

In May, the retirement board accepted a key coalition recommendation under which the state retirement system will contribute more to the premiums paid by retirees, significantly reducing the proposed increase in the premium payments made by members. The board also dropped a proposal that would have required new retirees to pay 100 percent of their own and dependents' premiums until age 60.

The coalition is now hard at work developing alternatives to some of the changes in coverage the board did adopt, including its plan to make spouses and dependents ineligible for premium subsidies beginning in 2004.

The retirement board has made a commitment to continue working with Health Care Advocates to bolster the health care funding account and preserve insurance coverage for retirees. "That commitment," Mooney says, "is just as important as the board's response to our proposals for 2004."

"Access to adequate and affordable health care for current and future retirees is our priority," says Bill Leibensperger, OEA Secretary-Treasurer, who is co-chair of the coalition. "Working collaboratively, we've had a tremendous impact and we're committed to continuing this work toward a long-term solution. OEA also believes it is necessary to engage partners on the national level to seek a resolution to America's health care crisis."

Defending Our Health Benefits

Health insurance is a growing headache for educators across the country, so the NEAFT Partnership is working to formulate painkillers. The two unions have held work-shops in New Mexico and California on health care bargaining for NEA and AFT negotiators around the country. They discussed the latest trends and ideas for lowering health care costs while maintaining benefits.

Meanwhile, Education Minnesota, a joint NEA and AFT state affiliate, along with other school employee unions, got the legislature to fund a study to design a new approach: a single state education employees health care system, which would have great bargaining power with insurers. "We're talking about $500 million. That's a good chunk of change," says Lee Johansen, the Education Minnesota staffer leading the effort. The study committee he co-chairs will present its plan to the legislature in January.

The NEAFT Report is a project of the NEAFT Partnership. A primary aim of the partnership is to keep members of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers informed about joint programs and activities in areas of common concern. These articles were written by NEA Today's Dave Winans and Alain Jehlen and AFT staff writer Adrienne Coles.