Read Across America

If you are looking for easy materials to help celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2, visit www.mea.org to order notepads and bookmarks. Order forms can be found there for you to use. Orders need to be turned in by this Friday (2/20) in order to get the materials in time.

Another leg update

From NEA and MEA government affairs...


Special Alert
Economic Recovery Bill Moves to “Conference Committee”
Tell Congress to Provide As Much for Education As Possible in Final Package

Today, the Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks to your e-mails to your Senators last week, the bill does include funding for education, although less than provided in the bill passed by the House of Representatives.

The House and Senate bills now move to a “conference committee,” which will work out differences between the two bills and bring a final agreement back to the House and Senate for a vote.

Contact your Members of Congress Today!

Tell Members of the House and Senate to support as much money as possible for education in the final economic recovery package.

Staying politically active

From the NEA Education Insider, a special alert regarding the national stimulus package. Contact your Senators to urge their support as Senate and House versions are considered and debated
February 9, 2009

SPECIAL ALERT
TELL SENATE TO PASS ECONOMIC RECOVERY BILL

Thanks to your e-mails to your Senators last week, threatened cuts to education in the Senate economic recovery proposal were largely averted. A compromise reached this weekend leaves much of the education funding that flows directly to local school districts untouched.

This economic recovery package is very important. It will help save jobs and put more money immediately into struggling local economies. It will also reduce pressure on state budgets so more cuts to important programs can be avoided.

The package includes funding flexible funding for local school districts, increased funding for Title I and special education, and tax credits to help school districts finance school modernization and repair.

Contact your Senators Today!

Tell Members of the Senate to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Pope is on our side

For a little lighter union news, it appears the Pope believes that unions help to promote the middle class. I found this article on the AFL-CIO blog.


Pope Benedict XVI: Unions Critical to Improving Global Economy
by Seth Michaels, Feb 4, 2009

This weekend, the leader of the Catholic Church said that in the face of a broad economic crisis, a strong union movement will be critical to recovery and rebuilding a fairer, more just market.

The Catholic News Service reports that Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the importance of unions at a meeting of the Confederation of Italian Labor Unions, Italy’s largest union federation, on Jan 31. Pope Benedict said:

The great challenge and the great opportunity posed by today’s worrisome economic crisis is to find a new synthesis between the common good and the market, between capital and labor. And in this regard, union organizations can make a significant contribution.

As the Catholic News Service reports, Pope Benedict said Catholic teaching is strongly in support of workers’ freedom to form unions and advocate for a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.

The Pope emphasized that the inalienable dignity of the worker has been a cornerstone of the church’s social teaching in the modern age, and said this teaching has helped the movement toward fair wages, improvement of working conditions and protection of vulnerable categories of employees.

He noted that his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had underlined labor as the key component in social questions and had described the labor union as an indispensable element of social life in modern industrialized societies.

Religious groups are playing a big role in fighting to protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain here in the United States. Organizations representing a wide variety of faiths have expressed support for the Employee Free Choice Act, and Interfaith Worker Justice has developed an Employee Free Choice Act toolkit to help congregations support economic justice and the freedom to form unions.

Teacher retirement stimulus

What are your thoughts on the statewide ERI that MEA and a bipartisan group of legislators announced?

Post a comment...

Baby Ava is here

Ava Quinn Harmon was born early Thursday morning. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces, 19 3/4 inches long. Baby and mom are doing well. We hope to be home sometime on Saturday. Thanks for all of your prayers and kind words

Mark your calendars

I wanted to pass on a couple of important dates for your calendar. A bargaining prep and MESSA bargaining training will be held on January 17 from 9-12 at the Belding office. This is a great chance to begin thinking about upcoming bargaining and to learn about what is new with MESSA products. Nancy, Ervin, and I will be discussing how to use data in devoloping your initial proposals. (this is the same presentation that we will be making at the bargaining/pac/pr conference in Detroit) Larry Donston will be handling the MESSA portion of the morning.

On February 10, MESSA field staff will be at the Belding MEA office to discuss the new rating methodology. The information presented at this session will help in understanding how your rates will be determined. The information presented at this session will be different from Larry's in January.

Please rsvp for these training sessions with Cheryl and Michelle. Refreshments will be served at both trainings. I look forward to seeing you there.