CEA President Sheila Cohen.
The many challenges confronting public education on both the state and national level can at times feel overwhelming. CEA President Sheila Cohen told delegates to the CEA Representative Assembly (RA) this weekend that our only hope for our students and our profession is to stand strong together.
“Public education is in the crosshairs,” Cohen said. “If we sit back and hope for the best, we don’t know what we will get. If we engage, we will make a difference, and we set an example for our students.”
Some teachers hesitate to be involved in politics and don’t consider themselves to be political people.
Cohen says she tells those educators, “You are a teacher. Everything you do is determined by politics. Every decision about your classroom, from what you teach to how you are evaluated, is political. You may not think you are political, but you are—you have to be if you want to support your students and your profession.”
Teacher retirement and education funding are certainly political matters, which is why Cohen is urging teachers to attend the Keep Your Promise Rally May 18 at the State Capitol.
To plug a $5 billion budget gap, Connecticut lawmakers are threatening to cut education funding and shift the cost of teacher pensions onto cities and towns.
Sign up to attend the rally today. Buses are available from locations around the state.
Watch Cohen’s complete speech to delegates at the CEA RA below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC4NXkDfA8A?rel=0
